golfingpuffadder

First things first. Lovely setting, lovely guys in the clubhouse, very warm and welcoming, easy to get on, not hard walking, not crowded. I played in October and the greens were as good as out of action - they had been allowed to grow out like first cut rough and had been heavily sanded, so they were unputtable and I simply gave up putting them at all - so I can't tell you if the greens are any good when they're working. Also one hole was simply missing - it was effectively a 17 hole course and I have no idea where the other hole went. Looked for it and couldn't find it! Anyway, the course is very good where it's good. The par 4's give you a chance to hit every shape, to play up and down hills, to calculate your way round and to play risk/reward sometimes and to open your shoulders other times. There aren't many boring two-shotters on the course. The par 3's are maybe a bit bland. If you only have 3 par 3's you need more variety than 135 yds, 140 yds and 145 yds (it was one of the par 3's that simply was nowhere to be found, on my round, but I doubt I missed much because of it). The problem is the 3 par 5's, which need a serious rethink. For a start they are the 1st, 5th and 6th, which is bonkers. Second, they all feature a massive tree blocking out the green that the average amateur has little choice other than to sneak up on and go under, because they are very tall and very wide and going over or round is a high risk option, if it's an option at all. The 5th and 6th, whilst not impossible, are so difficult for a handicap golfer that they only offer one way of playing them which is pretty much to play 3 mid irons to the green. The 5th has a constriction of about 10-12 yards, 160 yards off the tee. That's far too narrow for a handicapper playing a wood. But with a massive tree about 60 yards in front of a huge drop-off in front of the the green, you still have to lay back behind it with your 2nd, whether you played wood or iron off the tee, to have any chance of getting over it. And when you do clear this tree, you must hope the ball flies a further 50 yards and hits the green, otherwise it will scoot off the steep drop-off and into a pond. The 6th requires that you can hit a driver in excess of 270 yards to the right half of a fairway that's 15 yards wide, with OB on both sides, in order that you could think about going for the green in 2 (this is on a 460 yard hole). If you can't, there is no justification in hitting anything longer than 170 yards, twice and leaving yourself 120 to the pin. If you hit a hybrid 200 and manage to low draw a mid iron to closer than 120 yards, there's a tree in your way. Not 'there may be a tree in your way', there IS a tree in your way. The green is accessible from a very small area on the fairway because you need to flight your ball to peak at about 70 feet, 55 yards short of the green (or chisel one low under the branches of course). At least on the 1st, the drive is not constricted, but I cannot imagine a spot on that hole from where you'd want to hit your 3rd if you aren't strong enough to hit your first 2 shots beyond about 420 yards in total. The green is elevated and small, the fairway slopes downhill and the tree must be in excess of 80 ft high. Pros hit their shots, from flat lies, 100ft in the air on average. You won't clear this tree unless you are very strong and if you're very strong, you won't need to, because you'll be underneath it facing a 60 yard chip. Basically 15 (well, 14) holes range from ok to really good and the 3 par 5's are just plain wrong, with the 6th being amongst the top 10 wrongest holes I've ever played. Had the greens been in order, I might have scored it 4. Redesign 1, 5 and 6 and it should get 4.5 stars.