Your Open Rota

First topic message reminder :

You have just been apointed the head of the Royal and Ancient, what would your open rota be?


If I were in charge the Open Rota would be;

Castle Stuart
Trumpton (assuming Kwini has successfully assassinated him and it is now owned by decent folk)
Celtic Manor (the moronic casual fan will value Ryder cup "magic")
The Oxfordshire
The London Club
Renaissance (if tinkering is kept to a minimum)
Wentworth (it is already totally f***ed)
Castle course (If it is felt a St Andrews course is needed on the Rota)
Kingsbarnes
Dundonald


That is a little Scottish heavy and so I would be happy to add any suitable courses near the bigger population areas like London or Birmingham.

Re East Anglia, Sheringham is a beautiful course. Almost certainly wouldn't have the infrastructure though

Kwini, Princes is probably my all time favourite course that I've played

Playing at Sheringham on Thursday funnily enough MPB. Thetford tomorrow and Royal Cromer on Friday, looking forward to it although the weather forecast is horrendous with sideways rain on Wednesday accompanied by storm force winds and not much better on the other two days!

what about St David's (Harlech) ?

Have you played I before Blue?
It really is a top course. Be interesting to hear what you think

Yes MPB Norfolk is a favourite location for a trip and so I have played at Sheringham a number of times over the years, 12 of us are on this mini-break tomorrow. The view from the back tee on the 5th is perhaps one of the most stunning I have seen on a UK golf course. I love the plaque on the seat on the 11th tee commemorating the old pro who holed in one on 8 occasions at that hole, that's some record!

Staying in Sheringham for two nights. Quaint little town, a bit like the place that time forgot!

The 8 holes in one that's right! Some record as you say.

All incredible really considering the course was commandeered by the army during WW2 and used as a training ground and rifle range, as I assume a number of other courses around the coast were.

I wish I was coming on your trip. Have a good one. Hopefully the weather is kind

Played Hunstanton and Brancaster last week. Who knew? Apart from a howling gale, the courses were fabulous. Went past Sheringham golf course on a steam train - looked very nice.

MontysMerkin wrote:Played Hunstanton and Brancaster last week. Who knew? Apart from a howling gale, the courses were fabulous. Went past Sheringham golf course on a steam train - looked very nice.

Did any of the ladies playing notice?

SmithersJones wrote:

MontysMerkin wrote:Played Hunstanton and Brancaster last week. Who knew? Apart from a howling gale, the courses were fabulous. Went past Sheringham golf course on a steam train - looked very nice.

Did any of the ladies playing notice?

Watched the 2 leaders play the 18th and cheered the victor, before having a nice chat with them. Lovely welcome and superb course.

MontysMerkin wrote:Went past Sheringham golf course on a steam train - looked very nice.

I've been on that steam train, too. A lovely trip and great views of the golf course where there was a mixed competition being played at the time. The course did look very nice. Never played in Norfolk - didn't like it very much (we've been two or three times). Too featureless and flat for me and not enough petrol stations for petrolhead LordPutt and his Subaru!

MontysMerkin wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:

MontysMerkin wrote:Played Hunstanton and Brancaster last week. Who knew? Apart from a howling gale, the courses were fabulous. Went past Sheringham golf course on a steam train - looked very nice.

Did any of the ladies playing notice?

Watched the 2 leaders play the 18th and cheered the victor, before having a nice chat with them. Lovely welcome and superb course.

Sorry, rather obscure reference. Story goes that Joyce Wethered was playing the 17th at Sheringham when a train thundered past. Her host apologised for the interruption to which she supposedly replied 'What train?'.

The view referred to earlier from the 5th tee allegedly makes it Lee Trevino's favourite hole in the world.

There aren't many courses capable of hosting the Open. I think it should stay on links courses, but I know that's a personal preference. There are very few inland courses capable of an Open, not least because the trees interrupt the view. Wentworth, for example, is a poor course on which to watch golf. There are bottlenecks all over and it's hard to see any hole other the one where you are.

It's an interesting question though. There have only been two courses added to the rota in about 60 years. Deal,  Princes, Prestwick, Portrush,  and Musselburgh have disappeared. Sandwich seems to struggle on in spite of access problems (and it isn't popular). I don't know if the R&A has a long term plan to encourage building potential Open courses.

I think there was some liaison with Trump but I doubt that will amount to much.

So maybe there's a need for a few new venues somewhere. Perhaps somewhere in the North East and South West of England, and north east Scotland.