On Friday 7th July, Jean, my mum and I packed up the car and headed off to Newark Golf Club. We had looked on the sat nav and it had offered us various routes ranging from 38-46 miles. If you are travelling a far distance, do allow plenty of time as it is a bit of an awkward drive. I listened to the sat nav going and to Jean and mum’s better judgement on the way home!
On arriving at the club, I went to the professional’s shop where I met Chris and Simon. We were made to feel very welcome and after buying some sandwiches from the clubhouse to take out onto the course with us, we were on our way.The first hole was a tough starting hole from the reds playing 397 yards in length, stroke index 5, par 4. Although it seemed fairly straight forward in terms of direction, it was heavily tree lined and quite narrow, immediately giving us a feel for what was in store for us.
Jean and mum hit great drives straight down the middle of the fairway so we were nicely away. I was official flag holder/note taker for the day, as I was still unable to play after recent shoulder surgery.The first nine holes were extremely pleasant and considering it was quite a busy morning out on the course, we got round the front 9 holes in just over an hour and a half, which I thought was good going.
The tenth hole was a short par 4, 311 yards in length however, you had to be accurate and favour the right side of the fairway off the tee due to a well placed water hazard on the left side. Again Jean and mum hit excellent drives. It was all becoming quite boring watching them hit every fairway off the tee.
After playing the 11th hole, we had the pleasure of meeting one of the green staff, Nigel Walker, who was very friendly and I even got to sit on his mower! There were no what I would call “signature holes” however, there was a nice loop of three holes on the back nine, from 12 to 14, all par 4’s and again all requiring well placed tee shots. The 14th hole was a short par 4, dog-leg to the left, again requiring strategic placing off the tee. If you didn’t hit it far enough down the fairway, you would be blocked out by a large tree on the left hand side and if you hit it too far, you would run out of fairway. Again, the ladies made it look very easy with well positioned tee shots.
Overall, the course was a flat, mixed parkland/heathland, in excellent condition and the greens seemed to roll very true. Some entries to the greens were tight with well placed bunkers. I would imagine that if you were wayward off the tee, the course would play very differently indeed and definitely not as forgiving, as every hole was tree lined. It is a super course for any ability and certainly a fair test of golf. It was very hard to find any faults.
All in all, we had a thoroughly enjoyable round and I was lucky to be able to watch Jean and mum play some consistent and excellent golf. I found it a pleasure to walk round and actually quite relaxing, which may not have been the case if I had been hunting for some of my own errant tee shots in the trees.
Thank you Newark Golf Club for a lovely day out!