When requested if I want parkland or hyperlinks golf programs, my vote goes to the latter.
I’ve had the great fortune to play a few of the best examples of every down the years and really feel I’ve a little bit of an opportunity on hyperlinks layouts with their bouncier turf and extra open areas.
However, as a short-hitting, 20-odd handicapper, who lets the golf equipment collect far an excessive amount of mud, I’ve usually felt crushed up on prolonged parkland layouts, my rating ballooning by way of visits to the bushes and figuring out that even two good ones received’t get me significantly close to the inexperienced on a few of the longer par 4s.
So, after being given the chance to play Sir Nick Faldo’s Chart Hills – a parkland observe within the coronary heart of Kent – there was a certain quantity of trepidation combined in with the joy.
Chart Hills stays the one Signature Faldo Design golf course in Europe and is situated in 200 acres of undulating countryside. For those who’re flying into London Gatwick, it’s a few 90-minute drive away.
It opened for play in 1993 and was Sir Nick’s architectural debut. The course staged The Girls English Open from 2004-2007, with Solheim Cup stars Maria Hjorth and Becky Brewerton each taking the title there. It’s at all times endorsement of a format when one of the best gamers rise to the highest.
Beneath new possession, Chart Hills has undergone some critical adjustments and renovations since 2019 and the rebuild has continued apace in the previous couple of years.
Format: StablefordPlayers: Dave Tindall, Scott Murray, Pat Bristow
Reserving a spherical in November within the UK could be a idiot’s errand however we’ve got two huge issues in our favour right now: gentle climate and a golf course in wonderful situation.
Having not hit a ball (even on the vary) since August – not very sensible for somebody of my degree – I park up and welcome the possibility to loosen up slightly. Free buckets of balls can be found on the vary so it’s probability to get into the groove.
As I get there early from my drive down by way of an in a single day cease in Cambridge, there’s additionally probability to gas up with a bacon sarnie and a cuppa from the elegant Membership Bar (Breakfast 7am-12pm; Lunch 12pm-5pm).
The relaxed ambiance and panoramic views of the course by means of the big window add one other layer of consolation. Correct warm-up (tick). Full abdomen (tick). Unexpectedly good climate (tick). There actually is not any excuse to not give it a good shot right now, regardless of my very part-time golfer standing.
There’s even a six-hole par-3 course referred to as ‘The Loop’ (holes vary from 50 to 100 yards) simply close to the automobile park however, alas, we don’t have time to check our wedge video games.
The Course
In some cursory pre-round analysis, I famous that almost all descriptions of Chart Hills deal with what number of bunkers there are on the course.
Right here’s Sir Nick himself: “This golf course is completely different even proper from the primary gap as a result of there’s not many programs in Britain the place you open with a line of bunkers.
“We’ve acquired plenty of bunkers on the golf course which makes it fairly scenic, fairly attention-grabbing, offers it its character. So proper from the get-go it’s type of completely different.”
Sure, the visible from the first – a dogleg par 5 measuring 537 yards from the ‘61’ tees (yellow) – is a line of fairway bunkers.
I tonk a good drive however a kind of sandy rogues reaches out an arm and pulls my ball in. Oh expensive.
It’s at this level the place I must confess that I usually neglect easy methods to play from bunkers. If I’ve an teacher/good participant with me, I can comply with their steering and have some success however in any other case it’s carnage.
So to seek out sand with my very first drive isn’t preferrred. However as if to indicate I’m not intimidated, I pull out a fairway wooden, believing I can carry the lip. My taking part in companions change a apprehensive look.
However fortune favours the courageous. I make a clear connection and knock it down the golf green, the shot paving the way in which for a bogey-6 which is simply wonderful.
Hearsay has it that there are over 130 bunkers dotted across the course and, amazingly, I solely discover another. I don’t get out first time however float the second to about eight ft, once more including a pair extra stableford factors.
The array of various bunkers is spectacular however the standout is the notorious ‘Anaconda’ which snakes its method up the aspect of the par-5 fifth after which cuts throughout the golf green. From tail to move it’s a mighty 200 yards, maybe the longest bunker in Europe.
On condition that Sir Nick is a three-time Open winner, maybe we shouldn’t be shocked to see pot bunkers on the course too. I keep away from one by a whisker at 9 however my taking part in associate Scott doesn’t. It’s thus far down his head is beneath the lip however he heroically thumps it out first time.
With a stableford contribution on each gap I attain the flip with a haul of 16 factors and am totally having fun with what can solely be described as an absorbing take a look at of golf.
Chart Hills may be very playable from the ‘61’ tees, which come out at 6,169 yards (par 72). Word, that yardage extends to 7,119 off the again ‘71’ tees. It’s 6,653 yards from the ‘66s’ so there’s some good spacing to swimsuit wherever you match.
With a number of doglegs, a lot of water hazards, all these bunkers and massive, usually undulating, greens in immaculate situation, there’s a lot to take the attention.
On the midway home I fancy a chunk to eat and right here’s a tip: completely purchase a sausage roll, the most effective I’ve ever tasted.
Maybe, in consequence, I bag six stableford factors at 10 and 11, maintain it going and rating 19 on the again 9 for a complete haul of 35 factors.
I’m very proud of that given it’s a primary look and I’d know higher spots to (try to) hit to subsequent time.
I’ve suffered some stunning stableford scores on parkland tracks (beneath 20) however right now’s effort feels as if I’ve been rewarded for some respectable strikes, getting the tempo of the greens and having my gray matter work nicely.
You’d hope {that a} Faldo design would reward mind not brawn and that’s positively the case at Chart Hills.
I significantly just like the set of 4 par 3s which I play in 4-3-3-4. On the 171-yard seventh, I knock it to about 10 ft however miss the putt.
The ultimate brief gap is a nod to the well-known seventeenth at Sawgrass and, arguably, I hit my greatest shot of the day there, flushing a brief iron that could possibly be shut.
On arriving on the island inexperienced my ball is definitely nowhere to be seen however fortunately it has clung on to some grass close to the reeds guarding the again and I hack it up onto the dance flooring earlier than two-putting.
As if to utterly reaffirm the theme of sand, bunkers are scattered in all places up the 18th gap and so they make for fairly a sight from the tee as we hit away within the low afternoon solar.
Fortunately I keep away from them and handle to shut the match out on the inexperienced regardless of Pat nearly stealing a tie in dramatic type when his prolonged, I’m-not-leaving-this-one-short, putt catches the lip.
The Barn
Put up-round, we seize some meals within the bar and watch Manchester Metropolis v Liverpool.
Then I head to my lodging for the night time.
‘The Barn’ is located a one-minute drive from the course. It holds as much as eight folks (4 rooms: two upstairs and two downstairs) and is the proper place to wind down.
My room is gorgeous and toasty for a November night and I sit back and watch Match of the Day on the massive TV.
And, get this, there’s even a placing inexperienced across the again when you fancy popping outdoors to hone these flatstick expertise.
It’s preferrred for a Keep and Play, my night time in The Barn rounding off a totally satisfying {golfing} expertise.
Scott Murray (The Guardian) evaluate
There are 133 bunkers at Chart Hills. My favorite of the 132 I visited was the pot simply to the left of the 14th inexperienced; a splash out to 4 ft and a sandy save.
My second favorite? One of many many guarding the entrance of the ninth, a brief par 4 pockmarked with deep traps, just like the Street Gap copy-and-pasted many instances over.
Simply getting out was a thrill and a welcome confidence increase to a notoriously skittish sand participant. Take me to the Previous Course, I’ve no concern of you now.
As for the Anaconda Bunker, sidewinding its method alongside the suitable aspect of the par-five fifth for 200 yards … nicely, I’d have most popular my drive to have cut up the golf green; after all I’d.
However there’s a type of sick magnificence in with the ability to boast that my ball acquired swallowed up by the longest snake within the backyard of England. It sat up tantalisingly in its serpentine glory, simply begging to be easily clipped with a hybrid and despatched again into place. I might splash out sideways, however carpe diem, eh children?
I knifed it into the face. In fact I did. However let’s not dwell on element.
In all probability greatest not to enter the issues within the first place, and right here’s the factor about Chart Hills: as you’d absolutely anticipate from a Nick Faldo design, you need to use the previous noggin and plot your method round.
No level blasting the driving force in all places: my greatest tee shot of the day was a missile straight down the center of the aforementioned 14th; solely downside is, you run out of fairway fairly rapidly and a river runs by means of it.
Cue eff, Jeff, and considered one of a number of solemn rummages within the bag for an additional rock.
Hazard in all places, then, however such fairly views to masks all of it.
And what delight if you handle to navigate an issue efficiently; I’ve had few greater rushes on a golf course than delicately bundling a chip up the false entrance of the eighth inexperienced to a few ft. Even when I then yipped the putt.
Chart Hills – cerebral, scenic, scintillating – was nice enjoyable. I’d like to play it once more. If nothing else, I’ve nonetheless acquired another bunker to go to.
Winter 2025/26 Keep & Play supply
£199 per particular person (based mostly on 8 gamers)Teams of 4 gamers – £225 per particular person
Two rounds on the Championship 18-hole Sir Nick Faldo-designed course
Limitless entry to The Loop (par-3 course), plus the driving vary
In a single day lodging for as much as 8 visitors
Breakfast within the Membership Bar
