Before Bobby Jones collaborated with Alister MacKenzie to design Augusta National, he fell in love with the Sunningdale Golf Club (above) beyond the Atlantic.
Kevin dispersed the picture
We hate to break the bad news, but the chances will never get the chance to get down to Magnolia Lane; You will never know how to feel on the right path in Azalea, weighing your options to get to Creek RAE and go for green in two; And you will never have the opportunity to drink in a cold drink while resting on one of the chairs located around the Augusta National Club porch. The house that built Bobby Jones is simply very exclusive. It’s not private. And then there Augusta National Private.
As it turns out, experiencing the other best thing is no less memorable. Simply requires a flight across the Atlantic.
More than half a decade before Jones partnership with Alister Mackezie to design Augusta National, the most famous amateur champion of the game traveled to England, where he qualified in the 1926 open championship playing two competitive rounds in Old Course at Sunningdale Golf Club (and by setting a record of the course in the process).
“I wish I could take this course home with me,” he said afterwards.
In some ways, Jones did. The appearance he and Mackezie conceived in the early 1930s holds a resemblance to the 660 hethland golf yards that Herbert Fowler led through the strong wood forest of Surrey only in the south -west of London. The old course opened to play 124 years ago, and yet it is directed to the ground so great that it looks as old as the hills on which it shakes. That the national team Augusta intertwines its way and around the hills of northern George in a similar way is no surprise, not when you consider how much Jones was fascinated by Sunningdale.
In fact, the second course of Sunningdale, newIt’s no less magic. Bill Hogan, Premier Golf business development manager, a private travel operator who specializes in golf trips, can prove it. Hogan has had the good fortune to play both many times.
“Traveling the Rolling Hills of Ascot with Heather in Bloom and the big oak trees surrounding the streets,” he says of the Sunningdale duet, “they are both beautiful a golf course in Heathland, as you will see. You know you are walking on sacred bases.”
Swinley Forest courtesy
According to Hogan’s assessment, the experience that comes after the end of 18 holes in Sunningdale is no less extraordinary. The passing of a yellow summer day on the deck in the Sunningdale, whether after a round or in the middle of the rounds played on both courses-you should think that ambitious is unlike the experience that members and their guests in Augusta National enjoy around their veranda veranda, this is why some experiences in Sunning Converts the former Indigo Plantation House to the Club of Augusta National.
“If you’ve done it one or 100 times, it never ages,” Hogan says about the experiences resting on that deck. “Just one of those magic environments in golf.”
As it turns out, there are magical experiences that you have to play all the Surrey Heathland courses. So called for the indigenous terrain of the region – the British describe Heath as “an area of ​​uncultivated open land, with characteristic vegetation of Heather, Gorsse and thick grasses” – these historical sites were created during the early 20th century, when players and courses were looking for new places to play and, as a result, returned to the ground.
Ironically, the way they play is not much different from the coastal courses, given that they are directed to sand -based terrain that plays firm and fast. Teddy Lynn, who grew up playing golf in the region, knows this as well as anyone. In fact, he fell in love with the golf courses of this style that when he created his shoe golf company just over a year ago, he used a heather cross -shoe cross section as the heathlander brand.
“These courses are examples of the old world golf that do not move and soothe a lot of land, so there are bumps and contours – there is a land game involved,” he says. “It requires thousands of imagination and it makes them really attractive.”
Courtesy hill of St. George
The first times of Surrey will soon discover that most courses are at least partially defined by a large portion of heather that line up many of the roads. More specifically, they will learn about the deceptive qualities of vegetation. From afar, these pieces of vegetation look only unbearable, especially when they are not in bloom.
“It looks quite benign, but it’s all, but” says Gordon Dalgleish, founding director at Perrygolf, a travel company that specializes in international golf tournaments. “It can grab a golf club and turn it back. And steals golf balls, but very attractive.”
Adds Lynn, “It”s better to look than to be played out.”
For without initiating, heather can be a dirty defense in these courses, but there are other wonderful features that add to the challenge. At the Berkshire Golf Club, for example, the short red course of the red course attracts players to attract drivers from their bags, but lose your intended line, and a difficult side lie (probably made up of thick heather) will make you desire for a mill. There is the difficulty in these courses. Their architects understood how to use the natural topography of the site to create a noticeable test without extending the courses to 7,000 yards or more.
“Many of the big Heathland courses are not long,” Lynn says. “They are 5,800 to 6,200 yards. But given the weather and conditions, you can still hit every club in your bag.”
While Heathland – Sunningdale, Berkshire, Walton Heath, Swinley Forest, Hill George’s Hill – are all technically private, they are not inaccessible to the outside game. In fact, as Lynn explains, as long as you go through the right channels to contact the club’s secretary to fix a little time during the limited availability windows for non -members, you will be welcome to each club almost as a member.
