Weekend from London

peterman22 · September 20, 2017

I'm headed to London (from NYC) for a week long work trip in mid October, and was thinking of flying in early Saturday morning with my clubs to get a few rounds in. I will be alone and am willing to drive a couple hours. Does anyone have any recommendations for areas and/or courses that would be interesting to check out?

I'm playing to about 15 these days, and haven't played on the that side of the pond before.

raynorfan1 · September 20, 2017

If I were trying to parlay a London business trip into a golf holiday, I'd go to Sandwich. About two hours. Royal St George's, Royal Cinque Ports, plus Princes golf club. It wouldn't be particularly cheap...but you're already practically there.

North Butte · September 21, 2017

Getting on as a visitor on the Sunday and particularly Saturday is going to be tough at most courses. The ones friend raynorfan1 mentioned are all excellent choices but you need to call each club (they have web pages with the club secretary's number) and see what they can do about accommodating a weekend round.

FWIW, if it were to work out I personally prefer the town of Deal to Sandwich but both would be nice places to spend a night or two.

bobbydazzlewazzler · September 21, 2017

Chart hills is a decent track, cheap, not too far from London and easy to get on at a weekend...

TerpFangolfer · September 21, 2017

If I were trying to parlay a London business trip into a golf holiday, I'd go to Sandwich. About two hours. Royal St George's, Royal Cinque Ports, plus Princes golf club. It wouldn't be particularly cheap...but you're already practically there.

This is exactly what I was going to say...I did this last Sept - they have 2 or 3 day packages out of Prince's that include RSG. Stayed at the lodge at Prince's...

*edit to add as North Butte said above - that I had to stay and play RSG on Monday morning. The package didn't include playing RSG on Sat/Sun (only Fri or Mon)

peterman22 · September 24, 2017

Thanks gents. I'll check it out and report back if I get it done.

peterman22 · October 15, 2017

So I ended up taking the advice here and did a stay/play at Princes.

My flight landed at Heathrow around 7 am then I rented a car and drove south. I arrived around 11 for a 2pm tee time, so was hoping to check in early but no luck as my room wasn't ready. Instead, I hit a few buckets and did a lot of chipping/putting.

I teed off on the Shore course (ended up being my favorite), and played the front in about 1:20. The back nine was the Dunes course and I got stuck between a couple four balls so it was quite slow, but I just played two balls to stay active. I ended up shooting 92 due to the number of lost balls and probably lack of sleep. Man that tall grass is thick! Basically anything that didn't hit the fairway was unfindable, especially playing alone. Ended up finishing around 6 just as the sun was setting and was pretty worn out.

They put me in the "Bay Suite" at the lodge, which was spacious but nothing special. I had a quick dinner at the restaurant and was asleep by 9.

I got up around 6:30 this morning, re packed my bags and headed back down to the course for an 8:00 tee time. Turns out I was the first one off, which was awesome. I loved the solitude of being out there alone with a little dew still on the grass. This time I played Dunes/Himalayas and I def learned my lesson by the back 9; didn't hit driver once from 7 to 18 and performed much better. I ended up with an 87 and got around in just over three hours (caught a very very slow twosome on 13).

Overall, I loved the course. It was very well maintained (except for some ongoing grounds work on Himalayas) and was a real challenge for me. I was worried about the wind with my high ball flight, but it was pretty calm 75% of the time.

I would have liked to play some of the more famous courses in the area but couldn't get tee times that worked. Now I have a reason to return .

Thanks for the advice everyone!

North Butte · October 16, 2017

Yeah Princes is definitely the least impressive of those three nearby courses and yet it's a world class (IMHO) course on its own merits. People in that area are spoilt for choice.

Enjoy London. What a city.

TerpFangolfer · October 19, 2017

So I ended up taking the advice here and did a stay/play at Princes.

My flight landed at Heathrow around 7 am then I rented a car and drove south. I arrived around 11 for a 2pm tee time, so was hoping to check in early but no luck as my room wasn't ready. Instead, I hit a few buckets and did a lot of chipping/putting.

I teed off on the Shore course (ended up being my favorite), and played the front in about 1:20. The back nine was the Dunes course and I got stuck between a couple four balls so it was quite slow, but I just played two balls to stay active. I ended up shooting 92 due to the number of lost balls and probably lack of sleep. Man that tall grass is thick! Basically anything that didn't hit the fairway was unfindable, especially playing alone. Ended up finishing around 6 just as the sun was setting and was pretty worn out.

They put me in the "Bay Suite" at the lodge, which was spacious but nothing special. I had a quick dinner at the restaurant and was asleep by 9.

I got up around 6:30 this morning, re packed my bags and headed back down to the course for an 8:00 tee time. Turns out I was the first one off, which was awesome. I loved the solitude of being out there alone with a little dew still on the grass. This time I played Dunes/Himalayas and I def learned my lesson by the back 9; didn't hit driver once from 7 to 18 and performed much better. I ended up with an 87 and got around in just over three hours (caught a very very slow twosome on 13).

Overall, I loved the course. It was very well maintained (except for some ongoing grounds work on Himalayas) and was a real challenge for me. I was worried about the wind with my high ball flight, but it was pretty calm 75% of the time.

I would have liked to play some of the more famous courses in the area but couldn't get tee times that worked. Now I have a reason to return .

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Nice, but yeah, next time leave a day to play RSG....worth it!