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Thursday 23 December 2021

Advent 23

I have already nominated the 1st at Waterford as the most fearsome opener that I have encountered. But this is my list and so I have to qualify/change that opinion.


The Berkshire is a very plush golf club - its two brilliant courses inseparable in merit, hence their egalitarian names - simply the Red and the Blue. The Red is perhaps marginally more noted because of its unusual distribution of holes - six par 3s, six 4s, six 5s. It is however the 1st hole on the Blue that makes my list. The drama of this 210 yard par 3 unfolds before the window of the palatial clubhouse. The mind's eye is captured by the sea of heather and the cavernous bunker on the right. Intimidating.

I got to play both Red and Blue thanks to the generosity of WJRM. We played the Blue in the morning and then enjoyed a sumptuous carvery for lunch. I'm honestly not making this up - the locker-room attendant comes round during lunch and cleans your golf shoes.  They don't do that at the Royal Pype Hayes.

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