I am moo-ved to report that we had a great day out at Sutton Coldfield Golf Club with its variety of holes, swatches of purple heather and half a dozen meandering cows.
We had already enjoyed how the course had been returned to visionary designer Alister MacKenzie’s layout when Bison Dechambeau and his entourage emerged next to the 16th green, beefing up Sutton’s claim to uniqueness.
Seriously, excellent work has been done over the past seven years to replace, create and overblow bunkers, aided by aerial photos from the 1940s.
Sutton’s curiosity begins from the start – similarly to Machrihanish and Piltdown, the 18 holes are across the road from the clubhouse.
MacKenzie’s seventh rule of design is “The course should have beautiful surroundings and all the artificial features should have a so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.”
It could have been written with Sutton Coldfield in mind. This might be the rawest inland course I have played but it is complemented by excellent fairway turf, consistent bunker sand and tricky but consistent greens.
The opening holes are probably more challenging for first-time players than for regulars.
For example, the opening short par-four appears narrow because an avenue of trees blocks the view of a wide-open fairway down the right-hand side.
Consequently, I dragged my tee shot into the undergrowth on the left.
In common with the ninth, the second is a short par-three with a tree that comes close to overhanging the green. A hit down the left is the obvious option once one has played it.
The third is a long dipping par-four with a band of heather hiding a wide fairway and the fourth has a similar optical illusion.
Thus, I struggled on those holes but started to come into my own after that, initially benefiting from three consecutive par fives.
The golf course is part of glorious Sutton Park, and walkers, as well as cattle, can be seen on it.
In return, it has some of the finest views of any course in the Midlands.
Its back nine can also undo a promising round, as I can testify, having reached a couple under my handicap after notching an unlikely birdie on the 427-yard par-four 11th.
The 12th is a belting hole at 433 yards. Its blind tee shot over heather leads to a fairway which dips towards a ditch before ascending steeply to a typically undulating Mackenzie green.
My score was still afloat until the 14th – a stunning par-five which demands a drive over a forest of heather before the fairway narrows inside an avenue of trees, leading to a green surrounded by bunkers.
The scorecard pressure remains on the 15th, a brute of a par-three into a huge ascending green with giant, deep bunkers on either side. I am not exaggerating – there are steps into the one on the right-hand side.
As said, we encountered the cows munching next to the 16th green, which, in common with all of Sutton’s putting surfaces, is protected against wildlife by a wire fence similar to those at Brora and Royal North Devon.
The 17th is the longest par-three with more deep sand around the target, while the 18th offers the player a chance to open the shoulders on a par-four down a tree-lined avenue.
It completed a course that is being moulded to challenge for a top-100 place (it is already on some lists). A touch more tree clearance could secure its place.
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