Enjoy the read and also listen to The Golf Pilgrim podcast from Wentworth West here... https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-golf-pilgrim/id1743914901?i=1000673226159
This was it; with a tingle, I stood on the first tee of one of golf’s most famous courses to complete one of the missions I had given myself in 2020.
My goal was to play the top 100 tracks in England, Great Britain & Ireland, Continental Europe and The World.
It was a seemingly impossible dream, considering that many of these prestigious clubs are private and typically only allow play with members.
At the time, I knew none; yet, here I was, with my wife and my podcast partner, finishing off the first leg of my task at Wentworth West, the exclusive home of champions.
Our game had been generously facilitated by a lifelong member who had previously hosted me on Wentworth’s less-feted but no less impressive East course, which is also in England’s top 100.
Both are part of the Wentworth Estate – and a collection of stellar properties border them.
The luxurious Wentworth clubhouse has a marvellous collection of clubs and photos of champions since its early days when it hosted the precursor to the Ryder Cup.
Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, and Rory McIlroy are just some of the stars who have competed for the likes of the British Masters, World Match Play and the BMW PGA Championship (most recently staged two weeks ago).
Designed by Harry Colt in the early 1920s, the West course has a reputation for being among the most challenging in the world.
The opening tee is cut among its fabulously manicured garden in front of the clubhouse, and I couldn’t help thinking the number 100, cut in heather bushes, was created just for me (in fact, it was for the club’s centenary two years ago).
We had already seen players succumb to a broad band of heather with duff drives, but ours sailed over it down the first fairway, and we were on our way.
The West course greens are the first in England to feature SubAir technology, which controls moisture levels to ensure firm and fast conditions regardless of the weather.
However, despite being a beautiful day, there was still much moisture from recent heavy rain.
This meant there had been no recent cuts of the rough, which was tangly, dense and best avoided.
Thus, I put on my sensible hat and decided to take my medicine whenever the ball strayed and just try to play to handicap rather than chase the game.
The first hole is a generous par-five for amateurs and a good chance for par for those who keep the ball straight and can apply themselves on the West’s fast greens.
It is followed by an uphill par-three with sharp teeth in common with the short holes.
I found myself in the front bunker, but the sand at Wentworth is lusher and more consistent than the rough, and I could chip up its steep face to 15 feet.
Colt’s love of bunkers is apparent on the stroke-index two, 400+-yard third hole – a straight par-four down an avenue of trees with a fairway dotted with traps.
Playing the percentages here could earn a pleasing couple of Stapleford points.
Having recently taken on Winged Foot and Bethpage Black, we were beginning to wonder about Wentworth’s fierce reputation. Then came the fourth – a particularly ungenerous stroke index 18.
It demands a long blind drive over rough to a tight fairway which curves to the left. My playing partners found trees down the left and my pleasing draw was wider but still found the rough.
I squirted my ball past a stream with my second, but there was still much to do with an uphill third over a band of nasty, long grass and a vast green protected by bunkers.
Wentworth’s quirkiness emerges again on the seventh – a lovely short par-four which descends over rough towards a menacing brook.
Down the left is the line before an uphill approach. My second shot strayed into the right-hand bunker but, again, the sand lends itself to great escapes and put mine to within three feet and secured par.
The keen course management meant I was level on handicap as we embarked on the eighth, a par-four with a green on the other side of a stream.
Thus, after a decent drive, I was left with a decision of going for it or laying up. The result was wet.
I might have been more circumspect if I had realised how much the difficulty ramps up thereafter.
Robert Rock was giving a playing lesson ahead of us as we looked down the ninth and its stretch of heathery rough in front of the fairway.
This is such a long par-four that I couldn’t reach it with a flushed driver and three-wood, but I was happy with a five.
The 10th is a peach of a par-three on what seems like a slither of green perched on top of a steep slope with trees guarding the right and a bunker in front.
It is followed by a beautiful run of classic Wentworth West holes.
The drive on the 11th is over heather and a hidden stream with big bunkers on left and right threatening longer hitters.
I was rewarded for sensible play, laying up before a chip to two feet. My podcast partner struck a longer tee shot and went for the green in two but pulled his second shot into the deep heather and lost the ball.
Amateurs will also be intimidated by the opener on the 12th over two tall central trees. After the relief of making that, there is a quandary over avoiding a stream about 50 yards in front of a green surrounded by traps.
Our host reckoned his favourite hole is the 13th – a giant par-four around trees on the left with heather front and centre.
Even a well-placed drive may see the ball filter into rough on the right. From there, the green is barely visible over a stream and more bunkers.
My champagne moment came on the 14th – a steep par-three to a green which falls sharply from back to front.
My choice of three-wood saw the ball go deliciously straight but through the green into spongy rough, and my second was at the flag but impossible to stop.
Thus, I was thrilled to nail the third from just off the putting surface.
At just three over my handicap, I made the schoolboy error of thinking I was on to a good score when we stood on the 17th tee.
This is a long curving par-five over rough and a road before the fairway drops to the green.
My driver had been behaving nicely all day but looped the ball over trees on the left, probably into a back garden of an adjoining property.
Meanwhile, podcast partner looked safe enough until he mowed his second and follow-up shots over a hedge, shouting “fore” but hoping that the owner of a very imposing home wasn’t pruning their begonias.
Our chastening continued on the par-five 18th where, despite an encouraging drive, I needed to thwack my approach out of dense rough.
Inevitably, my ball sidled alongside those of better players than me who found the famous feature in front of the green.
I thought I could hear the groans of disappointment from the galleries, but it was just the workmen chatting as they dismantled the BMW's grandstands.
My limp finale did nothing to dimmish our day on one of England’s iconic courses. Perfect weather, great company and a memorable venue for the 100th of my top 100.
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