ENHANCING A CLASSIC

Rob Smith looks at the restoration of one of his favourite Top 100 courses, the heathland layout at Worplesdon…

- Rob Smith

One of golf’s great holy trinities is the three Ws; West Hill, Woking and Worplesdon. These glorious, timeless Surrey courses are extremely close neighbours in an area that is richly adorned with top-quality golf. Their furthest extremities are less than two miles apart, but they are nonetheless quite different from one another. It is also a matter of endless debate as to which is the best, with plenty of golfers regularly changing their mind. For the record, positioned at 61, Worplesdon is the highest-ranked of the three in Golf Monthly’s UK & Ireland Top 100.

The course dates back to 1908 and was a collaboration between two great architects, one not so well known and the other a household name. The layout and routing is the work of JF Abercromby, and this was his first foray into design. His career focused on quality rather than quantity, with later achievements including The Addington and Coombe Hill, also in Surrey, and delightful Knole Park in Kent. As this was his debut, he was assisted by the legendary Willie Park Jnr, a prodigious architect whose impressive talents also included winning Open Championships and club design. Here, Park was specifically responsible for the bunkers and greens.

The course opens with a four-hole loop over gently undulating ground that returns to the charming, pavilion-style clubhouse. Three medium-length par 4s ease you into the round before a lovely, slightly elevated short hole to a green protected by two bunkers and framed by grassy knolls. The front nine continues with three really strong two-shotters punctuated by the reachable par-5 6th and testing par-3 7th.