Gosfield Lake Golf Club

A 'nice' parkland course

Played at the end of November and the course was very very wet i fact it was abit of a slog but the company is what made the day . At a guest rate of £15 with a member great value
The greens were superb for this time of year and some holes are very challenging
I would say its a 'nice'members course
Pro shop was well stock if only a little on size and made to feel very welcome
Enjoyable pot of tea with cake was excellent
Would definitely go back but wait till the spring when hopefully they sort out the drainage
6.5 out of 10


  

Interesting

Starts with an open par 5 which is good. A few good open fairways but a lot of tight tee shots follow, particularly on the back nine where good ball placement is essential. Overall not a bad course, inaccurate shots can be severely punished, looking forward to getting back and try to do better.

  

Gosfield Lake

Played on very hot day and still recovering from aftermath of Covid-19 so facilities very limited with nowhere to sit before and after the game
The course was fine but nothing memorable although I was having a bad playing day.
Greens were patchy but ran fairly true.
Some interesting holes although we were fortunate to have someone with us who had played it before as some holes a bit misleading in terms of direction
A 6/10 for overall experience

  

Gosfield Lake

I played Gosfield yesterday for the first time. The course is tucked away in the mid Essex countryside just outside of Braintree. My society (Stonebridge) made up of handicappers from 11 to 28 play a different course every month.
The club house and staff are very supportive friendly and very accomodating.
We tee'd off at the 10th as they had a lot of people going off of the 1st. The tenth is a tough starter hole if you don't know the course, its a severe left to right dog leg. I unfortunately gave myself a tough second shot.(I won't make that mistake again).
Many of Gosfield lakes holes are similar, long par threes even off the yellows 3 over 170 yards with up hill greens. I managed to par two but the 15th is a 165 carry over bunkers off the yellows!
The fourth is a 427 par four all up hill...tough!
The holes I really liked were the 14th and the 3rd, both include water and tough approach shots.
The 7th has an annoying dead bow hanging off an old tree
its crosses a third of the fairway, my approach hit the bow, which is 40 foot in the air. So you have to hit under the object!
The greens at Gosfield are fluffy, the holes were crowned. Making putts was not easy as they were slow, holding on them was also impossible unless you approached using a 60 degree.
The fairways and first cut were excellent, but there was little run on level surface fairways. The rough was very severe not chance of finding your ball.
The bunkers were excellent raked with good sand.
I've given the course a four, but its probably nearer a 3 and a half.
Gosfield is a tough course, I will return and give it another go, course management needs to be adopted big time. The course guides were sold out at the club shop which was annoying.
A sat nav is a must as Gosfield has little indication of distances other than plates in the fairway, which were inaccurate.
I paid £24 for lunch and 18 holes, very good value for my money.

  

A pleasant stroll....

Tucked away in the north Essex Countryside, this course has a nice feel about it. The Clubhouse is large and overlooks both the 9th & 18th greens and in the summer would be a relaxing place to enjoy a drink. The course itself is fairly benign with mostly flat fairways and pretty open until the last few holes. The greens were firm but fair, although I suspect they would struggle to hold your ball in the drier months. Whilst there were few 'stand out' holes I would certainly be happy to return here and look forward to playing here again.

  

Open parkland, water hazards abound

Nice trip out into the Essex Countryside, the Golf Course is down at the end of a bumpy old track, quite a ways. Adequate car parking, please don't change your shoes in the car park. Nicely appointed club house, neat little-pro shop. Friendly welcome from all. Noticeably a lot of juniors enjoying training sessions on the comprehensive practice areas.

Course was in good condition- considering the recent weather, but investment needed for some of the bobbly greens, a nice change to have wide open and not too much by way of elevation changes. You could be mistaken for expecting high scores as a general rule here, but there are some rather interesting holes (a fair amount of switch-backs) and it would benefit from a repeat visit.

Lots of hazards in interesting places, which can be avoided, a good course if you want to hit it long (and straight) and also a good short game work-out as well.

Wide open - great views for miles of the Essex hinterland, not much by way of distraction (wildlife or passers-by) but adjacent to the Lake - watch the water-skier - the boat was a bit noisy...

I could see this being a bit of a hazard when filled to capacity, next tees sometimes switched back from the preceding greens...

Most interesting holes seemed to be water-infested, and I recall just one short par 4 where it was bounded left and right and a bit tight.

All in all though an enjoyable day out... signposting could be a little more obvious for those near-sighted amongst us...

I didn't see a drink/chocolate machine in the Pro shop - so you might be advised to bring your own preferred snacks.

Bottom-line... a course in good condition (considering the recent weather), nice to walk and clever layouts make the best of available space. You ought to expect to do well here but on a first visit it was more about exploration. I would expect regulars to do well here.



  

Very Open Course

A very Open flattish course. But if the wind is up it would make the course more difficult.
Due to the openness of the course & very little O/B’s you could score lots of stableford points.
Some holes guarded by water, with fairway bunkers and some super 'driving' holes.
Fairways, bunkers all in good condition, but the green were not very receptive?
Club house & pro shop had friendly staff, with practise area/bunker, putting green, driving net.
This is my sort of course. Definitely recommended.


  

Great potential, needs some investment/TLC

I liked Gosfield Lake, it felt like a private club with a nice bar/restaurant area and spike bar and good practice facilities - smallish but well kept putting green and chipping area and a decent driving area if a little tight to the first fairway and entrance/exit road. Nice patio area overlooking the 18th too, to make the most of our almost Spring-like day.

The course was a decent layout, if pretty open, and the interesting holes outweighed the dull ones. Some of the greens had some thought-provoking slopes, particularly the two-tiered 10th, the 14th (a really nice hole) and the 16th with a severely sloping front and spine running through it.

Sadly the greens weren't in great nick and weren't just bobbly but also bouncy - I can't recall seeing putts bounce off the ground in odd directions before. Fairways also looked like they could do with some work, and areas around greens were hard and bare.

I don't know how much of the poor conditioning was down to lack of maintenance and how much due to the weather - we've gone from constant rain to no rain and drying wind in the last week or so and where courses were having to cope with being flooded, now the ground is cracking - but the close-up condition was more disappointing given the potential.

  

Great course to play, would play it again

Very well maintained course. Very open with quite a few water hazards.

  

nice course played on a nice day

had a lovely day out on this course, scored 32 points, should have been better but we all say that. still a little woolly after the long winter but in the sunshine was a pleasure to play.
That said if I am being picky, I'd say that there are at least 2 holes where water was only in play for the average golfer, where the better golfer and by that longer hitting, the hazards would not feature in shot selection. I was told after the game, that some bunkers were rather lacking in sand, (didn't hit one all day so I don't know how true that is.
We got on the course as a society for a much reduced green fee of about £25. not sure I'd want to pay the full midweek price for this course however, but a solid course none the less. Some tight tee shots and some very open ones. If you play well you can definitely score on this course, and by comparison if you play army golf here, it will chew you up and spit you out.
Enjoy