Liphook Golf Club

Liphook GC is a spectacular heathland golf course; tree lined and with many gorse areas.

*****
The course was built in 1922 and was designed by AC Croome and T Simpson!



*****
Bunkers are many, deep and huge, the old traditional type. Gorse is grown on the top of bunkers, which has the consequence of either making it harder to get out of bunkers, or preventing balls rolling back into the bunkers!

The sand in the bunkers was of the best quality I have ever experienced.

*****
This is a par 70 course comprising 5 par 3s, 10 par 4s and 3 par 5s.

There are 3 mens tees, ie blue, white and yellow, and the ladies red tees!

The yardages are 6,301, 6,194, 5,884 and 5,526 respectively! The SSSs are 70, 70, 68 and 73!


*****
This is a top 100 rated course.

The course was in magnificent condition; greens were mostly bigger/deeper than visible from the tees/fairways so more room than you think. More club is required for all uphill approaches.

Laying up and using ones handicap was often the most sensible way to play the course if one is not a big hitter.

*****
I enter the club's annual Seniors Open Competition in order to be able to play this top 100 course.

The competition entry fee was £46 back in 2015 when I first entered, inclusive of coffee/bacon roll and a 2 course post match meal. Very good VFM as a package in comparison with the relevant visitor green fee. This year's 2019 entry fee was just £52!

*****
Course Development
The course currently crosses a busy road in a couple of places, ie from the car park opposite the 10th tee box (where they do their 2 tee starts) and from the 14th to 15th!

However they have embarked on a major course redesign with the objective of eliminating these safety concerns!

The new hole layouts are visibly in various stages of construction, with completion scheduled for 2021!

It will be interesting to see if the club course ranking holds up once its finished!

*****
My 2019 Competition Round
My round started from the 10th tee!

My outturn score was 33pts, ie 9th place out of 76 competitors! I had a blob on each 9!

The winning score was 39pts, by a 6 handicapper playing in his first eligible year as a 60+ Senior!

There were 26 single figure handicap players in the field, ie 34%, a strong entry because of the pull of the course!

The maximum handicap was 18!

36pts for 2nd! The 6th place prizewinner scored 34pts!

Regrettably, I triple bogeyed the par 4 9th hole, my last, to spoil my chances!