Flaxby Park Golf & Country Club (Closed)

Opened on 1st July 2004 the 18 hole "Park" course was superb.
I joined Flaxby when it opened and soon found many new friends and some tough holes with conditions as regularly windy as any I experienced in my native Scotland. I was once privileged to play at Carnoustie where the hotel has a framed motto saying “nae wind - nae gawf”. The wind at Carnoustie was nothing compared to Flaxby and the water hazards at Flaxby would make the Barry Burn a pleasant memory to Jean van de Velde... be warned there are some serious card wrecking holes on this course with or (most unusually) without wind.
The first hole has a rather intimidating veritable forest of trees (out of bounds naturally) to the left of the tee boxes and an open fairway to the right. I once witnessed a three handicap player hit two consecutive snap hooks into exactly the same place in the woods on a Stableford friendly – my advice for what it is worth is - beware!
If you hook at all on this hole, your only option is to reload. Even a slight draw will find the out of bounds or if you are “lucky” the stream that runs all the way up the side of the wood and across the front of the green, more of which in a moment. Slicers can easily find their tee shot on the parallel tenth fairway, with a serious slice finding a lake. This may leave you more than a little perplexed about where to drop and, if you have any foresight at all, some haunting visions that will make first tee nerves pale in comparison to the extreme nervousness you will experience with your first tee shot on the back nine - particularly when there is a Society on the first tee and the practice putting area!
Having nailed your drive on the first and avoided the right hand fairway bunker (ha!) your approach shot has to find an island green, surrounded on three sides by trees, which are of course also out of bounds and the front and fourth side has the aforementioned stream to negotiate. This has been specially adapted to attract balls with a ferocity that would put any suction device (no matter how strong) to shame. Magnetism, hypnotism or some other ‘ism’ must be involved because my experience of five years of play had the majority of my balls to this green from any distance short or long being fished out of the stream by my trusty and regularly used ball retriever. Perceived wisdom is the putter is the most used club – at Flaxby prepare to re-grip your ball retriever more than any club!
Find the green on the first and you are laughing – it is flat and true, putts are a joy. However, if the green keeping staff have had a bad day or lack of conjugal activity, you will find a pin position Ethan Hunt would refuse to even consider. This applies to all holes, some of which will have any self respecting golfer picking up sometimes after finding the green in regulation.