Merrist Wood Golf Club

I usually enjoy a round at Merrist.
Plenty of opportunity to practice the long shots as many of the fairways are quite open. Lot's of interest too and bunker protection, to make the short game interesting as well.

Merrist Wood GC is a parkland style course located in Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey. The course is a part of the Crown Golf portfolio of courses. It is a proprietary pay and play venue with a playing membership. It is a low key playing oasis surrounded by a host of the highest profile members clubs in Surrey, yet alone England/GB & I.

The course is a par 72, 6,285 yards off the Yellow tees, used on the day! There are 4 par 3s, 10 par 4s and 4 par 5s. A standard course configuration! The 9th and 18th greens are just in front of the clubhouse, ideal for a two tee start for competitions/societies etc.

The course opened in 1997, was designed by David Williams. He was also the designed of Surrey National, Westerham, Clandon Regis, Woolston Manor, Chartham Park and Broke Hill (now permanently closed), courses that are likely familiar to fellow TSGers!

Merrist Wood is a well laid out course. The 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th holes involve carries over either ponds or water filled ditches! The par 4s/par 5s, are generally straight drives though 7th, 13th and 18th involve doglegs, though the bigger hitters can shorten the holes by cutting corners over trees. High risk first time out but not so much once you know what you are hitting into!

The 4th and 15th fairways are littered with bunkers awaiting overhit/wayward drives.

Most approaches to the greens are challenging due to their protection by bunkers and water. Greens are large, undulating and have numerous possible pin positions; and while showing signs of recovery from spiking/sanding, they were generally in good condition, but difficult to judge line/pace.

Played in mid December, while the weather was dry and overcast, after recent heavy rains, some of the fairways were very wet. The 1st and 18th holes were the soggiest in places. On the day unfortunately aI forgot to bring my Driver and 3 Wood, so my 5 Wood became my driver for all of the par 4/5s. This severely limited my distances off the tees and my potential scores!

The green fee was £24. OK under normal conditions but I would have hoped for a reduction to about £18 to £20 given the course conditions!

The bar and pro-shop staff were very helpful. The pregame catering options were very limited due to the catering being short of one of their chef's; though a generous portion of beans on toast and a sandwich was enjoyed at a reasonable price!

All being said this is an excellent course layout that is adversely affected by wet winter conditions.

Having been a regular at merrist wood in the last 2 or 3 years i looked forward to our visit on friday. But what a disgrace. Apart from the lovely friendly girls behind the bar, i dont have a positive to say....
- worst greens i have played...cored by stevie wonder i think and then random sand thrown sporadically around
- didnt see a fairway depsite straight drives - some long semi rough was all i saw where the fairway should have been
- rude pro shop...refused to acknowledge a tsg deal and very unhelpful when god forbid...i wanted to buy something!!!
- tee boxes were mainly flat but longer than the "fairway" grass
- course parts roped off but no work done on the roped bits
- cleveland wedge now has a hole from the bunker based with slabs

When we asked about tsg deal...it was like asking to borrow their aston martin for a joy ride...

AVOID THIS PLACE...MILFORD IS 10 MINS AWAY AND AWESOME CONDITION AND FRIENDLY PROS.

You have to stay on the fairways or good chance you'll lose your ball, thick rough and water to swallow your ball up, greens were lush , definitely play there again !

A thinking golfers course, lots of sand with lots of options on most holes. A very nice golf course with fantastic views

Merrist Wood Course is a fantatic course. there are many water features. a number of lakes within the course where wilde birds flying everywhere. very beauutiful indeed. would like to come back play again!

very nice course, brillant practice area, lovely clubhouse and good proshop cant wait to play here again in my top 3 courses of the year played

Good course, quite tough for a novice with plenty of bunkers and also gulleys (mainly water traps) running across quite a few of the fairways. Best point was that all holes are different, no 'back and forth', and good to see maintenance being carried out on a number of holes as we were going round.

Only stayed for a quick drink afterwards, but no complaints about the clubhouse from what I saw ... nice-looking, clean and tidy.

Standard weekday round £33, weekends £40. Would recommend to any that haven't already tried it.

A very nice course with some interesting holes.

Fairways good.
Bunkers/sand good.
Greens good - not as fast as I was expecting!

Well worth playing.

Agree with Rodger. This course has fantastic potential, only let down by the condition of the fairways. Other than that, would definitely recommend.

Nice course with good club house and practise facilities, including driving range, bunker and chipping practise area and putting green.
Fairly long even off yellows (6286yds) and in nice condition EXCEPT the greens were like beaches when we played (end April 09). Greens let the whole place down-furrowed and sandy. Hopefully in a month or two and with some seriuos work they'll improve, only then would the course would be worth another visit.