Oak Park Golf Club

In good condition very well kept except for leaves on the fairways making it hard to find your ball, bunkers with sand, makes a change,
Some narrow fairways so have to be straight off the tee and some well thought out holes to make it interesting.

Oak Park is a very good test of golf for golfers of all handicaps, only 2 Par 5 holes but tough ones! Like all good golf course should, it rewards the good shots and punishes the poor ones! If you cannot handle steep hills, get a buggy from the Pro! The greens were in good condition, only one temporary in use at the moment. Staff are very friendly and this is a lovely piece of real estate to play golf on. Apart from the occasional private jet flying into Farnborough airport, this is a very quiet, peaceful golf course.

Quite tucked away from the M3, satnav tends to take you along the very small country lanes, so be aware. We are on the border of Surrey/Hampshire in King Alfred's territory.

Original course was 9 holes, extended across the road to a further 18, giving golfers a choice. A winning formula I think for the time conscious, but would be nice to do 27 holes in the Spring or Summer, with a leisurely lunch & drink in the Clubhouse.

Built on chalk & clay, drains quite well, only 2 temp greens today. The normal greens are well looked after, have great shapes & ondulations & tiers. Excellent for time of year.

A mature parkland with plenty of trees, fairly large fairways but can be tight in places, some dog legs & blind shots, a reminder of Foxhill, Old Thorns and a little bit of Wentworth...... The scenery, the views even on a grey winter day is awesome, cannot wait to return in the spring/summer time to play again. The Par 3s are truly very testing, even today when shorter due a temp green on the 8th...

The course gets more interesting as you progress to the 2nd half of the Woodland 18 holes course and one starts to climb/ascend a little, nothing too strenuous, a nice mix of holes.

My favourites are 10th, 11th, 12th and of course the 13th which I birdied with a superb chipping putt, uphill over a large sand bunker. Wonderful feeling...

Hole 10, Par 5, 500 yards, raised tee, dog leg right, sloping fairways left, lots of trees on the right, downhill, little slope before the green, and of course 2 well placed bunkers. The views are superb.

Hole 11, Short Par 4, another raised tee giving wonderful views of the countryside, slight dog leg right, sloping fairways downhill.

Hole 12, another short Par 4, dog leg right, with the most amazing green that we could not play today as it had a temp., it is raised & tiered and has 2 huge bunkers on the left, and is encircled by tall trees.

The course is well laid out, with gravel path and clear signs to next tees.

Portaloo by the 9th/10th holes as we are a long way from the Clubhouse.

Frienldy enough Proshop, but they wanted to charge us the normal rate and not the guest rate, but it got sorted out very quickly by our Crown member Peter W. Good selection of clothing & golf equipment.

Ladies changing rooms are really nice and well equipped, with lockers for visitors etc.

Large clubhouse with 2 or 3 seating/dining areas, friendly service and good selection of food.

Very good practice facilities but did not use them. The practice putting green if by the entrance and looked superb.

Large car park too.

In short, a pleasant & varied course suitable for all levels of golfers.

I shall certainly return, but probably in the Spring/Summertime to see the course with a different light/weather and will take some pictures. The course will play very different as I can imagine the ball running/bouncing quickly down the sloping fairways etc.... Some of the short Par 4s will be easily accessible.



THE END....

Your going to have to fight for your score here, well worth the drive..

Very nice course with some very interesting holes. Would definitely play again, if only to find some of the balls I lost.

We played the Woodland Course on what was a chilly overcast February day. Was doing ok until we discovered the course designers had obviously run out of land after 9 holes and opted to set 4 consecutive holes clockwise around a large, tree lined hill. Forget aiming at anything remotely looking like a fairway- if you hit it your ball will still run off into some unplayable lie against a tree- just trust to luck and hope to find your ball after each blind shot. Took the chance in golf to a new level. Holes 13 onward nothing special but okay but by then who cared?

Well what can I say?

Course isn`t up to much and is probably the worst Crown course I`ve played. The greens were `ok` ....just. The fairways looked good, but so many are laid on the side of hills that no matter what shot you hit it rolled off into deep rough.

We played as 4 ball (19,13,10 & 8),non of us enjoyed it. There are 4 holes in a loop on the back nine starting with the Par 5 10th that just go round the hill side, all playing dog leg right and all up hill......horrible.

The tee box on the 12th was out of commission due to repairs to on drains at the front, but no one was working on it. The tee believe or not was placed about 25 yards onto the light rough, no not on a mat on the rough, or on a temp tee box cut as thus, actually on the rough, best thing was you had to stand at an angle to play your shot. C`MON GUYS PUT A BIT OF EFFORT IN.

Our `coloured fellow` was made to feel like a leper by 3 old codgers on the 2nd fairway. Who,and I quote,said ` I say could you have a word with your coloured fellow about etiquette`.......eh pot and kettle.

Pro shop staff member at 10 am was the worst ever, he obviously did his customer training with Saddam Hussein.

Can`t be bothered going on any more (which is how we felt after 15 holes) and won`t be back.