West Sussex Golf Club

Played at West Sussex today and I have to say that it is one of the best courses I have played. The clubhouse is very welcoming, great practice facilities in front of the clubhouse . . .and then as for the course . . .well it is superb. Lush firm fairways and great greens. Plenty of heather to stay away from. A real challenge. An absolute joy to play.

Had a lunch afterwards and the food was superb as well. Will definitely be back there to play it again. The best course in Sussex and in the top 100 in the country. I totally agree.

This one had been on our wishlist for a while - a heathland course located on the South Downs where the land is great and there are many fine courses. It's rated number 1 in Sussex and very posh - they only allow visitors to play in 2 balls - and don't usually allow riff raff like us!

However, my playing partner showed excellent initiative, blagging a tee time by explaining that we are not members of a club at the moment: we are based in Frankfurt on business and are former members of the London Club - what a great liar that Phil Boyd is!

We arrived at 8:30am and paid £70 for a winter day ticket, which was excellent value. It is a very pretty place indeed with a gorgeous clubhouse, friendly staff and superb practice facilities. Also it was perfect weather - around 10 degrees and sunny.

The course was as manicured as any I have ever played - in perfect condition despite the time of year and recent rain. The turf was a pleasure to play irons or chip from. We played off winter tees - par 68 and 5600 yards - but the course runs fast and plays shorter than its distance.

Not as difficult as I expected but then we both played tidy golf - there is plenty of trouble if you are wayward, with some deep bunkers and lots of heather. Anyway, the good thing about playing as a 2 ball was that we comfortably played 36 holes on December 29th.

I thought the par 3s were very pretty holes, but if I had any criticism it would be the lack of great 'shot making' holes for better players - such as the 2nd or 6th at Crowborough. However, it is a joy to play and I'd recommend it to any golfer who enjoys fast running golf - if you can get a tee time!