Windmill Village GC is a parkland style course in Allesley, Coventry, Warwickshire!
It is part of a Best Western Hotel and golf course resort!
The venue was chosen to stage our Ryder Cup style team match between BIG (British Inclusive Golf) and TSG!
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The course is a par 70 off the white and ladies red tees!
The SSSs are are 66 and 70!
Yardages are 5,085 off the whites and 4,470 off the reds!
There are 6 par 3s, 8 par 4s and 4 par 5s!
The front 9 is an unusually balanced layout, ie it opens with 3 consecutive par 3s, followed by 3 consecutive par 4s and then 3 consecutive par 5s!
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Two of the par 3s, ie the 12th and 13th, are extremely challenging for the average club golfer, which the club seems to be especially happy about! Both are long narrow/tight tee shots with OOB along the left and a deep running ditch along the right designed to ensnare those trying not to go OOB!
Better these 2 holes were redesigned as a tricky par 4! It is not a pga championship course but a local facility for amateur club golfers! (possibly a controversial personal view!)
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The par 4s and 5s......
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For the BIG/TSG competition I was partnered with Brigitte Lockwood in round 1 and with Noirin Fitzgerald in round 2! We comfortably won both our matches for the team with 39pts and 47pts respectively!
I think a combination of better playing conditions together with our new found course knowledge contributed to the better round 2 points tally!
All three of us gelled / played well in both rounds when the pressure was on!
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On a personal performance perspective; my scores for the two rounds, my round 2 gross score of 81/40pts (+11), was -7 shots better than my round 1 gross 88/31pts (+18)!
A combination of wet and windy conditions, difficult greens, lack of course layout knowledge, especially hazards, and the occasional bad ball striking off the tee, contributed to the round 1 +5 over handicap!
While my round 2 stats reflect a -7 shots improvement, my better gross total hides the matter of a +7 on holes 6 (+2) and 13 (+5)!
What my score could have been with a bit of concentration!
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The course was a mixture of very good holes combined with a few unlikeable holes!
The event was very enjoyable because of the occasion and the personalities involved on both teams.
However I would prefer to try an alternative venue (in the Midlands) for any future rematch!
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Weekday visitors green fees are various, depending on the day or times, varying from £12.95 to £21.95, or £24.95 at weekends! Good value!
We were on a stay and play society deal!
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The hotel accommodation was a top floor ensuite room in an outbuilding! Spacious and comfortable for cheaper end provision but could have been so much more hospitable by the inclusion of a couple of comfy armchairs, and the inclusion of a much bigger TV!
Breakfast in the main hotel building was of indifferent quality, the formal main meal fare was very much better, pretty good in fact but not a menu of personal preference!
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The club website is one of the most uninformative golf course websites ever it is possible to have. It is a hotel reservation system with the addition of a tee time booking system, but for the golfer visiting the course and hotel, there is no hole plan diagrams, or drone flyovers of the course, to assist understanding of the course layout, bearing in mind that their scant excuse for a pro-shop doesn't sell course planner booklets!
This IT deficiency is one that is very common on courses operating as part of hotel chains!
Very irksome!
Date Tuesday, 15, October 2019
