Steve Rawlinson

To be frank the course is pretty rough around the edges, the tee boxes are in a state and the greens bounce the ball around at random. It's good value because it's cheap. Cheap, that is, unless you visit the driving range.

The distance between the tee on the mat (which is fixed in place) and the iron girder behind the golfer holding the roof up (also fixed) is not big enough to allow the driver to follow-through without striking it.

This is unfortunate for two reasons. The first is that everyone on the range at the time suffers a heart attack because that girder makes a fucking loud fuss about being hit with a golf club. The other is that one of the cardiac patients also has a non-working driver to replace.

I reviewed this course after a couple of rounds in the winter. It's on chalk so it drains well which makes it great when it's muddy elsewehere.

I went back this week to play a summer round and I have to say it's a fantastic course and a great club. Unlike my other winter favourite (Gog Magog) it is actually improved in summer and the greens and fairways were in terrific condition.

There are two driving ranges and the pro shop offers free fitting sessions with a GC2 launch monitor. There is no obligation to buy the clubs they fit you for.

Can confirm that the bacon baguettes are still worth the price of the round on their own.

It's a beautiful, mature parkland course. The greens are superb. The bunkers are so good it's almost a pity you have to try to avoid them. There's a 9-hole par 3/4 course, two chipping practice areas, and two practice greens.

The staff are really nice & the pro shop very friendly.

Despite being further from where I live than at least 5 other golf courses I decided to join South Herts because the course and facilities are so good.

The Value for Money rating is based on the current £20 per round winter rate. The normal visitor rate is £50 which is frankly too much. I suspect it's designed to put visitors off during the summer months.

The tee boxes are in a pretty poor state, some of them look like the goalmouths of Sunday league football pitches. Most of the bunkers are like concrete.

But the fairways are well maintained, the greens are acceptable, the staff are very friendly, and it's very good value for money. There's a decent driving range and the pace of play was good for a weekend on a public course.

If we have a winter as wet as last year this course will really struggle because the greens are already very damp after a few wet days but right now it's a good morning out.

There's nothing really wrong with this municipal course but there's not a great deal to recommend it either. The greens have been hollow tined but are still playable. It's quite hard to distinguish the fairway from the rough but that's partly because the rough is very short.

My benchmark for public courses is Trent Park which is a much nicer course than North Weald, but you get about 6 hours to appreciate how nice it is on a Saturday round while waiting for the two-ball in front of you to work out which end of the buggy is the front.

I recommend the bacon roll.

This is a really interesting course layout. 6 par 3s, 6 par 4s, 6 par 5s. Loads of water. More bunkers than the Atlantic Wall.

Despite being a beginner golfer I really enjoyed this very technical course. It rewards careful course management.

There's a par 3 practice course, a driving range, a chipping area including bunkers, and a practice green. The clubhouse is very modern and attractive.

Unfortunately the greens had undergone some sort of treatment that had scored lines into them, and there was a lot of sand on them. They were still perfectly playable but I'm sure they will be better in a couple of months.

I'm not sure it's quite worth the £55 per round they charge normally but at today's rate of £10 it was terrific value.

This is my local course and I've played it many times.

It's good value at £14 to £17 midweek. It's well laid out, the fairways are good, there are some interesting holes.

The greens are pretty poor. They look good but the grass is too long, they are very slow, and they have never recovered from the last aeration - still visibly bumpy after several months. They were open all through the wettest winter on record which might be a factor.

However the main problem at Trent Park is slow play. If you think your club has a slow play problem come to Southgate to see how slow play has become an artform.

I have seen a 4-ball made up of Daddy, Mummy, and two kids of 8 and 10. The 8 year old's 20-yard hacks made Daddy look bad.

I've seen a male/female 2-ball with new boyfriend teaching new girlfriend to do golf for the first time, with one set of clubs between them, and plenty of what 1970s swimming pool signs would euphemistically refer to as 'petting'.

The clubhouse was built in 1971 and looks every bit of 43 years old. The service is friendly but they have two different companies doing food and drinks - you can't order both from the same person. Seriously.

I have a season ticket at Trent Park which I will not be renewing, mostly because of the pace of play and the greens. By the standards of public golf courses it's pretty good, but otherwise it's pretty average.

This course has been bought by a local businessman following what must have been years of neglect by the previous owners.

The course layout is good. The fairways are in good shape. That's the good news.

The greens are in a terrible state and the bunkers are all GUR because there is no sand in them. The bar has no drinks on tap.

However, they are charging £10 per round on a bank holiday to drum up business, they are totally honest about the state of the course, and bullish about their efforts to improve it. The staff are very friendly and accommodating. With proper attention this could be a really nice course and I wish them all the best.

I will definitely go back in a few months and see how they're getting on.

Playing a course in a very wet January is never going to show a course at its best. The Epping Bandits moved their game here from Crews Hill because they had all their greens open and told DJ that the course had 'drained well'. I have to wonder if they meant to say it had drained like the bottom of a well.

Aside from the brand new water hazards on a lot of the fairways the course is frankly ugly. The clubhouse is a corrugated iron hut (but quite nice inside). The 'driving range' is a farmers field which I decided was not worth fording the river to try out.

It does make me laugh when courses as badly presented as this have signs up saying 'we welcome properly dressed golfers'.

However, the welcome was very friendly, the breakfast was great, and the price fair.