Although currently undergoing some surgery, this golf course is a great inland course tucked away amongst thousands of trees just North of Southampton. The course provides some great holes that challenge and infuriate; the 5 par 3s and 5 par 5s provide a unique feel, encouraging cantaloupers to go hard…all par 5s measure around or slightly below the 500 yard mark….

Cantalouper highlights…

Nic…being abused by the 60+ year old women playing through us who couldn’t believe that he had a buggy…the excuse of a blister didn’t wash either!

Lambo…the picture below sums up his final two days on tour… with a ball stuck beneath the bridge, the straddle shot became his go to….

Mark / Nic / Murph / Lambo…Many heated discussions / arguments around when the perfect time is to let 7 women’s matches through…

Nic…booming a 240 yarder at every par 5 – incredibly successfully: eagle, par, par, birdie, par giving him a -3 score through them

All – a realisation that over the 3 SI 17 holes that we played in the week we scored a grand total of ….9 points (cumulatively throwing away 15 points)!

Cantalouper Results

A tie on 40 points!

Nic… with 35 points after 14, a record stableford score was on, however all the trudging up and down the undulations took its toll…oh wait…he was in a buggy- Mark suggests he should be deducted two from his score?!?

Mark…An incredible 2 under back 9 with 5 birides allowed Mark to make up the 5 point deficit at the turn on Nic, much to his dismay! After scratching around for two days, Mark showed his class on this track…

Murph… A solid back 9 kicked off by a birdie at 10 allowed him to add 18 points to the measly 13 collected on the front. Too many double bogeys prevented a better score..

Lambo… Hard to write yet even harder for Lambo to understand, particularly given his excellent golf only two days previously, but a disappointing 20 points for Lambo who heads back to the drawing board…

Best Holes

5th – A perilous hole for many with bunkers in both lay up and ‘go for it’ range. The members 3 ball that played though us just just smashed it into the deep 200 yard bunkers, casually flicked one out 130 yards onto the green and 2-putted for par – simples…?! Clever how it turns you round the corner and makes you think…

Aesthetically, the most pleasing hole of the course, although the stroke index 17 suggests it is easier than it looks…it’s not (!) as only 2 points were scored by the Cantaloupers who misjudged line and length on here! A lovely hole precariously placed above a valley that can be crossed via the rickety wooden bridge pictured…

After a long tee shot, when walking over the ridge, you are met with an intimidating second shot that needs to be fairly accurate in order to hit the dance floor which is beautifully placed above a steep valley, par is a great score here!

The only true links on the South Coast of England is a truly magnificent course that has everything from blind tee shots and approaches to deep pot bunkers and undulating greens to test any regular ‘inland’ golfer. Play on a beautiful summers day and the wind still makes you think, play when the wind and rain are lashing at you from the solent, then surely this is a different test completely. Proved when we met a member on the first tee who suggested he had used every club in his bag from 8 iron to driver for the 180 yard par 3…!

Cantalouper’s highlights…

• Beware the practice net….Murph put down a brand new TaylorMade TP5x to have a few swings and duly thinned it under the net and the back and into the uninviting bushes and lake behind!
• Beware the practice green…Murph (again) losing a game of HORSE on the putting surface (in the shortest possible time).
• (However!) Beware a wounded Murph on the first…(after losing a ball, HORSE and dreadfully the day before) who was the only one to put a ball through the headwind into the heart of the green and picked up the first par of the day!
• Beware Lambo on an unseen course…Is that in danger? Where are we going? Where shall I aim? Do I like golf anymore?! were some of the many questions that Anne Robinson relentlessly asked throughout the round! The latter continued well into the evening…
• Beware of the Edwards rage…Lambo being the only one of us brave enough to question his score as we walked between the 9th and 10th…7 for the record!
• Beware the poser…Nic deciding he wanted a picture taken in a deep bunker despite the fact he had no ball in there – however, not the only time this week that he didn’t get a ball out of the bunker!
• Beware the distant flags on an unknown links course…regrettably we didn’t let Mark hit his second shot on the Crater hole to a far flag at a right angle from the tee (he still maintains this would be a great golf hole!)
• Beware the links golfer that is Lambo (rarely seen but magnificent when its rears its head)… His approach down the signature 13th (named The Widow) was straight out of the Tom Watson playbook, taking out any wind element, knocking it knee height, landing it 50 yards short, taking in every undulation and ending up 6ft from the flag – I’ll let him tell you whether he made the bird!
• Beware the shandy with your nan before hand…Lambo being the only one of us not to have a shocking 9 hole (including the 15 club challenge) warm up at Furzeley in the morning due to taking his nan to pub at 11am!

Cantalouper Results

Nic…Winning with a quite stunning 40 pointer that included 8 pars and a birdie and an outrageous drive attempt at the Crater hole… (questions around handicap surprisingly unanswered)

Murph…a solid 36 points on his home turf that included the best up and down in recent history from a plugged lie up against a 6ft vertical bunker wall!

Mark…32 points that uncharacteristically included 3 blobs – his excuse was he was too busy enjoying the course and his first taste of links golf..

Lambo…Chalk and cheese took a first place from Day 1 to a bottom spot on day 2 with 25 points – however his shot on the 13th was a highlight of the day!

Best Holes…

The Widow – An exceptional hole, where the golfer needs to clear 200 yards of rough to make the start of the fairway and then play a blind approach down the hill into the green tucked away amongst the harbour. Exceptional views across to the Isle of Wight, over to the imposing Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and inland towards Portsdown Hill across Langstone Harbour give it a special setting.

The Narrows – an easy SI 17 most think – think again – the appropriately named hole has a green that is only 12 yards wide with steep run offs each side. Some fun, creative shots need to be played to make your up and down!

The Sailor’s Grave – Considering how much water surrounds the course via the sea, harbour and lake, it rarely comes into play. Yet at the 17th a long tee shot is required due its length and so pulling the driver out perilously brings the lake on the left and the rough on the right into play. Trust yourself! A great golfing hole on the homeward stretch…

A beautiful, unspoilt heathland golf course that offers a unique golfing test. Every hole appears in isolation from the previous, which is just as well given the amount of shots that often found the penal rough with its swathes of heather, pine, gorse and rhododendrons! Heather, a relentless, unforgiving ex-girlfriend that you couldn’t shake off, became the most commonly used swearword throughout the round….

Best Holes…

6th – With the green raised above your eyeline, this is one of the most beautiful holes ever seen on a golf course. The striking trees frame the green and the gorse and heather beneath the hole make it a must hit green, although you can capitalise on the back board behind the green….

7th – This hole plays as difficult as it looks from the tee, particularly for those not having played the course before. A hidden fairway (discovered after losing tee shots to the right!) lies in the valley beneath the bunkers, however – the ‘conventional’ fairway sits right of the tee box, allowing an approach from a raised fairway down to a heavily protected green…

5th – Rarely do three so different, yet uniquely stunning golf holes come along back to back. This ultimate ‘risk reward’ short par 4 starts the run and tempts those with big melons to ‘go hard’. Too protected for laying up, by the jawline of bunkers that dominate the front edge of the fairway, it leaves an easy(ish!) decision for cantaloupers to ‘have a go’ and either leave themselves with an eagle chance, or more likely a difficult bunker shot or reload(!), as the available space narrows into the green…

3rd – Standing majestically above the 2nd green, the 3rd tee box allows golfers (after catching their breath from the climb up!) to admire the beauty of this heathland course. A decent drive that must hit the fairway or semi-rough on the left to allow you a shot into the green over the lake…

Cantaloupers results…

Lambo – Winning the first course with a solid 31 despite 3 blobs! Pars on the 6th, 10th and 13th particularly memorable…

Edwards – Never seen a sub 30 pointer, but came rather close with this 30, highlighting the true test of golf this course represents…

Nic – On a course requiring strategy off the tee, too many blobs caused a 28 to be written onto the card…used more as a warm up for the rest of the week…

Murph – A disappointing 26 due to a challenging back 9, definitely not using the excuse of 30+ temperatures that melted him… (not much anyway!)