Although not far from London, Burnham Beeches is peacefully located in the leafy Buckinghamshire countryside. Rob Smith takes a look…
Burnham Beeches Course Review
A constant pleasure for all golf course fans is that we will never run out of new and interesting places to play. I therefore headed down the country lanes west of London last Summer to visit Burnham Beeches, a course that had long been on my list but which had until then eluded me.
The club dates back to 1891, and the course design is credited to one of golf’s Great Triumvirate, JH Taylor. This is a fine and welcoming members’ club, and following a beer and a sandwich, I headed out into the woods… quite literally at times!
The opening hole is a gentle par 4 with a generous fairway and a downhill approach to an attractive and receptive green.
The approach to the first green
The next is a much tougher par 4 and you then arrive at the 3rd which is a very distinctive short hole played from an elevated tee to a partially-hidden green.
The short third suits a high fade
The first of the three par 5s comes next, and this is followed by an excellent and very tough two-shotter which plays every inch of its 430 yards.
The approach to the tough par-4 fifth needs to carry the valley
Another strong par 3 is next, played over a dip, and the front nine concludes with a trio of interesting and varied par 4s.
The demanding par-3 sixth is over 200 yards from the back
The second half opens with another memorable short hole where the sleepered bunker really ought to be more visual than strategic.
Don’t be fooled by the cross bunker, the centre of the green is 30 yards beyond
Two testing holes, one a par five the other a four, take you to the northern extremity of the property where there is a pretty little par 3, the shortest of the five.
The short thirteenth is at the far end of the course
The par-4 14th is a very unusual and testing hole as at the end of the fairway the ground falls away, tumbling over a bank of bushes. This leaves you with what can be quite a long shot to a green hiding away from you in the valley beyond.
There is a tricky, semi-blind approach at the fourteenth
The next two are a little more forgiving, but there is a strong finish with a quite heavily-bunkered short hole at 17 and a 434-yard closing hole with trouble all the way down the right.
The closing hole leads you back to the elegant clubhouse
Since my visit, the club has embarked on some upgrading work that will improve the experience even more. I very much enjoyed my afternoon at Burnham Beeches; both its engaging, tree-lined course and its stylish and well-appointed clubhouse.
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