One of Surrey's premier clubs, the Harry Colt course here is an absolute corker
St George’s Hill Golf Club Red and Blue Course Review
Green Fee Range: £95-£165
Medal Tee Par 70 – 6,541 Yards
Visitor Times: Wednesday to Friday
Website: www.stgeorgeshillgolfclub.co.uk
St George’s Hill Golf Club Red and Blue Course Review
Surrey is a county packed with more than its fair share of top-drawer golf, and St George’s Hill is a quintessential, classic and classy treat that is always a delight.
Related: Top 100 golf courses UK and Ireland
The holes run through magnificent pine and over abundant heather, and as at Sunningdale, you could easily feel like you had stepped back half a century or more.
There are gentle but significant elevation changes which add to the visual impact at the same time as questioning club selection, and the unique and instantly recognisable clubhouse is perfectly situated above the greens that close each nine.
If PG Wodehouse had been an artist rather than an author and journalist, then this is exactly how the golf courses he wrote about would have looked.
St George’s Hill is one of Surrey’s abundant allocation of premier league, classic and classy pine-clad courses, and it epitomises all that is great and traditional about golf.
There are thrilling elevation changes which both reward and ask questions, and the unique and very stylish clubhouse looks imperiously down from the side of the hill over the course.
This is yet another Harry Colt creation – the architect with a greater presence in the Top 100 than any other – and it is packed with beautiful holes that will delight and challenge in equal measure.
Colt’s trademark bunkers abound, sometimes deceiving the eye but always pleasing it, and there is plenty of risk and reward.
The par-3 8th on the Red is an absolute gem – an exquisite one-shotter across a valley over heather and sand – the template for many a later design.
The Green nine was once part of a second 18 and it has been restored to provide a contrasting challenge to the better-known 18.
Although a little shorter, it more than makes up for that in its tight lines.
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Course changes since previous ranking
A complete rebuild of the 1st hole opened in July 2017, Tim Lobb was the architect
4-year bunker renovation programme started in 2017, again under Tim Lobb with Pro Fusion as contractor. The objectives are
1 Not to relocate any original Colt bunkers but just renovate
2 Install new bunkers where technology requires
3 See the sand faces from the tee
4 Blinder bases
5 Heather surrounds
The following holes have been completed to date: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, 14th and 17th.
A new tee was built for the 17th hole. Offering more elevation, it improves the view to the fairway and adds 35 yards to the card taking that hole to 452 yards now.
In addition the club has undertaken a heather regeneration programme. This started in 2015 and they have seen significant uptake which was partly pulled back through the very hot summer of 2018.
Proposed course changes
This winter the club resumes its bunker renovation programme on the following holes: 2nd, 5th and 18th. In 2019, the last set of bunkers will be addressed.
This winter, the club will clear the copse to the left of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th holes to allow more winter sun to these areas allowing them to develop better surface coverage.
St George’s Hill Golf Club Red and Blue Course Review – Golf Monthly Verdict
Terrific variety, exceptionally pretty and enormous fun. Beautiful golf course, a Colt classic. A day at St George’s Hill is a real treat
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