Let’s be honest, Christmas 2020 was a bit of a struggle for us all. Traditionally it’s the one time of the year when we look forward to spending time with kith and kin.
But in 2020 festive socialising was, largely, denied us. Instead, apart from a 72 hour, HM Government sanctioned ‘lockdown ceasefire’, we were all required to isolate from family and friends to mitigate further circulation of the virus.
As it turned out, that brief relaxation of the lockdown regulations was all that was needed for covid-19 to comprehensively infiltrate our family. Seven out of eight of us contracted Coronavirus. A statistic that was confirmed following a New Year’s Eve family outing to the Bexhill, ‘drive-thru’, NHS Covid testing site.
The widespread outbreak of ‘Delta’ in our house meant that trip to Bexhill was to be the last family excursion for quite some time.
But, even as I fought the fever in the first few days of 2021, I clung to the prospect of brighter days ahead.
One source of this optimism was to be found in something else I’d received that Christmas.
My very own 100 golf course ‘scratch card’.
Now, most of you will be aware that there are literally hundreds of ‘top 100’ golf course lists.
They are published regularly in golf magazines, and the lists themselves change frequently.
But suddenly, here I was in possession of a ‘Jon Gross - Around the greens in 100 games’ ‘Collect and Scratch’ map of the UK.
No longer, at least as far as I was concerned, would the pecking order of the UK’s best courses be hostage to the views of a thousand golf journalists.
Christmas 2020 had given me a definitive, personalised, and, yes, framed(!) cache of 100 ‘top’ courses.
Ever the optimist, this A4 sized nugget of ‘golf travel gold’ was immediately added to my golfing bucket list.
First things first, a quick audit to establish how many of the 100 I’d previously played and could therefore scratch off on the map.
West Sussex, Rye, London Club, Worplesdon, Cowdray Park, Sweetwoods Park, and The Belfry all went ‘under the penny’ (the scratcher’s implement of choice, no?).
A magnificent, but somewhat statistically challenged, seven.
So, 93 courses to go. The temporal and fiscal challenge lying ahead was now much clearer.
Completion of my ‘play and scratch landscape’ was going to take years, and given the pedigree of the courses, was going to involve me parting with significant coin.
A quick calculation of the financial undertaking…
…assigning an average of £150 spend to each course yet to be played (green fee, travel, food and on occasion, accommodation) the estimated cost is an eye watering…£13,950.
No matter. (I wasn't that bothered with the idea of a new kitchen anyway...).
2021 saw me press onwards, (and variously westwards and eastwards) in pursuit of my challenge. I smashed (ok scratched) another four from the outstanding ledger…Liphook (Hants), Royal North Devon, Saunton Sands, (Devon) and Littlestone (Kent).
Gems one and all.
Liphook was probably the best presented course I played last year. A fantastic experience on and off the course and richly deserving of the high ranking it routinely enjoys in other ‘top one hundred’ lists.
Royal North Devon and Saunton Sands were picked off in a golfing trip with mates in early May.
Royal North Devon is the oldest golf club in England (founded in 1864) and is as authentic a round of golf as you can find south of the Forth Bridge. If you’re looking for a first tee shot that must navigate resident sheep, dog walkers and wild ponies in addition to other more conventional hazards, look no further. The clubhouse also boasts a comprehensive golf museum and fascinating display of antique golf clubs.
Saunton Sands offers two challenging links courses, East and West. The courses sit within a comprehensive ‘dunescape’, the topography of which reveals the fairways and greens to you on a ‘hole by hole’ basis as your round progresses. And there’s a fabulous club house from which to start and finish your game. Very much a five-star experience from first to last.
Littlestone Golf Club provided about as much enjoyment as you could hope from a day’s golf at a new venue. Along with three golfing companions I participated in a four ball better ball competition, one of several events the club hosted as part of its August ‘Open’ week. Located near New Romney in Kent, Littlestone provides a superb challenge of links golf, befitting of a club with an address of St Andrews Road. The clubhouse (finished in 1910) looks like something out of an episode of Poirot and the upstairs bar sports a huge window overlooking the first and eighteenth holes. It is a brilliant track, routinely used in qualifying whenever Sandwich hosts the Open. I can’t recommend the course highly enough, and my friends and I are very much looking forward to returning to open events at Littlestone later this year.
Four undoubted highlights from my 2021 golfing year.
And so to 2022.
As I write this, spring is just around the corner, and the golfing year will start to gather pace.
And with 89% of my golfing map still to complete, I probably need to pick up speed too
If I maintain my 2021 rate of progress (four new courses per year) I'll scratch the last course from my map sometime in 2044.
I'll be 77 by then...best I start adding more olive oil and spinach to my diet...