GANTON G.C. 1891 (Lidar) 7,223 yards par 71
My excitment is pretty high for this new (but old) addition. I heard about it a few years ago from my go to site for RCRs:
www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/gantonNumber 8 in England and every course above it is a banger. Some very talented architects have done work at Ganton over the years. Harry Colt, Alister McKenzie, Tom Simpson being the ones I recognize.
In honour of the situation, we are going to wear traditional English colours. Royal blue sweater/ grey polo shirt combo, red hiked up pants with checkered socks and classic matching white and royal blue footjoy cleats. Nice old school feel. We would equip the flag on our cap but HB removed all that fun stuff so we are going with the modern white wilson cap. 287 driver.
I see we are the first person to play on the PS4 servers, awesome.
Dawn clear skies, north high winds, very firm fairways, firm and fast greens and pin 1, on pro settings.
The clubhouse is quite grand with some tall brick chimneys and some nice blue pinstriping on a white backdrop. The parking lot is decently filled with 4 vehicles, three of the same sedan model, and a lone hatchback.
Hole 1: We are greeted on the first tee with a blind tee shot over a grassy hedge, a brown field and a patch of trees to hit over, with a tree line to aim at in the distance. Once we use our cheat code scout-cam, we see the fairway narrows at the landing spot and with an 11-mph cross wind, we are not going to bite off more than we can chew. So, we club down to 3 wood. We hit a fast but come up short of the left bunker and have 161 in. We hate our angle and need to fight the left greenside bunker and the wind and slope of the green pushing us away from the tucked left pin. We play an 8 iron hoping for the front part of the green and a decent look at birdie and do just that. We lag it close from 45 ft and make par.
Hole 2: This appears fairly straightforward with a light bend to the left. We pipe a driver, have 168 in, downhill with the green running away from us. 8 iron well short, not our best effort. Trundle a GW chip downhill and make par.
Hole 3: We need to stripe one through a chute through some trees. Downhill, downwind, might be drivable. Looks enticing. Against our better judgement, we are going for it. Big kick off the left of the fairway and rolls forever. 358 yard bomb to 15 ft. Nice. We miss the ever-elusive eagle but we are on the board. Fun hole.
Hole 4: Now it appears we are driving over our last green and we realize we had OB behind that green, making our last drive even riskier. Hopefully the flagstick doesn't get in the way of this drive. My caddy assures me it should be fine but he tells me to watch out for the little stream or puddle or I dunno what it is, it's water which is never good. The fairway looks quite tight and with the cross wind we decide on 3 hybrid. We hit a slight draw to counteract the cross wind and find short grass with 170 in. The green looks a little redanish with a big slope on the right but the greenside bunker is actually on the right as well, which is not very redanish. Huh, must come into play on some other pins. We try a low running 8 iron and again come up short. PW chip and putt for par.
Hole 5: The first par 3 of the day and she's not too friendly. 4 bunkers and a pond long and we have 176 downhill into a 14 mph wind. We draw it in with 5 iron to 23ft and 2 putt for par.
Hole 6: A long par 4 with the wind at our back awaits. We wonder if we can reach that pot bunker that is annoyingly in the middle of the fairway and we are going to find out. We end up dangerously beside it and are 140 in. We run one on with a PW to 19 ft. 2 putt par.
Hole 7: Another blind (not really) first shot awaits us as well as the teeth of the wind. I really don't want to eff with those menacing looking bunkers to the right but we see if we play it out left, we will have a worse angle. We aim left and play a fade towards them, executing nicely and have 215 in. Glad we did because the green has a big runoff to the left which we don't want to mess with. We hit a well struck lofted 3H to 24 ft, right of the pin. We miss the tricky downhill sidewinder and make par.
Hole 8: Looks rather tame for now but we shall see. Driver, 99 yards in. We are left with an awkward wedge distance to a tricky pin and we decide on a low pitch, rolling up to 14 feet. Not great but we'll take it. We birdie on the slight double breaking downhiller.
Hole 9: First par 5 and it appears to have a hogsback feature to it. We are going to try for the right side for what looks like a better angle in, with our left pin. Mission accomplished, 222 in. The approach looks very dicey but with confidence in our short game and momentum from our fresh birdie, we are going for it. Yep, greenside pot bunker and she's fairly deep. Would love to chip out and play the break but that won't get us out. We are short sided, landing onto a downslope...time for the overpowered splash shot. Back-to-back birdies.
We really wish we had the clubhouse to buy some snacks. We are hungry and thirsty but so far, we are impressed with the course.
Hole 10: Oh nice, a quite skinny, well-guarded, halfpipe looking par 3, this looks fun. 5 iron to 9ft. I inexplicitly miss the easy birdie putt. !%$#. Moving on.
Hole 11: We need to clear a cross hazard of 2 pot bunkers and some big mounds which thankfully is not in play with today's wind. Holding the higher left side of the fairway which cants right looks to be the goal here. We aim right and play a draw and the wind to glory. We are 145 in with a good angle but the green is running away from us. We hang one out to the right and it barely stays up and out of the bunker. We run a GW chip close and putt for par.
Hole 12: Hoping to buy a burger and beer at the wooden shack, we see it has no doors or windows and there is no-one in sight. Bizarre. A tricky angled tee shot here, with the bunker and tree placement. Would like to hit 3 wood for a better distance in on this shorter par 4. Done and 135 in, but an eerily similar situation to our approach on the 1st. Our 8 iron has not been good this morning again leaving us short. We nearly chip in and make par.
Hole 13: Tough tee shot here with the trees left potentially blocking us out but needing to get around the bunkers on the inside of this par 5. We run out of fairway with the driver but don't go too far left and the trees are not a worry. Tough angle with the wind and the short right greenside bunker to get home in 2 and we run a 3H 30 yards short and left of the green. We need to be careful with this slippery downhill chip and settle on 8 iron which turns out to be 21 feet too much. The birdie putt will make us feel better.
Hole 14: Third blind tee shot of the day (not really), to a drivable par 4. The size, shape and angling of the green and bunkers guarding it, look to only accept the purest of shots. Challenge accepted. Let's see if we can blow one through the green with a 3 wood. I'll have to sprint to the right to see where my ball lands. (You would hope a short par 4 is visible from the tee to potentially see a great shot, but I don't make the rules.) We barely make the fairway, roll up on the front of the green but now may have to putt our ball through the fringe to navigate a pretty big slope. Not our best decision. But we are putting for eagle, even if it is 69 ft away. Decent lag to 6 ft and brutally miss our easy putt. Three putt par.
Hole 15: Long par 4 but we mostly have the wind, let's bomb one. Some fun bounces over the waves in the fairway leaves us 168 in. Everything runs hard to the right including some of the wind. We settle on a big draw with the 5 iron and the ball settles in the biarritz-ish swale in the middle of the green, 25 feet out. We smoke a putt well left and 10 feet past the hole. Oh my. We drain the knee-knocking downhill par saver and we dodged one there.
Hole 16: Our landing spot is again blind (not really) and a very deep and large bunker guards only the worst of pop ups, duffs, ankle biters and hozzle rockets. Wow that bunker looks deep. We are more concerned with the treeline on the right and the bunker left, in today's landing zone. We try a power fade into the wind to try and end up on the right fairway and end up left instead but hey, we're on short grass. I can't remember our distance and club in, but we hit one of our better approaches of the day to 10 feet. We miss a very makable putt and start to feel the yips coming on. Oh god I hope not. Par and moving on.
Hole 17: Par 3. 258 to the pin. Small green. The front half is a huge false front. The left quarter runs off. We have a strong cross wind. This might be the hardest hole yet. We might bogey this. We attempt a lofted 3 wood and although it does briefly find the green, it slingshots right, down, around and into the bunker. Not surprising, but a very entertaining result. We dial up another overpowered splash shot and make par from the very cavernous bunker.
Hole 18: Nice, we get to carry and then walk across a wooden bridge over a huge waste area. Another somewhat blind tee shot (not really). I wonder if we can bomb and gouge it way out to the left of this 80 degree dogleg?. Looks risky. Oh wow the walking path is OB. I like this hole already. We go with the safe 3 wood and red fast it left, behind the giant trees. We are completely dead. "See that's what you get for being safe," I tell my caddy. Our only option is to chip back in the fairway and hopefully it doesn't roll onto the path, that would be a real dick punch. Another very slanted green awaits and our stance is sending us the other way. 9 iron over the pin to 25 ft. We miss the par saver...and the bogey saver...and double bogey our way to handshakes and cold beers after. We finish at 2 under 69.
Overall I thought the course presented some challenging drives. I ended up with some bad angles and the more I play it, the more I'll learn what the best lines are. The greens were tough but fair. I usually seem to putt a little worse on lidar courses as opposed to anything else. User created courses often times have some extreme slopes but if you can navigate them, your path is fairly straightforward i find. With lidar courses there are usually a lot of subtle internal contours, which I love. And I putted terribly, hopefully it's not the start of a trend.
A lot of your pins on setting 1 were tough to get to which I also love. I'll have to try the other 3.
I don't know what "style" of course that is. I wouldn't say it's heathland, lacking the purple heather of the other traditional ones. (But I don't live in England and I'm not an expert.) I wouldn't call it a true links either, but it does remind me a little of Muirfield and Lytham & St. Anne's, but with more trees. Let's just call it what it is, a very solid course. There is nothing bold or flashy about Ganton but it is a good test and I think you really have to execute to shoot well.
Great job on the recreation, as always, and I'm really happy it is finally in the game!
