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Ryan Coles

  • Karma: +0/-0
Familiarity breeding contempt?
« on: April 22, 2014, 06:47:36 PM »
I refer specifically to the West Course at Wentworth.

Is to the most underrated, overrated course in the UK?

Does it get the credit it deserves? Is Els' bunker restoration not restoring the course to Colt's intent?

Are we sniffy about it due to its price and corporate connections? Are we ignoring a great collection of holes?

Interested to hear views.

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2014, 11:03:00 PM »
Ryan - I have never played the course but the changes looked terrible to me.  Here is an old thread from people with more knowledge while construction was taking place.  The reviews are generally brutal towards the end of the thread.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,41136.75.html

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2014, 11:39:20 PM »
Ryan:

It's been a long time since I've been back to Wentworth.

I haven't gone back because there was not much there to interest me in the first place.  Which are the great holes in the collection that I missed?

Jon Wiggett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2014, 11:51:33 PM »
Tom,

I think the course was a good matchplay venue. It had a set of solid par 3s with both the 2nd and 14th being very good in my opinion. I thought it had a demanding start in the first three holes and the run from 14 through 17 being very good as well with the tee shot at 17 being one of the most interesting and demanding of any in the home counties. The 18th was a weak hole but not necessarily a bad one.

Had the course been restored to its original Colt glory I believe it would have gone up in many peoples estimation but what has been done to it is a travesty. Could it be the best course in the London area? Well probably not but it could be a very good one.

Jon

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2014, 11:49:53 AM »
Do they still have the hole where you have to hit your drive up and over a row of tall trees?  [I think it was #12.]

Gib_Papazian

Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2014, 01:20:33 PM »
Our group's impression was Wentworth is an obscenely expensive, generic parkland course featuring deadly dull architecture without a micron of charm or quirk - with soaking wet, arbitrary rough - all in the shadow of a ridiculous looking faux castle staffed by the rudest group of American-hating assholes this side of Tehran. That was our first stop in England and we nearly went back to Gatwick to catch a flight to Scotland.

To say our collective outlooks were drastically improved walking off #18 at Sunningdale Old the next day improved would be quite an understatement. Aside from Troon, where we were treated like zoo animals, I've been met with unbelievable kindness in the UK and Ireland.

It is quite ironic that my two least favorite golf courses across the pond have the nastiest attitude towards visitors. I had to really think hard about whether I was letting the negative experience color my evaluation of the architectural merit of the courses, but upon reflection, neither course has more than three or four noteworthy holes.      

 

    
« Last Edit: April 23, 2014, 01:23:47 PM by Gib Papazian »

Jud_T

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2014, 01:32:01 PM »
Ryan,

Have you played the East?  I was pissed at the time that we couldn't get out on the West.  Now I think we might have gotten the better end of it.
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Ryan Coles

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2014, 05:22:20 PM »
Ryan,

Have you played the East?  I was pissed at the time that we couldn't get out on the West.  Now I think we might have gotten the better end of it.

Jud

I've not played either, though I've probably walked the West 20 odd times. The East does seem to win over far more people than the West. I'm playing the West next Thursday, hence my question. For many in the UK Wentworth is the holy grail due to Seve, the Matchplay etc.

I don't think anyone could reasonably have anything but contempt for the 18th. But the bunkering that Els did, seems at least to be in keeping with the original course. They are at least genuine hazards rather purely an aesthetic. The West in contrast to the East was always supposed to be a long demanding tournament venue.

Ryan Coles

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Familiarity breeding contempt?
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2014, 05:28:42 PM »
Ryan:

It's been a long time since I've been back to Wentworth.

I haven't gone back because there was not much there to interest me in the first place.  Which are the great holes in the collection that I missed?

I'm not sure you did miss greatness,  but for me the best holes on the course are 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12. I'm posing the questions as I'm interested in seeing how people have arrived at their conclusions. I've gone from thinking that the West Course was amazing as a kid, to thinking that its a parkland slog around what should be a heathland classic. To now thinking that people turn their nose up at it for reasons other than the actual course.

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