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Golfing Bucket List Final Course for UK - Walton Heath
Friday 31 May - Walton Health – woke this morning with tired legs after yesterday’s effort of hill climbing at St George’s. Graham has so been looking forward to playing Walton Heath for many years. When we started booking courses for this trip our one disappointment was we could not get a booking at Walton Heath on the Old Course as it was all booked out and we were offered a round on the New Course. We decided New would be better than missing out altogether. Imagine our excitement when we were talking to the starter and she remembered our booking request for the Old Course and she said we had come so far, she would squeeze us into the Old Course field. We were really thrilled and that set the tone for the day.
The course was really busy because many professionals were practising on the course in the lead up to the Monday final European Qualifying Event for the upcoming US Open Event in a few weeks. There was a real buzz about the place and one of the players practising on the putting green was Australia’s
Min Woo Lee, (Minjee Lee’s brother). He is such a lovely young guy and we had a great chat with him on the putting green, wishing him all the best in the Final Qualifier.
Wow what a practice green – the speed was unbelievable. It took us a lot of work to finally get the pace right and sink a few putts. Then is was time to head out for the big final game.
The first hole was a 200 yard par 3 for men and 180 for women and making it quite challenging was a hidden water hole and bunkers left and right. Did ok and then had to cross a really busy road where cars travel at 50 mph road to get to the 2
nd hole – would never happen at home! I was thinking the really old members would be taking their lives in their hands every time they crossed the road to play golf!
We took a few holes to settle in – the heather was always lurking ready to catch any shot that was slightly off the fairway. Lucky for us it wasn’t in bloom as that makes it much harder to
search for the ball. We quickly realised it was a long course but the good thing was there was a bit of run if you hit a decent straight shot. The other thing we noticed was there were not as many bunkers as the Scottish courses but the bunkers here were very strategically placed and in play. If you went in them the sand was sand was very coarse and this made the high faced bunkers really hard to hit out of.
The last 3 holes were some of the best on the course. The par 5 16
th had a massive long bunker on the right of the green which Leanne plopped the ball into. Had to hit out sideways as it was a monster. The par 3 17
th was a real gem and we both got 4s after somehow avoiding the bunker. Then the 18
th had a bunker all the way across the front of the green. Graham’s 180 metre second shot in was a bit lucky as it ran up the bunker face and onto the green. He managed to par the hole – a nice way to finish a great and memorable day at Walton Heath
Golf Club.
Over and out for now.
Leanne and Graham
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