The Missing Links: April 2015

Friday 10 April 2015

Fleetwood Golf Club, England

www.fleetwoodgolf.co.uk

White tees par 72
Red tees par 73

Fleetwood golf course lies between the town of Fleetwood and the mouth of Morecambe Bay in the north west of England. It is notable for being one of the friendliest welcomes we have had in our links quest.
If the establishment of a golf course is dated from when a course is laid out, competitions arranged and prizes played for then Fleetwood is the oldest links course in England. The local newspaper ran an article in 1861 reporting a match on Fleetwood links won by two army officers from the nearby Euston Barracks. One of the two, Arthur Walker was Scottish and founded the Alnmouth Golf Club eight years later. The location of that first golf course is unknown but the current club was established in 1893.

The 10th green with the Coastwatch ObservatoryTower in the background

Fleetwood has two loops, an outer first nine and an inner second nine. The course is flat and typical of a links course with defence from penal rough and bunkers and a prevailing cross wind. We played it on a lovely spring day when there hadn't been much growth and the greens were sanded so missed the course at its best. There are only glimpses of the sea from higher ground as the whole course is protected by a sea wall but the National Coastwatch's Rossall Point Observatory Tower can be seen from most holes and looks like a modern Leaning Tower of Pisa. Other features of the course are the old butts from the days that the military used the ground as a firing range. Most of the holes are fairly straightforward provided the rough and bunkers are avoided but beware of complacency as the second nine has tough par 4s at the 13th (The Chasm), 16th and 17th. The signature hole is the lovely par 3 8th with an elevated green bunkered at the front and right. A tee shot to below the hole is a must on the sloping green.

The drive from the 4th tee

Worth playing? Yes if you are holidaying in the area

The Links Project

There are 246 true links golf courses in the world and this blog is a record of our attempt to play all of them. My husband Ron and I are keen golfers and I came up with the idea of this project after he gave me the book by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell 'True Links' which lists them all.

The commonest question we are asked about our project is 'How do you define a true links course?' This will be debated by aficionados for long after we have (hopefully) completed our quest and there will never be a correct answer. The strict definition is from the British Golf Museum:

1. The course must be beside a river estuary

2. It must offer partial or occasional views of the sea

3. It must have few trees

4. It must have numerous bunkers

5. It must have nines that run out and back, the front heading to a far point and the back returning to the clubhouse

Peper and Campbell defined their list as follows:

Terrain - how close is the course to the sea? Do the fairways run fast and hard? Do the greens favour a run-on approach? How open is the site? How natural? Is there a freedom from trees? Is the invasion of gorse and brush controlled? How light is the environmental footprint on the land?

Turf - is there a sand base? What grasses are dominant on the fairways and greens? Is the rough managed ( creating biodiversity for flora and fauna)? How well does the course drain?

Weather - how exposed is the site to the elements? What are the typical wind conditions? Does the course play hard and fast all year round? Must temporary greens and tees be used in winter? Is the course susceptible to winter closure?

Peper and Campbell included courses which supplied the correct answers to most of these questions. But however defined, to me the poem by Sir John Betjeman encapsulates the feeling of links golf.