Wallasey

What a contrast these three courses have been; from Leasowe’s Klopp Dog, to Bobby Jones’s silverware, and this course which more than keeps up with the Jones’.

It is, unashamedly, my kind of links; Eddie Hackett would have been at home here.  Lashings of wild and hilly links with unkempt marram grass, cascading contours and natural obstacles imaginatively woven together by an invisible hand.  I don’t mind the odd bastard if that is what nature intended, it is the sadism of man that bothers me.  It is unsurprising that a member here should come up with, and give his name to a more equitable scoring system that allows the odd moment of mortal golf in a round, without being doomed to eternal damnation.  Well done Dr Frank Stableford.   Amongst these dunes an early disaster could condemn a round, your day, your week or the purgatory until your next round’s redemption.  How many players has the good Dr saved from themselves, how many marriages, how many wagers have lingered on?

There is drama here, not just for the cameras, but in the switchback ride.  A fierce wind meant that the first and last par 3s set me on the edge of my irons and my woods.  There are echoes of the The Jump at Co Sligo or a couple of the drives at Connemara.  Wisps of memory from Belmullet came into view.  I can offer no greater compliment.  There are doglegs in every direction, punchbowls, raised greens, spiralling fairways and formidable lashes required uphill or across the wind.  The eighteenth is one of just many set beautifully in the hillocks with a distant prospect of the clubhouse along a crumpled fairway pinched with a corset of mounds; to find that tiny waist and a view of the green was as miraculous as it was joyful.

It’s length is not it’s determining factor but it is the variety of shot making that sets it apart.  What a great qualifying course for the Open.  Anyone who enjoys the challenge and plays well here is set up for the week and will probably look back more favourably on Wallasey

And for the record Dr Frank I had 35 points with two blobs of perdition.

Seagull’s view.        30/36

Greens & bunkers.   16/18

Links appeal            16/18

Total                        62/72