Cleveland Golf Club

This is one of those hidden gems I hope to find but rarely do. The course is on the edge of Redcar in glorious links land that sits below the town and the old steel works.  A number of the holes are navigated by the church tower whilst others are aligned to the conveyor towers.  An appropriate division of work and life.  I find these industrial towers rather magnificent and a reminder that we owe our leisure to the hours of labour and that both can be enjoyed for their stature and raw power.

It seemed appropriate to play this course in the company of an ex-ICI man and a Mental Health expert.  The former had broken through from the shop floor to management and seen the plant expand and then broken up, like the landscape behind us.  Whilst the latter had been dealing with the consequences of the more recent fractures in society during lockdown.  But both were hopeful for the prospects of Teesside; it’s commitment to new energy and the energy of it’s people.

An early start increases the definition, provided by the lower light, of the humps and hollows.  The first few holes push out under the embankment towards the steel works with wild grasses determining the fairways and greens lying askance the approaches.  The course doubles back and out getting closer to the sea and the beach. There are two great par 3s on the front nine

Ten is a classic par 4 with a tee shot at an angle to the fairway and lovely rumpled land before the green as you head back towards the church, two doglegs follow and 13; ‘Dunes’ is as far as the original course went towards the sea but three ‘new’ holes were added which are beautifully constructed.  The first is stroke index one asking for a drive across the corner of the fairway and a long second to a raised green with very narrow shoulders.  A great hole in benign conditions encapsulating so many characteristics of a links hole but a bit of a bastard with the wind up.  The next is a competition level par 3 in a sea of dunes and 16 is a beautifully crafted par 4.  A feral bank curves like a banana on the very edge of the fairway and the ideal line.  In it’s grasses lie golfing magnets drawing every ball towards its voracious jaws.  Brilliantly conceived and executed design from simple natural features. 

 I like to think that the last is pure Tom Morris with it’s banking and rawness.  A good hole to finish.  If this course was more accessible it’s qualities would be hosanna’d to the world.  The only weakness if you want one is the opening hole.  I believe it was fitted in because, originally, there were holes on the other side of the road which cannot, now, be accommodated.  This is millionaires golf at under £40 a round.  The best value I have come across.  

I loved meeting my playing partners who forgave my golfing indiscretions and shared in my triumphs.  The club let me pay my green fee to Alzheimer’s Society for which many thanks