Wentworth & The Grove

I was lucky enough to be a last minute substitute at the annual match between John West and Tesco, and I flew down to London for a couple of days of magnificent corporate hospitality. On Wednesday, we played The Grove (http://www.thegrove.co.uk/golf/golf.aspx), a magnificent course in Hertfordshire, where they held one of the World Golf Championships a couple of years ago - naturally, Tiger won the event and his feat is commemorated with a plaque on the 9th hole, an uphill par 5, which he managed to eagle on all 4 rounds!

The clubhouse, changing rooms and spa are located in a quadrangular block, modestly titled The Stables:


Golf at the Grove can currently be booked online for the "special price" of £110 per round. The greens were absolutely magnificent and scary, and the tees could easily have been putting surfaces as well.

After golf, we drove south and stayed overnight in Surrey, not far from Wentworth at a magnificent resort called Pennyhill Park (http://www.pennyhillpark.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE_HOTELS/the_hotel.aspx). After dinner in a private dining room, we retired to bed to be fresh for the morning's challenge on the famous West course at Wentworth. This was the 1st tee with the statue of Bernard Gallacher in front of the frankly rather faux fortress clubhouse:


It was a delightful crisp autumn morning and I had to get snapped beside Bernard:

In case you're wondering why Bernard Gallacher is held in such reverence at Wentworth, his association with the club was as Professional there from 1975 when he was already a Ryder Cup player, going on to lead Europe to victory in that tournament as captain from 1991 to 1995.

Our non-playing host from John West is on the left, next to 2 senior Tesco executives and a marketing guy from John West, who I partnered as we beat Tesco on the last hole with both of us getting easy par 5's:

Some of the houses on the Wentworth estate are amazing - tasteful and some quite old with original thatched roofs etc, and virtually all are fairly well hidden by the vast arrays of mature trees. However, there are exceptions, viz:

It's well known that a lot of the top golfers have homes on the estate, including Ernie, Monty and Faldo - I can't imagine any of their homes are as gaudy and open to view as the above example.

I was very fortunate to do my David Fairclough and get the opportunity to play a course that has been on my wish list for many years. It was a great experience. We had breakfast and lunch there as well and the clubhouse is much nicer inside than its slightly gaudy exterior. They are also doing special deals - a fourball can be got for as little as £1,100 just now!