London Trip Help!

[ramradhakri]

I will be in Cambridge for a conference in 2 weeks and I am extending my stay by a couple of days to play some golf. I will be staying in Canary Wharf area for the weekend. I would like to play some links style courses on Friday AM & Saturday (2 rounds) and looking for suggestions.

 

1) I will not have a car and will be using public transportation.

 

2) I don't have my clubs and need rentals or if any wrx's can hook me up that would be much appreciated. I can bring you golf stuff from the US to reciprocate..

 

For Saturday I am thinking about 36 holes at the Royal St George's golf club even thou it appears to be pricey. Do they have rental clubs? I am not able to get that info from their website.

 

I am also looking at playing 9 holes in the evening near Cambridge if there are any good spots. Again, no car and will need clubs.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

I may be wrong but I'd be very surprised if there are visitor times at Royal St. Georges on a Saturday.

The best 9-hole golf course in England, arguably in the world, is about 20-25 miles from Cambridge. Royal Worlington & Newmarket. I do believe they offer rental clubs but getting there from Cambridge without a rental car will be daunting.

Playing at Sandwich aside (which I could not more highly recommend if you can get on, say, on a Friday), do you realize that links courses (meaning actual links) are all located a minimum of 2 hours away from Canary Wharf? There is train service from various London stations in various directions that will get you to a links but quite a long journey there and back in a day.

There should be frequent trains from London Bridge station (LBG) to Sandwich and Deal. Between those two towns you have three genuine links course. Royal St. Georges and Princes are side-by-side just outside Sandwich (and Princes maybe, must maybe will let you play on a Saturday, call and check now) and Royal Cinque Ports in Deal (no Saturday visitor times).

The best plan I can put forward to meet your requirements is to contact Princes Golf Club, Sandwich about Saturday visitor times. If available, catch a train from London Bridge out to Sandwich then taxi to the course (10-15 minutes) and play there. For Friday if you're very lucky Royal St. Georges might have a visitor time available in which case, same basic plan. Alternative would be Royal Cinque Ports in Deal for Friday (once again you'd be lucky to play there, excellent links course).

If you want to stay around London (i.e. inland) then Saturday will be a probably no-go almost anywhere but a generic pay-and-play. Remote possibility of The Addington, a very quirky course which years ago (last I checked) did offer some visitor times on Saturdays. For the Friday you may be able to get on one of the "Stockbroker Belt" courses out in Surrey or Berks. Call ASAP and see. These are not links but some of them are genuine heathland courses. For instance Walton Heath (36 holes, the Old and New courses) is a heathland course with turf as good as some links courses. One of the best inland courses you'll ever see. All of the Berkshire/Surrey privates, if you can get a tee time, will be very pricey. As will playing at Sandwich or Deal for that matter.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

P.S. Here's a concrete suggestion. Call Princes Golf Club (or E-mail but you'll get them on the phone quicker) and see if any times are available for your Saturday. The green fee is 90 pounds for the day, play more than 18 if possible (it's a 27-hole course BTW). The train leaves London Bridge station every hour and takes about 2 hours, 17 minutes each way to Sandwich (no train changes on that route, direct). Cost is about 32 pounds each way. Taxi from the train station to the course will take 15 minutes and cost about 15 pounds, each way.

Princes is as linksy as can be, it will kick your butt if the wind is up but like many links courses is VERY playable if you catch a calm or light-breeze day. Breakfast or lunch in the clubhouse is decent and affordable. Ocean views from about half the holes on the course. At one point you will be separated from Royal St. Georges by a white wooden fence and a few yards of rough. Pretty cool.

[ramradhakri]

Thanks Fourmyle for all the suggestions. This is extremely helpful. I will give St George's and Princes Golf Club a call and inquire about Saturday tee times. I did come across [color=#282828]Royal Worlington & Newmarket when I was looking up courses to play near Cambridge and it is on top of my list. Maybe I will run into someone at the conference that has a car and wants to play a round there.[/color]

[color="#282828"]What other inland courses do you recommend in London. The pay and play courses as you referred them. Worst case, I'd rather play at a nondescript course than not be golfing.[/color][color=#282828]T[/color]

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

Sorry, no knowledge to share on that one. Maybe some of the locals will chime in and help you out. My golf in England is always 5-10 day hit and run visits and I've stuck to pretty much the private club side. The closest in to London I've played was Walton Heath.

FWIW, I've found Royal St. Georges to respond fairly quickly to E-mails (day or two) but suspect that Princes may be best to send them an E-mail then following up with a phone call if you don't hear back fairly quickly. It's a much higher-volume operation and I suspect they are more response to a phone ringing than to E-mail in the inbox, if you know what I mean.

[67VIP]

[quote name='ATXgolfer ' timestamp='1375890646' post='7624168']
Thanks Fourmyle for all the suggestions. This is extremely helpful. I will give St George's and Princes Golf Club a call and inquire about Saturday tee times. I did come across [color=#282828]Royal Worlington & Newmarket when I was looking up courses to play near Cambridge and it is on top of my list. Maybe I will run into someone at the conference that has a car and wants to play a round there.[/color]

[color=#282828]What other inland courses do you recommend in London. The pay and play courses as you referred them. Worst case, I'd rather play at a nondescript course than not be golfing.[/color][color=#282828]T[/color]
[/quote]
Sunningdale would be the best bet in London, two of the finest heathland courses in the UK! Another thought might be Woburn, which is not that far from Cambridge. Only club in the UK with three courses ranked in the top 100.

[ramradhakri]

67VIP, Thanks for the recommendations. I will see if they can accomodate a weekend tee time, but I have not been able to find anything so far. Also, the green fee's are a bit of a shock to be honest. I am used to pay $100-$150 to play the top courses in my area. And I can usually get deals to play them for $25. I did not realize that we had it so good here in the US.. cheap golf at quality courses.

Anyone have recommendations for cheap courses in the London near Canary Wharf area that I can play on the weekend?

[67VIP]

The weekends will be more expensive and restrictive as far as access, Saturdays especially. The neat thing about golf over here is that you can get on practically any big name course...if you have the patience to work it out. There are no Augusta National or Cypress Points here...Muirfield, Royal St George, Sunningdale all have visitor days and are basically a phone call away. Some will be harder than others, but nothing is out of reach if you plan it out. For cheaper green fees here you'll need to play in the afternoon at 3 pm or later, try www.teeofftimes.co.uk, it works the same as Golf Now in the states. The best rates will be on a weekday after 3-4 pm. A really good course to play in Cambridge is Gog Magog, they have two courses there...the Old Course is awesome and you could get on after 3 pm for 25 pounds, no tee time required. A superb links course you could play on a Saturday afternoon that is about 2 hrs from Cambridge is Royal Cromer and you can get on there any day of the week. The full rate is 65 pounds (well worth it), but they also have twilight rates starting at 3-4pm as well.

[url="http://www.gogmagog.co.uk/Home.aspx"]http://www.gogmagog.co.uk/Home.aspx[/url]

[url="http://www.royalcromergolfclub.com/pages.php/index.html"]http://www.royalcromergolfclub.com/pages.php/index.html[/url]

[ramradhakri]

It appears I am living 2 mi from Gog Magog and walked there this evening, but the pro shop was closed for the evening. I will try to get on Friday morning, if they have tee times for visitors. Is anyone a member there and can help me got on Friday morning? I need to be back in London by 3pm. Hope someone here is a member and can help out. Cheers!

[sheldonjhacker]

Stoke Park