Sherwood Forest Golf Club

I have played this course now about 20 times and always look forward to the test as its a real golf course that offers in spades. Often captured in the golf mags Top 100 lists for the UK it's easy to see why. Standing on the first tee on a beautiful summers day it's easy to forget you're here for a game of golf and not just here to admire the incredible colours the flora and fauna can throw at you.

It's pretty much immaculate all year round as you'd expect of a course so highly rated but in the height of summer when prepared for some of the high ranking tournaments it holds it's wonderful and the greens are some of the best anywhere. Missing the fairways might not look too treacherous but if you've missed the bracken, that just seems to swallow errant balls up, it's highly likely you're in amongst the whispy stuff that grips the club like no tomorrow. Don't be too brave, rather a longer fairway iron than a short chip out of that stuff any day.

Once you've made your way through the relatively easy half dozen opening holes it just seems to get tougher and tougher culminating in its own little Amen Corner of the 11th round to the 14th which if you can come out of level par or better then give yourself a pat on the back. Even if you've hit 2 good long straight 250 yd drives on 13 and 14 you can still be left with anything between 170 - 230 yds for your 2nd approach depending on if you're on whites or yellows and if the wind is up. I would love to play the blues here, what a test they must be.

All in all its just a charm, the members always seem to be friendly and it's very deserving of its Top 100 status and with its recent smashing improvements its ranking is only going to drop lower and lower. Many would suggest it should comfortably be in the top 50 as it has many fans.