229 - Royal West Norfolk Golf Club

Location: Brancaster, England

Rating: 7.8

Royal West Norfolk was the second stop on our trip of Norfolk and the most highly rated on our agenda being rated as one of the top 20 in England. From the outset of booking a tee time it was clear that this is a club steeped in tradition, a 2 ball only course was something that I had yet to come across.

Upon arrival and after checking in at the quaint little pro shop, we were guided towards the club house, an old fashioned bar, littered with plaques and memorabilia from years gone by. A short walk across the entrance to the beach and you reach a war memorial in the form of a gate, honoring members who died during the war.

After hitting the range, hitting a few balls off the grass area and practising our short game we headed onto the course.

The course starts fairly gently, a 370 meter par 4 that bends to the left but shares its fairway with the 18th hole. Another shared fairway features on the 2nd hole before separating from the back 9 and working its way out on this marshland terrain. The 4th is one of the more iconic holes on the course, a short par 3 at 115 meters but with a raised green, protected with a steep drop off at the front and wooden sleepers dropping down to a batch of bunkers waiting to swallow your ball.

The 5th provides a blind tee shot over large mounds but with the rough cut right down there’s plenty of opportunity to miss. One of the most intriguing holes on the course is the par 5 8th, the stroke index 1. A hole that in the summer time would play completely different to the winter time. Utilising two strips of fairway, running at an angle where the further to the right you go the further away the fairway gets. These two strips are divided by two strips of parallel marshland that in the peak of summer are bone dry but would be filled with water in the months proceeding and requiring much more thought into each shot. The 14th has another really cool feature of a huge drop in the fairway, to a raised plateau in front of the green.

Unfortunately I felt the course was in quite poor condition, starting with the 1st green but was patchy at best. I appreciate this is a very dry period of the year but for such a prestigious course you’d expect it to be much better looked after. The fun, quirky, unique holes do mask the conditioning of the course but it was still disappointing for a considerable green fee.

After your round be sure to grab a drink and head upstairs for some very scenic views of the Norfolk coastline!