One of the pleasures of working in golf is the connections you make, often with people whose moves to fairways new takes you on that journey with them. I am lucky enough to receive many golfing invitations, and during the Winter I spotted three that would combine very well on a short trip away. Yorkshire has more courses than any county, and despite playing most of the big names over the years such as the Golf Monthly Top 100 favourites at Alwoodley, Ganton and Moortown, there are still huge gaps in my golfing CV.
Hebden Bridge
The fifth at Hebden Bridge with the third green just beyond and Stoodley Pike monument on the horizon
(Image credit: Rob Smith)
My first game took me up an exceedingly pretty hill to Hebden Bridge for a game with Jim Mosley, a university friend of Golf Monthly’s former editor Mike Harris. Jim helps with the marketing at this member-run club where Craig, their one-man greenkeeping team and only full-time employee, presents a course in remarkable condition. With occasional help from one or two members, he should be very proud of what has been achieved on this outrageously scenic 9-holer.
Rob, flanked by greenkeeper Craig and one of the volunteer members
(Image credit: Rob Smith)
Despite the vertiginous setting, it’s a relatively easy walk, and its nine holes include two real crackers; the opening par 4 which rolls its way to a green that’s hard to hit ,and the par-3 8th which is at the highest point of one of the most elevated courses in the country.
Looking back over the seventh green
(Image credit: Rob Smith)
The views to 270 degrees around the course are genuinely breathtaking and I would have happily stopped here all day had it not been time to head off to my second port of call.
Otley
The green on the par-4 eleventh at Otley
(Image credit: Otley Golf Club)
I had been invited to Otley by their manager, Mark Moore, a PGA Advanced Professional with whom I had liaised when he was at his previous club. Joining him for a spot of lunch before playing, he told me about the changes happening on and off the course at this bustling and very friendly club. Suitably refreshed, we headed out onto the parkland design which is known for its opening handful of distinctive and demanding holes which include stroke index 1, 3 and 5, as well as two strong and testing par 3s.
(Image credit: Otley Golf Club)
Keep your score going here, as Mark did and I didn’t, and you are on for a good round. A pair of very pretty streams, or becks, come…
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