Effingham Golf Club is an outstanding place to visit
When you have a traditional members’ golf club situated in the heart of Surrey countryside, there is a fine line between preserving traditions and adapting to the modern age. Few clubs have got this balance exactly right, but at Effingham Golf Club they are making great strides and are as good as any at this precarious balancing act.
The clubhouse is a classic adaption of a Georgian mansion now offering a beautiful mix of traditional interiors and elegant open-plan function rooms. The clubhouse spills effortlessly onto an elegant patio with excellent views onto the 18th green and further back down the final fairway. It is an ideal place to enjoy food and drink after a good round of golf. The food is delicious and great wines and cask ales are perfectly kept for the benefit of the members and visitors. Customer service is of the highest standard and this is not in any way limited to the members.
Recently the members decided to seriously enhance their practice facilities with a new and superb short game area. Golf Features was invited along to see the impressive design, comprising of twelve practice zones, sloping chipping and putting greens along with two bunkers. The short game area at Effingham is also very pretty and provides a welcome calling card for those visiting for the first time and underlines the quality of the facility.
No expense has been spared: including the construction of the path that connects the zones with the first and tenth tees, which is made from wet pour rubber - a nice touch. The whole area nestles very conveniently for golfers so there is a great flow from the car park, via the practice area to the tees, with areas of wild flowers as a very pretty and environmental backdrop. The greenkeepers have made a stunning job of nurturing the whole area, with the chipping greens being nicely receptive, if a little tricky due to the steep slopes.
A really special short game area will always be very popular with golfers. This applies to the finest players and the newest converts to the game. It is great fun learning, improving and fine tuning your short game in an exceptional setting. In order to get the most from a short game area, it is vital that the greenkeeping team are fully on board: putting greens and short game areas must be cut to precisely the same exacting standards as the course and before the greens on the course are cut. When you realise that 90% of people want to practise before they play this becomes completely obvious, but it is very important to ensure that these areas are cut in advance of the greens on the course.
The average tour professional spends at least 65% of their time working on the short game and normally just under the third working on their long game. This makes complete sense, so clubs and courses with superb short game areas are going to benefit hugely in terms of improving their players’ enjoyment and their standard of their play.
Maintenance of these areas is vitally important, but the opportunity for practice in a great setting should not be missed. In addition, golfers can learn new techniques for reducing their scores by having lessons in and around these areas. Bunker shots are relatively easy once you’ve learnt the basics properly, but I am amazed by the number of people who look like they’re trying to kill their golf ball as they try to escape from a bunker; they have no idea of the concept of how to hit from the sand. These techniques can be easily learnt and golfers will be happier and better once this art has been at least partially mastered.
In addition to the construction of the short game area, Effingham has a new general manager in Jonathan Kaltner, who took over earlier this year, who is very excited about the new developments at the club. The new head professional, Jamie Debrou, is also making an excellent job of providing first class teaching to the members, guests and visitors and taking full advantage of the open golf range and the aforementioned wonderful short game area.
Several years ago, Effingham decided to reimagine the course and bring back the original architectural splendour that Harry Colt craved for this beautiful heathland venue back in 1926. Respected Tom MacKenzie also did a sterling job in re-imagining the cultural traditions, reshaping bunkers, clearing many trees and ensuring that the course was still able to be played as originally intended.
Mackenzie rebuilt the 5th and 18th greens, matching the style and feel of the previous greens, which have links-like swales and borrows across them. The run-off areas around the greens provide a little treachery for the slightly errant golfer. Playing any Colt course is good fun: playing Effingham, newly refreshed, but in tune with the original author, is a real treat.
The course itself is not particularly long, but provides an excellent challenge from either white or slightly shorter yellow tees and, for those who wish to stretch themselves, the back medal tees increase the length to 6800 yards and with that the difficulty considerably.
One of the great things about playing a mature course that has been built by a quality architect is that the bunkering has been designed to be most relevant, and best, from about 220 yards off the tee. This, of course, is ideal for most club golfers, and whilst these bunkers can be easily carried from the standard tees by tour players and top amateurs, the bunkering sets the hole up to look so appealing to the eye. Many golfers overlook this, or take it for granted, but the point is not lost on Mackenzie, who has spent a considerable amount of time and effort restructuring all of the bunkers to provide an excellent and fair test, but also the sort of traditional visual impact that Colt had in mind in the 1920s, when he first laid out the course at Effingham.
In addition to the bunkering adjustments, the course has also got a cleaner, more open feel to it, with many of the wooded areas being cut back to restore the course to its downland splendour.
The course is lightly undulating and gently rises to the top of the chalky anti-cline. The fairways are generous and wide, but long willowy, knee-high grass, offers a beautiful frame to most of the holes, but is also a card wrecking opportunity for those hitting well wide of the mark. Beautiful mature oaks, horse chestnuts and other fabulous trees, some many centuries old, are in abundance around this beautiful piece of scenic downland.
Since the course was first created the course in the 1920s, the club has hosted numerous prestigious events, including the regional qualifier for The Open Championship from 2006 to 2010. The club was also delighted to host the Southern Regional Qualifier for the English Men’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship, The Brabazon Trophy, in May 2014, and was selected to host the England Golf Senior Men’s County Championship Final in 2019.
Another recent innovative idea by the club has been to become one of the first courses to deploy robotic mowers. These mowers quietly get on with the job of striping fairways and grooming rough in a manner which cannot be bettered by man and machine in harness. More clubs will clearly follow their lead as the opportunity to safely cut fairways and rough robotically allows for huge savings in manpower as the greenkeeping team can then deploy their talents to grooming the greens and fine tuning the course. Not having to wait for golfers to stop hitting due to safety concerns is a major plus for robotic mowers. The latest mowers from AMS can precisely stripe the fairways using highly advanced GPS signals to ensure the precision of the cut.
They can also cut the rough, obviously to a different height, but with similar immaculate presentation with the rough carefully calibrated by the head greenkeeper to provide the optimum finish for golfers using the course. Effingham is a very well drained golf course, but one of the major advantages of using robotic mowers is the fact that they exert far less ground pressure than a traditional ride on mowers. This means that they can cut rut-free for far longer into the autumn and winter than traditional mowers - a real advantage on the shoulders of the season.
Having endured one of the wettest winters on record, Effingham has an enviable record for staying open through the winter: due to their wonderful chalky subsoil, the course drains perfectly throughout the year, so all year round hire is a great feature for those who prefer to play in a buggy, with an impressive fleet of Club Car buggies being available.
So, all in all, Effingham Golf Club is an outstanding place to visit and for the lucky members, they are fortunate to have a far-sighted management driving the club forward, whilst retaining its historic charm.
More details at: effinghamgolfclub.com