Organised by Simon B, 12 of us headed down to Bournemouth on Saturday morning for a 3-day trip to play Remedy Oak, Parkstone Golf Club and Broadstone Golf Club. These are 3 top courses, all rated highly in the Golf 100 top courses of the UK and as expected, each had a different feel and golf experience. Isle of Purbeck and Ferndown are two other well known courses in the area – perhaps next time. We all were surely going to have a fantastic 3 days of golf… helped by fantastic weather and of course staying in a hotel just minutes from the centre of Bournemouth.
Day 1 – Remedy Oak
Delayed slightly by traffic, Jaggsy and I still made it in time to stuff our faces in the very nice clubhouse before meeting the others and heading out to the first tee. A seriously good course, very well looked after given the hot weather and well setup for societies like us. Little things like a nice welcome at the clubhouse, being met on the tee by the starter, and a ‘welcome pack’ of tees, ball marker and course guides… they all really do make a difference.
Short par4 18th sharp dogleg right at Remedy Oak to a narrow green over water
Jaggsy and I took on Phil and Ritchie in the last group. Richie started like a train with putts dropping everywhere… and if he wasn’t doing the business, Phil was driving extremely well and before you knew it we were 4 down after 5.
Approach to the downhill par5 2nd at Remedy Oak. Water on 3 sides, no margin for error.
Weather was steaming hot as usual but the course stood up very well. If memory serves we managed to nick a couple before the turn and were 2down on the 10th. Jaggsy had some cracking holes on the back nine and we found ourselves dormie2 up and secured the win in our match with a half on the 17th.
Ritchie and Phil at the 225 yard long par3 4th at Remedy Oak
Ritchie came in with an impressive 34 points for the day’s win, with Brian C and myself 2 behind on 32. A great opening course for the trip. Finishing drinks we drove down into Bournemouth, for a quick change before heading out for drinks and food.
Post match drinks at Remedy Oak
Day 2 – Parkstone
I’d heard a lot about all 3 courses, Mark Crossfield producing YouTube course blogs on these and others in the area… but Parkstone was one I’d marked out for myself. Quality golf course. All par3’s across all courses were very special and Parkstone had several you’d go ‘wow’ at. We were doing that a lot over the 3 courses.
Parkstone (and Broadstone) are long established “members” clubs with Parkstone known for having Peter Aliss as a club pro for many years following his father I think. There weren’t the visitor bells and whistles perhaps like Remedy Oak but it did have a fantastic golf course, though playing very, very firm on the day. Maybe the irrigation not as effective as a modern course, there were quite a few hard bounces to deal with, and more than one blind tee shot in those conditions in and around the heathland layout to figure out.
View from the clubhouse of the first hole… running from back right of the picture up to the short, well protected par4 first. Another v steamy day.
Jaggsy and I faced up against Phil and Ritchie again and the previous days’ pattern seemed to repeat itself with Ritchie holing putts and Phil’s driving being very solid. From going down again early on, I nicked a chipped in eagle followed by birdie and before we knew it we were all square at the turn before Mr Jaggs jumped in and we found ourselves dormie2 up once again. A half on the long winding par5 17th and we had gotten out of the fire again for the win.
Walking down from the tee on the cracking 18th at Parkstone, a 180 odd yards par3 with the clubhouse in the background. Matt and Ritchie on the right.
Another superb course, not playing long (plus we were asked to play off the yellows), but weather was again hot n’ steamy. As groups all came in and we cooled down with drinks, Barry was the runaway winner on the day with an extremely impressive 39, Ritchie in 2nd with 35, Simon B and myself with 34.
All weary after a 2nd day in the sun, it was only a short journey back to the hotel to then endure some awful service at a pizza restaurant in the evening… at least the beers and g&t’s were plentiful.
Day 3 – Broadstone
Day 3 and on paper at least, Broadstone was possibly the highest ‘rated’. How its done exactly (course, facilities, welcome etc), was unclear to us but really nothing to split them all. Parkstone and Broadstone are certainly out of the top drawer of heathland courses in the south. Again, presentation of the course was fantastic… more firm fairways to deal with but we were off the whites which rewarded the required straight shots, and usually punished the more wayward shots which seemed to run on and on and on into the longer stuff.
Overlooking par4 18th green at Broadstone
Day started overcast if still very warm and sticky… and the back nine saw the familiar sun come and heat us up even more.
Ritchie, Barry, Simon and I were out in the last group and all enjoyed the challenging course. If anyone wants to play a challenging stroke index 1, then please play Broadstone’s tricky par4 – hit a semi blind uphill tee shot to a cambered firm fairway before hitting something very long over a valley with a massive maze-like bunker system protecting the green.
Simon, Barry and Ritchie with the short downhill par4 3rd at Broadstone
Barry and I couldn’t get near the impressively dovetailing Ritchie and Simon… I think we got it briefly back to level at one point before they broke away and was on the receiving end of dormie2 before Simon decided to smash a long straight, bouncing drive 330yards down the 17th fairway before chipping on and holing the birdie. Job done for them.
Sweeping 17th at Broadstone, end of another long day
More tired heads dragged themselves off the course, and final drinks saw totals added for the day with Mr Macve recording 32 points for the day’s win, pipping a resurgent Mr Adams by 1point. Before we headed back to London, there was time for Simon to add up each day’s score and confirm Ritchie as the overall tour winner. Well done Mr Blake.
Finally, big thanks to Simon for his organising of the tour, all managed directly with the courses and hotels. Really recommend anyone thinking of a trip away to consider Bournemouth… these three are not the cheapest courses but each just ooze class and quality.
Final tour scores
|
Remedy Oak
|
Parkstone
|
Broadstone
|
TOTAL
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richie |
34
|
35
|
27
|
96
|
| Hew |
32
|
34
|
28
|
94
|
| Philip |
28
|
32
|
32
|
92
|
| Simon |
28
|
34
|
27
|
89
|
| James |
29
|
30
|
29
|
88
|
| Barry |
25
|
39
|
24
|
88
|
| Brian |
32
|
28
|
22
|
82
|
| Mark |
19
|
34
|
28
|
81
|
| John |
20
|
35
|
23
|
78
|
| Matt S |
24
|
23
|
26
|
73
|
| Graham |
25
|
16
|
31
|
72
|
| Matt J |
25
|
28
|
18
|
71
|
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