Bramshaw (Manor) – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• This club has been long established within the New Forest, so with that comes a quaint, minimalist feeling club – the practice facilities mirror this feeling, so hitting the ball into a net is the extent of any long shots you will be afforded before starting your round.
• The pines encroaching from the right on the par 5 5th means that only a very long player, probably shaping a long iron or fairway wood left to right from the left fairway, can access the green with their second shot. The obvious sensible play for mere mortals is to play left of the copse of trees with your second, leaving a nice wedge yardage into the tiered green.
• The 18th is a curious finishing hole, and the shape of it should not be underestimated. The fairway banks heavily towards the apex of the dogleg left, so ensure that you play far enough beyond the corner so that your second is not blocked out.

Signature Holes

• 11th – a fine par 4, with the tee shot played from an elevated tee down enshrouded in forest down to a fairway that sweeps left, with fruit trees dotted on the right but denser forestry sitting left of the ditch running along the left hand side.
• 17th – another very strong par 4, and would perhaps be a better finisher than the 18th itself. A downhill hole that gently snakes around a water hazard on the right, with a nice approach to green guarded by two bunkers left but framed by the dense trees that run down the left and around the back of the putting surface.

Review:

An enjoyable course set harmoniously within the beautiful New Forest, the Manor course at Bramshaw is a worthy addition to the older Forest loop, and one that also feels that it belongs and works with the landscape well.

Bramshaw (Manor) starts with a few relatively straight forward holes in more open surroundings, but after the simple but picturesque par 3 4th hole the course really hits its stride, with many holes that are curated nicely within the denser sprawling forest, starting with a really good par 5 5th which banks almost 90 degrees around a copse of pine trees. Many of the subsequent holes possess the requirement to plot yourself around many dog-legs with approach shots into well-guarded greens with excellent putting surfaces throughout.

If you are playing well, with decent control over your tee shots and mid irons, then the course is scoreable, but there are pitfalls on all holes so it’s a great balance between playability and golfing strategy which suits all abilities.

Having read that the course struggles in the wet, which perhaps surprised me given the general terrain in the New Forest, I was pleasantly surprised by the condition after a particularly damp week in late September. It appears some drainage has been added, made a feature as it snakes along the fairway on the tough par 4 6th hole, and generally the condition of the course was above par for a course of this nature and ranking.

There is a limitation on the course given the relatively small plot and requirement to meander through the forest, so it leapfrogging higher in the rankings would probably require some really well thought out course landscaping and hole development, but it’s a fun day out and the historic nature of the club and its location make it a very pleasant trip.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 14th (Hampshire)
• Golfer View Rating: 61%

Homepage

Back to Reviews