The Grove – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• Plan for the full experience, this is not just 18 holes of golf – the practice facilities are second to none, the catering options and availability (pre, during and post round) are all excellent, and the concierge service will make you feel like a tour pro for a day!
• The 1st is a relatively gentle opener – iron can be played to the corner of the dogleg or there is a reasonable amount of room left for the longer hitter that wants to take on the corner with driver. The second shot is the one the counts however, whether played from 50 or 150 yards, as the domed green has run-offs in all directions.

Signature Holes

• 4th – a good, testing par 3 early in the round, where club selection is key. The babbling brook across the front of the green, coupled with the shallowness of the putting surface with significant run-offs at the rear, make this a challenging approach where 3 is a great score.
• 13th – another par 3 but very different in nature. Played significantly downhill to a green that sits diagonally running left and away from you. The carry to the left green is long and fraught with danger, so the safe play is to aim for the right front corner of the green in order to run it in from there.

Review:

If we were to rank golf clubs for overall experience, facilities and the ‘premium’ feel, then surely The Grove would finish at the very top, but beyond the American-style pomp lies a very strong golf course that is great fun to play.

Sitting strategically just outside London is surely the UK’s premier golfing resort, in terms of premium service and overall golfer experience. The Grove is a club that emanates the polished US resort style – concierge on arrival, cart paths throughout, and every possible additional service that one might imagine for the high-rollers that escape the City for a weekend round or corporate hospitality day.

We are here, however, to focus on the golf course, and this is a round that is worthy of its place within the English Top 100. Characterised by sloping grounds, particularly around the greens where there are tricky run-offs for the ill-fated shot, the course winds itself around the spacious grounds of the hotel and offers an opportunity for shot-makers the navigate deep wispy rough, copious bunkering and water hazards.

After the gentle first hole there are two strong par 4s played down and around the hill descending from the hotel and clubhouse, with the 3rd and 4th two excellent holes with water featuring in and around the greens. Clever bunker placement is evident on most holes, particularly on driver distance as seen on the 5th and par-5 6th hole, so there is generally a side to favour on each tee shot which can provide you with the best chance of an approach from the fairway and a better chance of holding some excellent fast sloping greens with run-offs a plenty.

The front nine is a consistent yet varied test, finishing with the long par 5 9th which houses a small placard noting Tiger Woods’ feat of eagling the hole 3 days in a row en-route to winning the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship

The back nine starts with a slightly odd hole played around a very sharp dogleg left, perhaps feeling a touch squeezed in to a wooded area on the corner, but quickly you return back to the same open feeling of traversing the grounds with pristine fairways and green complexes guarded by deep rough and strategic bunkering. If you are playing well then its great fun to be hitting shots seeking to find the right ‘miss’ or to use the slopes to find your target, but I can imagine it could be a slog if you are not having a good day.

The back nine is perhaps not as memorable in general, the downhill par 3 13th aside, but the final two holes are longer and run along the side of a hill back down to the clubhouse and surrounding facilities providing a strong, attractive finish to the round.

I can completely understand golfing purists baulking at the resort vibe and pomp, and the view that perhaps the first class facilities do not necessarily match up to the course quality and ranking, but the course itself is very much worthy and a thoroughly enjoyable test in its own right.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 77th (England)
• Golfer View Rating: 76%

https://www.thegrove.co.uk/golf/golf-course/

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