Haywards Heath Golf Club

Played on 7th July as part of our Captain's Away Day. 9 holes in the morning followed by full 18 in the afternoon. In no particular order....clearly a club with some history and a charming club house to match. The Pro Shop & Junior's Club Room let it down a bit but the main building is very welcoming and the changing & shower facilities are good.

Staff were excellent and the food was great - good quality, good value and served on time. The members we came across were all very friendly as well.

As for the course, it is nearly very good. The total area seems very compact but most of the time you are unaware of the other fairways. The condition of tee boxes, fairways, greens and general areas was very good, although after a couple of torrential showers some of the fairways retained rather a lot of water so maybe it is a problem in the winter?

The front nine opens up with 7 par 4s ranging from 400 to 290 off the yellows, so some have a drive option for big hitters. Lots os elevation changes and valleys with dead ground to hit over as well. The finish is a short par 3 with a huge valley to cover, a dog leg par 5 and a closing par 3, again with lots of dead ground.

Its on the back nine that it loses a bit of spark. After a strong uphill 190yd par 3, there are 2 par 4s and a par 5 that run alongside one another - down, up, down. As individual holes they are good - two atre stroke 1 and 3, but somehow they make the course look open and a bit too park land in comparison to the rest of the course. After that there are three more adjacent holes which don't seem so joined together (4,4,5) before two good closing holes, a 200yd down hill par 3 and a very narrow par 4 with the green fronted by a huge bunker.

I think that some of the other reviewers have been overly harsh with the "flags in a field" comment, the course is very well established and has been around since 1922. I can slightly see their point, but the course is more than that and offers a good test for mid range handicappers. Low hitting low handicap guys will probably find it a bit short (although there are tight areas to penalise them).