Great Golf Green Fee Deals

I have long wanted to combine my golf posting with a beer theme and as last I have found the perfect excuse. As a golfer how could I resist sampling a beer called Old Hooky? And when it turned out to be particularly flavoursome brew a new series of blog posts is to begin.
The idea is that I will identify a nice ale (or cider!) link it in with the brewers themselves and point golfers to a golf course near to the brewery.
To organise a days golf with a brewery trip and a few sherbets included would be a very civilised carry on indeed.

Old Hooky is just one of the real ales brewed by Hook Norton Brewery, Oxon, they have 47 pubs with a visitor centre and museum that is open to the public.
Hook Norton brew a range of core beers throughout the year and then seasonal ales and commemorative special brews.
Old Hooky is 4.6% ABV, was Gold Medal winner at The International Beer Challenge in 2009 and the brewers themselves describe it as “A beautifully beautifully balanced beer, fruity by nature, with a well-rounded body and the suggestive echo of Crystal Malt.”!!

Located only 4 miles from the brewery is Tadmarton Heath Golf Club and with a clubhouse that looks like this it is surely irresistible. *

The course itself sounds a delight too, The Times Guide to Golf Courses of Britain & Ireland describing it in glowing terms, “Tadmarton is for the traditionalist, for whom finesse is of greater importance than power…….plotting a way through holes…….which gives the connoisseur particular satisfaction.”

In the days of bomb & gouge this sounds an idyllic throwback to golfing days of old.
Donald Steel the renowned golf architect and writer has provided an evocative introduction to the course and if that doesn’t invoke a desire to look up Tadmarton Heath then you have no golfing soul

* I hope Tadmarton Heath GC does not object to my use of the photo of it’s clubhouse but if so I’ll happily remove it from the post.

Like many golfers I started to play the game on a municipal golf course near where I live and I have posted here before about how pleased I am at my
local authority’s (Leeds City Council) commitment to golf.
In the early 1970’s a round of golf at Gotts Park cost 15p which was incredible value particularly as we used to sneak around the back of the clubhouse and play three rounds in the day!
It is a very short undulating course that suffers from all the usual muni problems and rejoices in the informal name of “Royal Gotts”. Unusually though, for a municipal golf course the greens are good, Leeds CC seem to train their Park Department staff there so the course is quite tidy.
 
Back in the 70’s it was not unusual to find kids playing in bunkers, your ball mysteriously disappearing and on one memorable occasion a family picnicing on the first tee!
Gotts Park in those days had a wonderful pro who seemed to have a deal with Slazenger when it was a top brand to sell their “seconds” clubs and many a bargain was to be found, I once picked up a Seve Ballesteros 1 iron from there that was an absolute beast of a club.
Obviously, the pro sold all the usual stuff including an own label golf ball called a “Gotts Flyer” which whilst cheap wasn’t particularly cheerful because they only flew about half the distance of a normal ball and lumps quite frequently came off them!
Years later I dropped into Gotts and was reminiscing with the pro particularly about the Gotts Flyer and he told me I shouldn’t laugh because one of those had once been recovered from a lake on the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club!

Have you seen our Free customisable (is that a word? guide to all the Major winners and golf courses that have held Majors? Further details here!