TOP 100

THE SEMInal HolE
THE 9TH AT
ROYAL WORLINGTON
By renowned architect Martin ebert.
The nine-hole course at Royal
Worlington & newmarket, the home of
the Cambridge University golf Club, has
often been hailed as the best nine-hole
course in the world.
Fitted onto an incredibly small
acreage, in many ways it typifies all that
is best about traditional golf and it takes
little more than an hour to play one
circuit.
Its final hole is a short par 4. It is
driveable by the very best players
(there are stories of Ted dexter, when
he was the Captain of Cambridge,
pitching it into the car park beyond the
green!) but, remarkably, the hole plays
across a public road – albeit a quiet
country lane.
The front of the green lies around 20
yards beyond the tarmac.
That adds to the danger, although
the out of bounds running diagonally
across the line of play to the right of the
hole and beyond the green is more
threatening.
For ordinary mortals, the bravery of
the drive will dictate the difculty level
of the second shot. The tighter to the
out of bounds on the right – which is
aligned along a small stream – the tee
shot ends up, the easier the pitch from
short of the road will be.
The nature of the green, with a steep
bank along its left hand side, means
that any drive pulled safely left but into
the rough will leave a devilishly
troublesome second with virtually no
hope of getting close to the flag when it
is on the left side of the green.
This wonderful short par-4 hole
provides a great definition of ‘risk and
reward’ for all standards of golfer.
■ Martin’s firm Mackenzie & Ebert are
the preferred architects of the R&A
and he is currently advising Royal
Troon ahead of next year’s Open, as
well as working on Turnberry’s Ailsa.
Top 100 england 2015 golf World 17