Hanbury Manor - Hertfordshire

It is a bit of a walk to hole number 1 but once there you are presented with a pretty unique layout, if viewed from above I think it would look a bit like a question mark with the green situated in the middle part of the arc at the top. This leaves you with two choices, try to play for the left side fairway, the start of the question mark as you would write it or take the shorter, safer option and play for the tail, I suppose the tee are would be the dot.

I really enjoyed number 2, the drive to the downward sloping, left to right fairway, the approach to the edge of the lake and then the accurate pitch to the green. Number 3 plays back the other way with the climb to the green making it a tough par 4 while the green on the following hole is tricky to hit being perpendicular to the tee with bunker in front and behind.

Number 5 is a long par 4 that plays down to lake with a par 3 played over it to a two tier green. I counted seven bunker on number 7 (there may be more) but only two up by the green on number 8 although you still do not want to stray left of the fairway on this hole. The last hole of the front nine is a reachable par 5, well as long as you can avoid all the sand up by the green that is.

Holes 10, 11 and 12 follow the boundary of the course with anything going too far right being out of bounds, starting with a par 4 whose fairway seems to diminish as you approach the green then a rather standard but decent length par 3 with Vardon Bunker located, rather strangely, next to the teeing area. I do not know if this bunker came into play on Vardon's original nine but you would have to hit a very poor tee shot to end up in it on the new layout.

A ditch that feeds the lake by the green runs the length of number 13, this must be played over from the tee of number 14, I thought number 15 was bunker-less but there is one solitary pot bunker just before the green off to the right. Number 16 has two distinct slopes on the green so you will have to take note of tee position to not be left with a very tricky putt while Vardon's Bunker pops up again on number 17, after studying the yardage chart I have come to the conclusion that this must be a different bunker to the one marked on number 11. The final hole is played over a lake, then up to a green protected in front once again by numerous bunkers.

Hanbury Manor winds it's way through a beautiful parkland setting with the majestic hotel complex in the middle, the par fours are tough, the par fives play like par fives and the par threes require accurate tee shots making this course a very good test of your golfing ability, you can not afford the hit and hope approach round here.