Colne Valley Golf Club
Green Fees: £30
Paid: £15- www.teeofftimes.co.uk
Location: Earl's Colne, Essex. 10 minutes from the A120 at Coggeshall, about an hour from London.
Played: March 2016.
For Essex, this is a pretty undulating golf course, similar to Benton Hall. It's been established 25 years.
Although it measures less than 6000 yards from the yellow tees, when I played it in March, the length and softness of the fairways meant that this course played long. The 400 yard 14th was barely reachable in two.
The greens were in pretty good condition for this time of year- fast without being too challenging, but the same can't be said of the fairways unfortunately. I appreciate that it's been wet, but if I'd paid £30 for the round, I'd have been pretty disappointed- they were the same length as the rough, and were not coping with the amount of water that had fallen. It's almost certainly in better shape in the summer, but I would then worry about its length- even off the tips it measures less that 6300 yards.
The clubhouse had pretty good food and was reasonably priced, although I got told off by the lady behind the bar for still having my hat on in the clubhouse. I don't have a problem with the rule itself, but I could have done without being treated like a child that had just done a poo on the carpet- such was her level of disapproval.
I would return to Colne Valley, but would probably divert to the excellent Red Lion in Earls Colne for food and drink after the round.