G Tour - Wychwood Park, slightly worried.....

With the G Tour event at Wychwood Park coming up on the 20th April, I thought I'd go along and start preparing for the competition. I know its over a month away, but I'll be playing again nearer the time as well.

My worry is the condition on the course, my word, its shocking, and I mean shocking!

I know courses have had a difficult time of late but for a course that charges over �1000 for membership I was expecting better.

The tees - several on winter mats, only a few tees where they should be. The grass tees were cut up, no divots repaired, and no opportunity to fill divots with grass seed.

The fairways - Oh my word, these absolutely dreadful. To remove the recent water, they've cut massive slits down every, and I mean, every fairway. Some were the width of a couple of tees. A couple of times I hit a decent layup to see the ball pitch and kick away into the rough.

The Greens - - Bumpy, dry, not true at all. The holes were cut about 5 feet away from the edge of every green, some on very inaccessible places. - The pin sheets on the back of the cards didn't match up to the pin positions on the green. There were two holes cut on every green, with the spare hole left unfilled, meaning, on a few occasions I couldn't actually putt directly at the correct hole. - The holes wer cut far, far, far too deep, meaning the holes were starting to collapse on some greens, again affecting the roll of some putts getting nearer to the holes.

Practice areas. - The balls at the range were a mixture of balls found on the course and Nike range balls. The balls found on the course had clearly been hit 1000s of times. Out of 50 balls, for �3.00, I had probably 20 worth hitting. - The Chipping green had about 30 balls left on the green, meaning I had to clear them before starting my practice, something I would never expect to do as a paying customer. - The Practice Green was the same as the course, probably the only consistent thing I found on the day. There were no flags on the putting green and were bumpy, untrue and bare.

Walking the course. It was a nightmare for someone with a trolley, every green was roped off and the routes we were instructed to take were not well thought out. They were sometimes such a long route, we were waiting for players to arrive at the green. The 14th, 17th, 18th were examples of this.

The ongoing work was very unsightly, no attempt to mark the areas as G.U.R, some partly roped off. We were left not knowing whether we could play out or not. The 17th ( a signature hole) is in dreadful condition. They've ripped up the area at the front of the green, then positioned the flag for the day, at the front of the green. Not a well thought out pin position.

The litter on the course was dreadful, there was an empty can of lager on benches for most of the front nine.

Slow play - Oh my word, slow is an understatement. It took us over five hours to complete the round, five hours! There were two four balls in front of us. I never seen a four ball let through by another four bal, but it happened today, it did nothing to help the pace of play.

At one point on a par five, there were, two groups waiting on the tee, ourselves waiting in the fairway for our lay up shot, a group waiting in the fairway for their 3rd shot to the green and a group on the green. You might think that this was a one off, but whilst waiting (again) on the 16th, we were waiting with a couple of members who joked - "It's not even the summer yet, we've had 6 hour rounds here."

Overall, a dreadful experience at a course in which I would have expected much, much better. I even cut my hand open on a rake in a bunker on the 11th. The handle had been damaged and as I tried to rake the bunker, something members are not aware of at Wychwood, I cut my hand on the broken handle - shocking.

I know its early days in the season, but my course is in cracking condition, has half the amount of green keepers, half the membership cost, and probably half the amount of members. The course 'should' be in better condition at the start of March.

I'm going to send this to customer service at De Vere and hopefully receive an apology. I'm not sure.

With a month to go till the G Tour event, I'm concerned

A few of my local courses have really struggled badly with the amount of rain over the past 6 months but not as bad as this course from what you say Chris.

Then to top it all off it took you 5hours to get round!! Thank god I will never have to play there!!

Good value for �1000+ not IMO

One of the courses I play on is Rusper (in Surrey), membership is just under �900 a year and the course is only ever on temp greens when it snows!! Shame it is not right on my doorstep as I would join there straight away as great value for money.

Chris. Strange that, we played it just after new year and it was in cracking condition, so it's sad to hear that it's gone downhill that much so quickly. There were areas that were GUR'd on some of the fairways and a couple of bunkers, but they were clearly marked, and apart from a couple of bunkers that were full of water it didn't seem to be too bad considering - although all the par 3's were off mats. Hope they pull their fingers out. As for slow play, well, that appears to be a characteristic of the course and marshalling I'm afraid - we did it in just under 4 hours at New Year (it's a long hike in places) but I've suffered 5-6 hour rounds there.

Just as an aside I played another of the GTours' venues yesterday, the Nottinghamshire, and one out of the two courses was in very good shape - the other is currently having several large lakes put in (hooray!) but was assured that there was only a few more weeks work before they start repairing the damage so it should be fine.

Sorry to read about your miserable experience Chris. It makes me realise how fortunate I am to play at RAF Waddington (�200 a year), where we never use mats or temporary greens and I have never had to wait any significant time to play a shot in 5 years there. Also played at Ullesthorpe Court this week and found it in really good condition for the time of year. Four and a half hours was a bit slow compared to my usual under three, but it was worth it to play such a challenging strip. Hope things improve before the G Tour game.

For an expensive (to us poor buggars at least) course, that sounds horrendous. My course suffers a lot in the wet, being low-lying and on clay, but in the two weeks dry weather we've had they've worked wonders, the vast majority of the damage done by allowing play when it probably shouldn't be repaired, fairways trim, greens almost true (still a little bobbly from last tining)...I expect a few issues when paying �700 for membership, if I'm paying over �1000 I would expect the course to be in good nick given we have now had a dry spell.

Fingers crossed they sort it out before your tourney, surely the point in them hosting it is for a bit of publicity, they're not going to help themselves if it stays the same; courses can recover quickly and hopefully the work being done will be sorted in a few weeks!

I just think I've been spoilt at my home course http://www.marketdraytongolfclub.co.uk/

It's in fabulous condition, I've never had a round that is over three and half hours long and the members look after their pride and joy.

I wonder if private courses are in better condition to the De Vere or McDonald owned courses?

Seems a bit odd Chris, especially from a venue that's hosted Euro Pro Tour events in the past. I've played there a few times and it's a cracking set-up and venue.

Will be interesting to hear what they say when they come back to you, I'd hope that the course condition/maintenance, after the terrible 2012, is all prep work ready for the fantastic 2013 golf season we are all about to have!!!!

That's exactly what I'm hoping for. As I've said, the course has always been in cracking condition whenever I've played before. I just hope, like you said, its all prep work for the new season.

Hopefully it will be in better condition come April as i am to down to play in the g-tour event. Will be dissapoiting if the course is still in a bad way

Fair play to Wychwood Park.

Jon Farmer, head professional phoned me today and must have spent 20 minutes on the phone taking me through the things he agreed with and the things he didn't with my email. He was calm, fair and listened carefully to what I had said. He'd even met with his service manager and head green keeper before telephoning. Seems a top bloke.

He explained that the course is currently coming out of their winter work programme, which will ensure the course is in top condition in the summer. I was glad of this, but explained that this should have been explained before I teed off. He told me we should have been told this and he would be following this up - fair play.

He did apologise for the litter and the broken rake in the bunker, which would be sorted out ASAP - he thanked me for this.

I explained that I was more concerned with the experience at Wychwood. I have played there many times before and have loved the 'experience' of playing somewhere the Pro's have played. That's why people pay large green fees to play at Wychwood and other courses of similar stature. I did not feel this, this time.

The experience and feeling of going to a top course is a massive one for me. Driving up the long drive at Carden, or going through the gated community check at Wychwood - it all adds to the feeling that you're somewhere special. I've always loved Wychwood Park for this 'experience' and will always go back a few times a year to feel this again.

I'm very passionate about this wonderful game and expect people who run our clubs to be as passionate as me. Jon clearly is passionate about his course and our wonderful game. It is his responses that makes me think that Wychwood will be in cracking condition again sooner rather than later. He didn't roll over and offer me a free round to shut me up or reel off a quick apology because he'd had head office on the phone, he seemed genuinely concerned and really wanted to discuss, at length, my concerns and ensure it never happens again.

I have to emphasise again that, if I had been told there was work being undertaken, two holes cut in greens, no need for hedgehog wheels etc etc I would never had sent the email in the first place. I respect clubs for being up front and telling GUESTS as well as members what is happening to the course. After all Wychwood does serve a hotel - plenty of guests there. Although members are informed of ongoing work, guests are not - Good experiences lead to more members.

I'm really very pleased with the response and the passion Jon spoke with. I explained that I didn't want to get anything out of this complaint and I wasn't looking for this type of response. I want clubs to clear, very clear on what to expect when you play any course - its only fair. Beautiful photoshopped pictures on websites never paint a true picture of a golf course, just give the guests honest information.

He thanked me for my email and the chance to discuss them at length with me. He asked me to contact him when I play in the future to make sure 'The Experience' is a better one.

After talking to Jon, I know it will be.

Apart from Slaley Hall, Wychwood is by far my favourite DeVere course, i agree about the roped off parts, the walk in some casses seems daft, and it can be a very wet course, i,m glad i didn,t play it in that condition and hope you never have to again

I was a full member at wychwood a couple of years ago and left because it was never in the condition it should have been, and it just takes to long to get round. This is not a complaint aimed at devere for the condition of the course, the condition of the course is down to the amount of traffic on there all year round, and the long rounds are becasue of the length, difficulty and again the amount of traffic on there during the whole year. I therefore gave up my full memebership which are now no longer available at wychwood.

I joined another local course which was great, very few visitiors and brilliant 3hr rounds on the wekend, as opposed to 6 hr rounds in the club majors at wychwood. I have however re-joined Wychwood on the points scheme this year so have the best of both worlds a regular course for quick easy golf and wychwood for regular chamionship golf but without the constant ear ache from the missus eveyweek for being out the house for about 10 hrs.

It is worth noting though that to be a member of wychwood park is �295 not the �1000+ figure quoted previously, now I know the �295 points scheme limits the amount of time you can play and you have to top this up if playing everyweek, but even the people who kept on the original full memberships pay less than �800 a year.

I was just wondering now that after the event has the course imroved to the standard that you hope it should be?. I played South Winchester the other day and although the course was ok the greens were shockingly bad. I know the weather has not exactly be kind to the green keepers this winter.