#1 Hollinwell (Notts), Nottinghamshire

"How about that ride in".... I always feel like there is something intoxicating about a long, winding drive into a Golf Club - and the drive into Hollinwell did not disappoint. As you come round the final bend and the view opens up you get a real sense of the sheer size of the piece of land that the club is located on.... and it is breathtaking. 

The drive down the hill, flanked by the 3rd and 18th holes with the backdrop of the magnificent white clubhouse, gives a real sense of what is in store and builds that combination of excitement, nerves, anticipation and curiosity that I always feel when playing somewhere special. 

(The view back up the 18th from the clubhouse) 

The first hole is a fairly gentle opener (not really a sign of things to come...), though it is tightly lined with rough either side of the fairway and smart bunkering around 220 from the tee - tough to thread a driver through but an iron off the tee is probably a sensible way to get started. 

Things really get going on the second, a strong 430 yard par 4 which plays uphill to a green impressively bordered by steep, gorse-covered banks and is a great early example of just how well the course makes use of its natural landscape. The drive needs to be tight to the bunkers on the left and the fairway isn't overly generous so a good early test of ball striking if you want to avoid ruining your score before having a chance to get going! 

(The view from the fourth tee, photo doesn't really do justice to how intimidating it is as a tee shot) 

The first three holes, I am told, were added in the 1930's (not that you would really know, the 2nd feels like it's part of the landscape and has been there centuries) so you make the short walk past the clubhouse to the 4th tee, which is tucked in behind the putting green. The fourth is where I really feel like the tone is set for the rest of the round, stroke index 1 and 454 yards from the tees we played it from, and is one of the most smartly bunkered holes I can recall playing. The drive needs to be flown over the right hand bunker while avoiding the bunker on the left in order to have a mid-iron into the green, which is easier said than done. 

Once you have safely navigated the par 3 5th, you come to the 582 yard 6th - where you tee off through a funnel of trees over a small pond, which looks great. If you can get it to the top of the crest and get it rolling I would imagine you can reach in two, however if you don't the layup is tight and you need to favour the left avoiding the deep bunker about 100 yards short right of the green. 

The 404 yard 7th offers a little bit of respite, with a reasonably generous fairway for what I decided was an iron off the tee. I guess really long hitters may be able to get it over the top of the hill and get it rolling down close to the green, but there is a bunker right in driver range which makes this an overly risky option to my mind. Deep bunkers left and a false front give you something to think about for your short to mid iron approach but I definitely felt like this hole gives you a bit of a chance to score at SI3. 

The dog leg right 8th really demands you to hit a fade off the bunker on the left, and is another intimidating looking tee shot over 150 yards of water. It's very easy to bail out left with the fairway sloping pretty steeply from left to right, however too far left will leave you blocked out by trees. The generously sized green is protected by a bank on the left and run offs at the back so hitting the fairway is no guarantee of par. 

(Sign from the local railway station, which was closed by Richard Beeching, adorning the halfway hut which is a nice touch)

The pretty downhill 9th is fairly straightforward if you can commit to the club off the tee, with the main challenge being to avoid the large bunker at the front of the green. Again, the putting surface is smartly protected by three bunkers however is large enough to feel fairly confident that you should be able to find the green with a half decent mid iron. 

I was told that the 10th tee is where Hollinwell gets really interesting, with the key being to make your score on the front nine and try to cling on coming home - somewhat of a worry having found the front 9 pretty demanding in itself, bogeying the last two to go out in 40! The tee shot on 10 requires a precise long iron to be fired at a barely visible sign high in the trees, favouring the right side if possible. The raised green is long from front to back, and slopes severely from left to right. Make par and run here! 

11 snakes its way through a steep bank either side of the fairway, and really demands an accurate tee shot if you are hitting 3 wood or driver. A long iron is an option to hit the larger area of fairway short however the very small, raised green would be somewhat daunting the longer approach that you leave yourself. The fairway felt like it was less than 10 yards wide as I looked at it off the tee, so definitely one to pick a line, commit to it and hope for the best...

(The view from the Blue tees on 12)

12 is another hole that really requires commitment off the tee, threading it between the two distant telegraph poles (and trying to ignore the 150 yards of gorse directly in front of you). 474 yards from the Blue tees gives you little option but to hit driver, however the fairway is again significantly more generous the further back you hit it from the tee. This hole really has a 'linksy' feel and the downhill, right to left approach shot giving you lots of options to be creative if you want to run one down there instead of flying it all the way. A tough, sloping green to hit so to walk off with par here I was delighted.

(That tiny speck in the distance is indeed the green at the par 3 13th) 

13 is truly a brutal looking par 3 (and I would suggest the signature hole at Hollinwell), with so many tee boxes it could play anything from a short iron to a 3 wood I would imagine! Again, the operative word here is commitment, with the green appearing tiny from the tee and heather everywhere you look. There is actually a bit of room right, much more than it appears from the tee so favour the right side and trust what you are hitting! 

I somehow managed to walk off 13 with a par 3, so it was nice to see a bit of room to hit the ball into with a driver off the 14th tee and a bit of respite after a very difficult opening 4 holes of the back 9. Fourteen is a fairly straightforward tee shot with plenty of room left of the fairway bunker and I would suggest one of the few chances for birdie round Hollinwell. I was told they plan to put a bunker in to the left side of the fairway which I think will improve the hole significantly and give you a lot more to think about with the tee shot. 

(the view back down the 15th, highlighting just how narrow the green and approach is) 

Any hole is always going to be a challenge when you hit it 70 yards right off the tee as I did on 15, however it was very much back to the theme of the back 9 after a brief rest on 14, with a laser guided drive required over the left trap to give you a chance of hitting a short enough iron to feel confident of hitting a green that can't be more than ten yards from left to right. As if the tee shot isn't tough enough here, the narrow green is flanked by 50 foot high banks of heather, rough and bunkers! An absolute brute of a hole at 439 yards and I could make a case for it being one of the toughest I've played. 

16 is a pretty, risk/reward dogleg right on which you could probably hit anything from 6 iron through to driver off the tee. 353 yards on the card, its probably reachable off the tee with that yardage playing considerably shorter as the crow flies, however with trouble everywhere I opted for the safe option with a long iron off the tee followed by a wedge approach to the green. The putting surface is probably the most severely sloped on the course, wide from left to right and not very deep - which makes distance control extra important. 

The penultimate hole is a reachable par 5, however to reach in two you really need to thread the drive into the narrow part of the fairway past two well placed bunkers at around 250 yards. The green itself is a tough one to find the surface, with undulations and bunkers meaning that to run it up there the gap is probably only 5 to 10 yards wide in the slope between two bunkers. Again, an incredibly fair test of golf which requires two good shots to find the green but will punish you if you don't commit fully. 

The long par 4 18th. A stunning finale to what has already been a test of ball striking, patience and concentration and does not relent to allow a gentle finish. Another long drive needs to be threaded between two perfectly positioned bunkers, trying to put the abundance of rough, gorse and sand to the back of your mind one final time. The green itself is fairly generous and fortunately far enough away from the glass fronted club house so you don't have to be too wary of over clubbing, however the false front and deep bunkers give you plenty to think about even if you have found one final straight drive. Tapping in for a (slightly disappointing, having hit my best drive of the day) closing bogey I felt a mixture of relief to get through the back 9 without racking up too big a number, satisfaction with a reasonable days ball striking and sadness that there wasn't another opportunity to test myself on the next tee. 

My playing partner told me that the course is situated on 600 acres of land, and this really shows on the back nine, giving a real sense of isolation (in a good way) and a feeling that each hole has been able to make full use of the natural terrain without needing to fit around the rest of the course. Another takeaway for me is just how difficult this golf course is, highlighted by the standard scratch of 76. I felt that I hit just two poor shots all day (15th and 17th tee shots) and still walked off with a 10 over 82! Having said that, at somewhere between 6900 and 7300 yards with the combination of Blue and White Tees that we played I am pretty chuffed with that for my first time round! 

If you are looking for an easy track to go round and flatter yourself with a score, this isn't the golf course for you. However, if you want to test every aspect of your game, punish yourself for not quite hitting your lines and generally get beaten up by a golf course in the most enjoyable way possible then you simply need to give Hollinwell a go. It is a stunning golf course to look at in a very rugged way, and the routing (particularly on the back 9) is among the best you will find anywhere. I was very kindly hosted by Mick, last years captain, who expertly told me where to (try) and hit it which added greatly to the enjoyment of my day at Hollinwell, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to kick my 50 bucket list courses journey - an incredibly high bar for the remaining 49 to reach!