Don't keep score, said the club pro
Golfing England's Royals and St. Andrews
By David G. Molyneaux, editor, The Travel Mavens
The October weather cleared a bit for my round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club.
Asked his advice for someone playing Royal Lytham for the first time, club pro Eddie Birchenough said: "Don't keep score. The course is a special place, but it will just beat you up."
And it did, though I've never so enjoyed such a thorough beating.
Clubhouse at Royal Lytham. The flag on the 18th hole is above the middle bunker
Lytham's narrow fairways are framed by tall grasses on dunes of sand and short trees that permanently lean sideways from the wind. Greens are high in the centers and slope to the sides, so a shot to the green may trickle back off into a bunker.
Bunkers are score killers, 197 of them placed to gobble up just about any shot that doesn't go where you planned it, shots that were poorly planned and especially shots that were not planned at all. Many of the fairway bunkers are so deep that your only goal is to hit your ball out, with no hope of advancing toward the green.
Lytham is easy to forgive because it's such a pretty place, from the first tee that sits along a gentle path next to the impressive red brick clubhouse to the daunting greens on the 6th hole, protected by six bunkers, and the 9th hole, surrounded by nine. I counted 15 bunkers barring my way to a well-deserved bogey on the 18th hole.
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