Harwood was certainly an interesting course. Because it was a society day, it meant we played off the yellow tees. Looking at the scorecard it plays as a short course and predominantly it is a short course, however being situated in Bolton means one thing. Hills!!! 

There was a mixture of holes, with 3 par 5’s and a 4 par 3’s and a number of short par 4’s in between. The course was very hilly, particularly the front 9. Tee shots had to be placed in certain positions to stop running off the fairways and in particular the greens were hard to read. The layout of the course was good, a lot of challenging stances and technical shots had to be played. There were a lot of bunkers on the course to protect its length. That, along with the greens made approach shots more difficult and club selection was important to find the green. 

The condition of the course was fairly good. The fairways were in great condition and considering the hot weather, they had kept their colour very well. Tee boxes had been cut and a great feature on this course was a sign on every hole, with a picture of each hole and how they were shaped. This proved to be very handy, especially for players who were playing there for the first time. A slight negative was the greens. They were very tricky to read with the varying slopes, but the main problem was the speed. They needed a cut. They were quite slow in parts, and it made lag putting in particular very difficult. Whilst I understand the need to keep them longer than standard due to the slopes, they simply needed cutting a bit more. Across the whole society, the main gripe was the speed of the greens. 

A 18 handicap player who scored 37 points said ‘A great visual course and a difficult walk, particularly on a hot day. Tee to green was fine but I feel I could have scored even higher had the greens had more roll on them. That aside, a nice course with a lot of blind shots and interesting holes.’