Ross-on-Wye

Ross-on-Wye is a small Herefordshire town in a picturesque corner of England close to the Welsh border, although the golf club is affiliated to neighbouring Gloucestershire. There aren’t a huge number of quality golf courses in the region, but Ross is most certainly the pick of the bunch. Tall pines, quick greens and lots of bells to ring. Each hole at Ross is routed through dense woodland, putting a premium on accuracy off the tee and making it one of the prettiest courses I’ve encountered. The land is naturally contoured, although the course could not be described as overly hilly – blind shots add to the intrigue but don’t worsen Ross’ playability. In other words then, Ross is completely different. This is what is so difficult about the business of ranking courses. Another member of the panel, Peter Rudd, recently suggested to me that we should do separate lists for seaside and inland courses, which has merit, apart from it still doesn’t help you compare Ross with Kington. It’s altogether greener, and it’s also a bigger course than you might first imagine – there are several long par 4s which are, for my money, the best holes on the property. I’m talking about the likes of the second, 10th and 14th. What you mustn’t do is get yourself out of position. With firm fairways and very few of them level, it really doesn’t take much before you find yourself trying to manufacture optimistic recoveries from the trees. This is a club with a lovely feel to it. For some reason, it reminded me of being a junior. It was busy, as you would expect on a Saturday morning, and the members looked like they were having a nice time. As Tim, the pro, and Ian, the managing secretary, explained to us, many of them were getting stuck into their knock-outs, which is just as it should be at this time of the year. A summer green fee is a fairly priced £50, but I played at the twilight rate of just £18 – possibly the best-value round of golf I’ve ever played. Truly, this was an absolute bargain for what was a beautiful, well-maintained, challenging yet fun golf course that would surely be better known if it was in one of the golfing heartlands of England, or was located a few miles west over the Welsh border. All power to Ross, I say. [post_list title="NCG Top 100s: England" posts=174292,174324,174366,174355]