It’s not often you find a quality course with a renowned restaurant on site, so why not enjoy the delicious flavour of both?


ABOUT BLAKES GOLF CLUB
Blakes Golf Club was opened in 2005 – and that itself makes the club a rarity, for the golf market has become a bear-pit and the only way to survive is by being better than the others. Those behind Blakes are well aware of this, but they saw a niche – affordable quality in every respect. Not for them the quick buck: the £7 million investment will take time to mature, but they are happy to wait. Just off the busy A414 near Epping, the course was designed by well-known architect Howard Swan, and is laid out spaciously in 160 acres of gently-rolling Essex countryside and a sign of its quality is the fact that it will be hosting the 2006 Essex PGA Open Championship.

Course
Golfers who know the area will be all too aware that clay lies underfoot, and that Essex courses tend to suffer from wet conditions. At Blakes, miles of drainage piping has already been installed to avert this inconvenience and ensure year-round play is possible. The drains channel the surface water into several lakes that not only provide a supply of irrigation water when there is too little rainfall, but provide water hazards on several holes.
Despite the unattractive soil structure, Blakes’ greens, built to USGA specification, are stunningly good. You’d think they had been cut and rolled and cut again for decades! Large and mostly level, they make the able putter hole it like a pro, and leave the rest of us tantalised but not depressed.


Howard Swan designed the golf holes in differing styles, many with the feel of a natural links course. This means that the character of the Blakes course became clear from the day it opened; you don’t have to wait until the trees grow up to appreciate the hallenge. Fairways are, mostly, defined by long grass (although there are plans to introduce gorse to add visual interest – and to make it more difficult). Every now and then, an American influence shows through – particularly at the par-3 8th with its island green.

Continue >>>