Sweetwoods Park Golf Club
Cowden,
Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7JN
Tel : +44 (0)1342 850729 Fax : +44 (0)1342 850866
Directions
7 km east of east Grinstead on A264
Further Information
Practice range
Course Details
| Course Name: Sweetwoods Park Holes: 18 Yardage: 6400 SSS: 72 |
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Shaun Casselton wrote on: Jun 30, 2001
To anyone who is looking for a course that is kept in top condition,then you must try this one. I am a 18 hcap. The course offers up a drive on many of the holes, although to my cost a more thoughtful approach would have saved me a few shots and balls If I had not gone for everything. The course overall is fair to all abilities of golfer, but you would be wise to note your own ability and think your way around the course and play within yourself. My partner and I did not and it turned into a frustrating game into a poor one because of poor course management. With that in mind I would recommend all to go there. The staff are friendly and helpful and the facilities good. The preparation and course design has many good holes that presents opportunities for the bold and disaster for the unfortunate!! We are looking forward to returning to the club and this time using a wiser head which we are sure will achieve a round below our handicap and add to the joy of playing there. Its a strong walk at times but pleasant with some good views across the Sussex countryside. Give it a go and I am sure you will enjoy it howver well you play !!??
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Drbeng wrote on: Oct 16, 2011
This place is a lottery - you might get lucky and play on a day when they haven't managed to pack the course out with as many groups as they can with no regard for pace of play or customer enjoyment. Or you might well end up with a 7 hour round on the cards, with no interest from management in alleviating the situation.
Today, it was the latter.
It was monthly medal Sunday, which in Sweetwoods parlance means jamming up the course with a hoard of inept members, all playing off the back tees, but most of whom cutting a convincing image of individuals who have never taken a golf lesson in their lives. Characteristic of this sort of course, the members can't play golf for love nor money, but they love to wield the singular bylaw of "we don't have to let anyone play through because we're members playing in a competition" as evidence of their right to inflict misery on all other paying players on the course.
When we'd arrived, we paid for our scheduled tee time, with no mention of anything untoward on the course. It hadn't occurred to anyone in the pro-shop to notify us that our slot had been pushed back a full half hour due to a fog delay, and an ominously interminable pace of progress from the members playing in their competition. This was only revealed to us when we stepped up to the first tee, to find 4 other groups waiting to tee off at the time we were supposed to be heading out.
We managed to play just 3 holes, before we hit a log jam on the 4th where there were no fewer than 3 groups playing the hole, and a further 4 groups waiting on the tee (soon joined by the several groups rapidly descending on this tee behind us). These groups had already been reliably informed by a self-righteous lady member that she would have no intention of letting anyone play through. Nice attitude. Let's just adhere to the "rules" and ignore common sense. Judging by how seriously these people were taking themselves, they seemed to be entertaining the illusion they were playing in the Masters, and that we were all their admiring spectators.
Clearly the round was untenable - this was never going to finish. So my group, and most of the other groups we encountered, were obliged to walk off the course after just a handful of holes played.
Indignantly, we returned to the clubhouse to air our rightful frustration. We, like others we spoke to, had had a choice of where to play on this, one of the few remaining pleasant Sundays in 2011. But we had come here, because we had been reassured the course was running clear, and we should encounter no problems enjoying a round of golf at a leisurely pace. As we walked into the pro-shop, we observed many groups still walking up to the first tee - the course managers seemed to think it was acceptable to continue to profit from any unsuspecting customers, who had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. This was shameless profiteering, with no hint of professionalism about it. This clearly isn't a golf course - just a factory line.
I asked to speak to the manager when I came into the pro-shop, who was unforthcoming, so was obliged to express my frustrations to the two assistants in the pro-shop - specifically, that they have no business allowing visitors to come to the course, and part with their money for a full 18 holes, knowing that the course was going to be rendered unplayable by the obvious litany of useless members turning the course into an interminable traffic jam. If you want to give the course over to your members for their medal - fine. But then tell any visitors that the course is closed. Don't try and have your cake and eat it. Eventually, an arrogant, pugnacious gentleman emerged from the office, to take issue with me expressing dissatisfaction with the state of affairs. He thought it was politic to respond with aggression rather than conciliation, and issued a string of irrelevant non-sequiturs to try and excuse their shoddy management.
I have encountered this situation once or twice before in the past, and when been obliged to complain, the course managers have duly apologised, issued a refund, and offered a free round in an attempt to preserve my custom. This course's attitude is clearly "take your money and hang the consequences".
Having shared this tale with various other friends, I have learned this is not unusual. The phrase "I will never play Sweetwoods again" is frequently uttered it seems - and the management of the course clearly couldn't care less.
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