When asked if I prefer parkland or links golf courses, my vote goes to the latter.
I’ve had the good fortune to play some of the finest examples of each down the years and feel I have a bit of a chance on links layouts with their bouncier turf and more open spaces.
But, as a short-hitting, 20-odd handicapper, who lets the clubs gather far too much dust, I’ve often felt beaten up on lengthy parkland layouts, my score ballooning via visits to the trees and knowing that even two good ones won’t get me particularly near the green on some of the longer par 4s.
So, after being given the opportunity to play Sir Nick Faldo’s Chart Hills – a parkland track in the heart of Kent – there was a certain amount of trepidation mixed in with the excitement.
Chart Hills remains the only Signature Faldo Design golf course in Europe and is located in 200 acres of undulating countryside. If you’re flying into London Gatwick, it’s about a 90-minute drive away.
It opened for play in 1993 and was Sir Nick’s architectural debut. The course staged The Ladies English Open from 2004-2007, with Solheim Cup stars Maria Hjorth and Becky Brewerton both taking the title there. It’s always a good endorsement of a layout when the best players rise to the top.
Under new ownership, Chart Hills has undergone some serious changes and renovations since 2019 and the rebuild has continued apace in the last few years.
Format: Stableford
Players: Dave Tindall, Scott Murray, Pat Bristow
Booking a round in November in the UK can be a fool’s errand but we have two big things in our favour today: mild weather and a golf course in excellent condition.
Having not hit a ball (even on the range) since August – not very smart for someone of my level – I park up and welcome the chance to loosen up a little. Free buckets of balls are available on the range so it’s a good chance to get into the groove.
As I get there early from my drive down via an overnight stop in Cambridge, there’s also chance to fuel up with a bacon sarnie and a cuppa from the elegant Club Bar (Breakfast 7am-12pm; Lunch 12pm-5pm).
The relaxed atmosphere and panoramic views of the course through the large window add another layer of comfort. Proper warm-up (tick). Full stomach (tick). Unexpectedly good weather (tick). There really is no excuse not to give it a decent shot today, despite my very part-time golfer status.
There’s even a six-hole par-3 course called ‘The Loop’ (holes range from 50 to 100 yards) just near the car park but, alas, we don’t have time to test our wedge games.
The Course
In some cursory pre-round research, I noted that most descriptions of Chart Hills focus on how many bunkers there are on the course.
Here’s Sir Nick himself: “This golf course is different even right from the first hole because there’s not many courses in Britain where you open with a line of bunkers.
“We’ve got a lot of bunkers on the golf course which makes it quite scenic, quite interesting, gives it its character. So right from the get-go it’s kind of different.”
Yes, the visual from the 1st – a dogleg par 5 measuring 537 yards from the ‘61’ tees (yellow) – is a line of fairway bunkers.
I tonk a decent drive but one of those sandy rogues reaches out an arm and pulls my ball in. Oh dear.
It’s at this point where I need to confess that I often forget how to play from bunkers. If I have an instructor/good player with me, I can follow their guidance and have some success but otherwise it’s carnage.
So to find sand with my very first drive isn’t ideal. But as if to show I’m not intimidated, I pull out a fairway wood, believing I can carry the lip. My playing partners exchange a worried glance.
But fortune favours the brave. I make a clean connection and knock it down the fairway, the shot paving the way for a bogey-6 which is just fine.
Rumour has it that there are over 130 bunkers dotted around the course and, amazingly, I only find one more. I don’t get out first time but float the second to about eight feet, again adding a couple more stableford points.
The array of different bunkers is impressive but the standout is the infamous ‘Anaconda’ which snakes its way up the side of the par-5 5th and then cuts across the fairway. From tail to head it’s a mighty 200 yards, perhaps the longest bunker in Europe.
Given that Sir Nick is a three-time Open winner, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to see pot bunkers on the course too. I avoid one by a whisker at 9 but my playing partner Scott does not. It’s so far down his head is below the lip but he heroically thumps it out first time.
With a stableford contribution on every hole I reach the turn with a haul of 16 points and am thoroughly enjoying what can only be described as an absorbing test of golf.
Chart Hills is very playable from the ‘61’ tees, which come out at 6,169 yards (par 72). Note, that yardage extends to 7,119 off the back ‘71’ tees. It’s 6,653 yards from the ‘66s’ so there’s some nice spacing to suit wherever you fit.
With multiple doglegs, lots of water hazards, all those bunkers and big, often undulating, greens in immaculate condition, there’s plenty to take the eye.
At the halfway house I fancy a bite to eat and here’s a tip: absolutely buy a sausage roll, one of the best I’ve ever tasted.
Perhaps, as a result, I bag six stableford points at 10 and 11, keep it going and score 19 on the back nine for a total haul of 35 points.
I’m very happy with that given it’s a first look and I’d know better spots to (try and) hit to next time.
I’ve suffered some shocking stableford scores on parkland tracks (below 20) but today’s effort feels as if I’ve been rewarded for some decent strikes, getting the pace of the greens and having my grey matter work well.
You’d hope that a Faldo design would reward brain not brawn and that’s definitely the case at Chart Hills.
I particularly like the set of four par 3s which I play in 4-3-3-4. At the 171-yard 7th, I knock it to about 10 feet but miss the putt.
The final short hole is a nod to the famous 17th at Sawgrass and, arguably, I hit my best shot of the day there, flushing a short iron that could be close.
On arriving at the island green my ball is actually nowhere to be seen but thankfully it has clung on to some grass near the reeds guarding the back and I hack it up onto the dance floor before two-putting.
As if to absolutely reaffirm the theme of sand, bunkers are scattered everywhere up the 18th hole and they make for quite a sight from the tee as we hit away in the low afternoon sun.
Thankfully I avoid them and manage to close the match out on the green despite Pat almost stealing a tie in dramatic style when his lengthy, I’m-not-leaving-this-one-short, putt catches the lip.
The Barn
Post-round, we grab some food in the bar and watch Manchester City v Liverpool.
Then I head to my accommodation for the night.
‘The Barn’ is situated a one-minute drive from the course. It holds up to eight people (four rooms: two upstairs and two downstairs) and is the perfect place to wind down.
My room is lovely and toasty for a November evening and I kick back and watch Match of the Day on the big TV.
And, get this, there’s even a putting green around the back if you fancy popping outside to hone those flatstick skills.
It’s ideal for a Stay and Play, my night in The Barn rounding off a thoroughly enjoyable golfing experience.
Scott Murray (The Guardian) review
There are 133 bunkers at Chart Hills. My favourite of the 132 I visited was the pot just to the left of the 14th green; a splash out to four feet and a sandy save.
My second favourite? One of the many guarding the front of the 9th, a short par four pockmarked with deep traps, like the Road Hole copy-and-pasted many times over.
Just getting out was a thrill and a welcome confidence boost to a notoriously skittish sand player. Take me to the Old Course, I have no fear of you now.
As for the Anaconda Bunker, sidewinding its way along the right side of the par-five 5th for 200 yards … well, I’d have preferred my drive to have split the fairway; of course I would.
But there’s a kind of sick beauty in being able to boast that my ball got swallowed up by the longest snake in the garden of England. It sat up tantalisingly in its serpentine glory, just begging to be smoothly clipped with a hybrid and sent back into position. I could splash out sideways, but carpe diem, eh kids?
I knifed it into the face. Of course I did. But let’s not dwell on detail.
Probably best not to go into the things in the first place, and here’s the thing about Chart Hills: as you’d surely expect from a Nick Faldo design, you have to use the old noggin and plot your way around.
No point blasting the driver everywhere: my best tee shot of the day was a missile straight down the middle of the aforementioned 14th; only problem is, you run out of fairway pretty quickly and a river runs through it.
Cue eff, Jeff, and one of several solemn rummages in the bag for another rock.
Danger everywhere, then, but such pretty views to mask it all.
And what delight when you manage to navigate a problem successfully; I’ve had few bigger rushes on a golf course than delicately bundling a chip up the false front of the 8th green to a couple of feet. Even if I then yipped the putt.
Chart Hills – cerebral, scenic, scintillating – was great fun. I’d love to play it again. If nothing else, I’ve still got one more bunker to visit.
Winter 2025/26 Stay & Play offer
£199 per person (based on 8 players)
Groups of 4 players – £225 per person
Two rounds on the Championship 18-hole Sir Nick Faldo-designed course
Unlimited access to The Loop (par-3 course), plus the driving range
Overnight accommodation for up to 8 guests
Breakfast in the Club Bar
