Same but different
In late 2021, I returned to play Horsham Golf, where I worked for six years in the 1990s. It had a very short nine-hole course back then, somewhere in the region of 2,200 yards I think. I do remember once being six-under after five, courtesy of several short par 4s early on and the planets aligning spectacularly one day.
Sadly, those holes no longer exist, with the club developing a fine new 18-hole course mostly on new land, which opened in 2015. The closing holes do play over the site of four of those early holes but in the opposite direction, with the original course’s longest hole – the 7th – now home to Horsham Football Club.
It was sobering to discover that the scene of my only ever hole-in-one back in 1996 no longer exists, although it is on the land where those closing holes now play. On the plus side, there are lots of good holes on the new layout, which starts in among the trees before moving into more open-feeling terrain and then tightening up again a bit at the end.
It was an enjoyable day and one that brought back an awful lot of memories!
Did you know?
Tiger Woods made a hole-in-one on his professional debut in the Greater Milwaukee Open on September 1, 1996… just 20 days before my solitary ace. He’s now made 20 in total.