THE UNDERCOVER VERDICT

The home of a luxury resort dubbed ‘London’s Country Estate’ and with bags of pedigree, The Grove has hosted and entertained celebs and sporting stars aplenty since opening its doors under two decades ago. Three years later it famously staged the first World Golf Championship event to be held in England (Tiger Woods was a rampant winner) and a decade on it saw Swede Alex Noren triumph in the British Masters.

But did Kyle Phillips’ modern masterpiece deliver the goods for TG’S fourball one afternoon last summer? It certainly did, with seasoned 3-handicap campaigner Cliff Weight enthusing: “It’s a five-star establishment… and deserves all its stars. We elected to play from the Grove tees at 6,332 yards, so there were lots of chances of birdies (alas, not so much for the two higher handicappers!).”

Our fourball’s enthusiasm was undoubtedly partly due to the fact they all registered birdie twos at the par-3 16th, prompting Cliff to add: “As far as I’m concerned, this is a first. I’ve never known of any other fourball achieving this, except on the Himalayas putting course at St Andrews!”

More than anything, the TG team were enamoured by the Augusta-style conditioning of the layout as well as the outstanding service on offer, while the halfway house’s tasty sausage rolls were also well received. Other than M25 traffic issues (what’s new?) and thigh-high rough (to speed up play, a local rule means you can drop your ball under a oneshot penalty), our fourball had a fantastic experience. Sadly, emulating a Tiger eagle on the par-5 9th comfortably proved beyond them. Maybe next time…