Making The Case For Nine Holes

By John Hopkins – Global Golf Post I had a number of fixed points in my childhood: my home, Stinchcombe Hill Golf Course, which was barely a 7-iron from our house, and school. Even now a half century or more later, I can remember another one, albeit hazily. Westonbirt is a village 10 miles or so from where I grew up in Gloucestershire. It is best known for its eminent girls’ school and a world-famous arboretum. I remember it though for its nine-hole golf course. From time to time, we would climb into my mother’s Austin Seven, nicknamed in the family “Gently-Gently,” and drive gently to Westonbirt for a game. The pleasure of Westonbirt’s course is joined in my memory by recollections of visits to my maternal grandparents and playing at Brecon golf course (the old course on the edge of town), another nine-holer. It was laid out on land owned by the late Albert Evans, one of the great figures in Welsh golf. Perhaps it is the memory of these courses, 60 or so miles apart, that inculcated in me an affection for nine-hole courses that has never left me. (And how could I forget Winter Park near Orlando? [...]