68 by Stuart Paton over forty years. They are both large and severely undulated, even when located in areas that seem mostly f lat – first timers on the course are apt to be very surprised when they walk up to the thirteenth and fifteenth greens. Now, though, they are getting larger still, as Ewence has been leading a major green surface recapture scheme. The effects, in places, are quite remarkable. At the fifth hole, for example, a substantial amount of green has been recaptured at the back left, bringing a fabulous sucker pin position back into use, and creating some exciting – and, it must be said, very, very long – putts. The seventeenth hole, famous for the old ‘Johnny Low’ bunker that bit deeply into the green, has also been extended, though it remains hard for the present-day viewer to understand why the bunker became so notorious. In general, the greens, always large, are now quite huge in places, as befits a course on which Low, who loved St Andrews so much, was so important. Woking, then, is a course that is going places. Always inf luential, because of its membership – Darwin, golf ’s greatest chronicler, loved it deeply and wrote about it repeatedly – it is set to become inf luential all over again. Along with the work currently underway at Addington, a few miles away, Woking’s current projects represent the most significant attempt yet undertaken to return a heathland course to something more akin to what it looked like a hundred years ago. It is an exciting prospect, and I shall look forward to returning again and again to watch it develop. GCA WOK ING GC “ It is an exciting prospect, and I shall look forward to returning again and again to watch it develop” New forward tees give players the option of a shorter carry over heather Photo: GCA
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