Played by NCG: Ramside Hall (Cathedral Course)

Where is Ramside Hall?

Turn off the A19 heading along Durham Road (A690) towards Houghton-Le-Spring. Ramside Hall will appear on your left hand side.

Reason for going

A friendly golf match with a couple of friends who hadn’t played in over 6 months.

What to expect

The Cathedral course offers a very good mixture of generous and tough holes, with some really clever par-3’s. It is a very fun course to play, but is tricky when you are playing into the wind. The greens are immaculate but not very quick (despite looking fast) which is certainly a good thing if you have a difficult putt ahead.
“The Cathedral course offers a very good mixture of generous and tough holes”. Watch out for

The water… There isn’t a lot of it, but it’s strategically placed in places you really want to be landing your ball. The 17th hole is a prime example of this, a slight dog leg to then right you need to fade your tee shot away from the water on the left but not too much as there is water on the right next to the 18th green. luckily, I managed to hit it over the water on the left and clatter into the trees to safety!

My best bit

After a difficult windy front nine, a couple of pars through 10-12 was a good way to start the back nine.

I stepped on the tee on the par 4 13th hole with a stiff breeze behind me. The hole was 326 yards away and I thought I’d give it a go. My best drive of the day and when I got to the green found the ball to be just 8 feet away from the hole. I missed the eagle putt obviously, but it was nice to drive a green on a par 4.

Despite that short hole I’d have to say my favourite hole on the course has to be the 14th. An incredibly tight tee shot with trouble on both sides of the fairway, and then a short pitch shot into a well guarded green. A real test from the tee but a great risk-reward hole if using the big stick.

When I go back

I’ll make sure to take some loft off my driver. Playing into the wind on some of the longer holes you need to hit your driver. But I hit the ball very high which results in my drives going no more than 150 yards into wind.

I’ll also make sure I don’t attempt to clear the trees on the 1st hole. A simple faded 3-wood is definitely the shot to play here and not attempt a Bubba Watson drive over the trees…