Description
A short walk, with Lumley Beck on the left, soon brings The Haughs into view, the second distinct area of the course. Opened in 1995, the landscape appears remarkably mature with trees and tall bushes replacing farmland which, although it was featureless before the arrival of golf, nevertheless contains some of the richest soil in the country. This is the first of two par fives on the course – the other appears only two holes later. The fourth dog-legs slightly right with the dense woodland of the Lumley estate providing a threatening out-of-bounds throughout the length of the hole. Standing on the tee with the green barely visible over 500 yards away, it is difficult to imagine Bob Stephenson, then 76, holed his second shot during a 2007 seniors tournament for that rarest of birds, an albatross – the only one in the club’s history. Usually the hole requires a drive avoiding three bunkers to the left, a second shot short of the narrow ditch crossing the fairway 80 yards from the green, a third stroke and two putts. Be cautious if the pin is directly behind the deep bunker at the front right of the green.