JCB GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB - 17 POINTS
When JCB, the global construction company, decided to build a golf course in the grounds of the company’s headquarters they were clear on one thing. They wanted nothing but the best.
The purpose of the golf course is unusual. JCB were looking primarily to use the golf course as a marketing tool. The idea was to build a golf course which could hold a significant golf event to help raise brand awareness - and ultimately drive sales of JCB products - in the international market.
Secondly, it would act as a place to bring JCB clients from around the world to be entertained at the golf course, accommodated in the luxury lodges and wined and dined in the state of the art clubhouse. This was to be an international showcase for the brand and the course needed to impress the world.
There aren’t traditional members here. Its membership is entirely corporate, where companies receive a number of rounds every year to use for employees or guests. These companies don’t need to have an affiliation with JCB.
If you are a JCB employee you can play the course, for a reasonable green fee, on a Sunday afternoon. But that’s it. You can’t phone up for a time, or offer to pay whatever it takes for a round. You need to be invited by a corporate member or be a top client or employee of JCB.
The only tip I can give for getting a time if you don’t have such connections is to keep your eye out for charity days. Every year some of the corporate members use some of their times for charitable purposes and you may be able to get a spot in one of those. It’s worth setting up a google alert to let you know when they come up.
The architect Robin Hiseman, of European Golf Design, was given the task of creating a course capable of hosting golf’s very best, while keeping it playable for mere mortals too.
The course is built on land close to the JCB headquarters in a mixture of established woodland and farmers’ fields. The site wasn’t the easiest to work on as there was a lot of clay and drainage was a challenge. Hiseman and his team moved over 400,000m3 of earth to produce the course.
I had a little trepidation before visiting JCB. I am something of a traditionalist when it comes to what I enjoy on a golf course, give me Alwoodley over The Belfry any day. I was nervous that the course might be one of those long modern layouts, built with the Ryder Cup in mind, which put length before playability.
I was also a little worried because I had heard so much about the amazing facilities. I had been told that the clubhouse was phenomenal, the driving range a dream, the shop wonderful etc. When I hear so much positivity about everything around the course it does make me wonder sometimes whether people are blinded by the frills and forgetting the actual course.
I’m delighted to say that I very quickly realised these fears were unfounded. This is a golf course which absolutely meets the very high standards demanded. It is not just a modern behemoth but a course with some real soul as well.
It’s helped by the fact that it uses some of that established woodland and other existing features, so it has a maturity beyond its years. It’s also helped by the fact that it is designed with different standards of golfers in mind.
It’s a real cliché, but you do need to choose your tees carefully. There will be virtually no joy for the average golfer in playing from the back tees. I’m a 12-handicapper and the Yellow Tees, at around 6,600 yards, were plenty for me.
There were a couple of holes where we went back to the white tees - for example, its worth a trip back at the 1st to experience an adrenaline filled start.
Unlike other courses which have added tees further back over the years, this course is designed with those options in mind from the off meaning that on several holes the professional player hitting from the back tees and the amateur from the middle tees will end up in a similar place for their second shot.
Heroic lines abound all over the course, but Hiseman always gives you options for a safer route where you might still manage a par, though birdies are unlikely.
While the fescue was fairly punishing most of the fairways were pretty wide so if you are hitting the ball halfway decently then you should be in play most of the time. Having said that when I was there there was an event on and 36 points took first prize!
You can see every hole on the course on my video below but here are a few of the highlights:
Hole 1
It really is worth hitting one from the white tee on the 1st hole at the JCB. The setting is really lovely, with the tee nestled in the trees demanding a shot over the lake to start things off. The 200 yard carry is visually intimidating and most golfers will play safe towards the bunker in the middle of the fairway, leaving a mid iron into the green. However those brave enough to go long down the left side will be rewarded with a shorter iron in.
The green is well defended. If you come up short of a left hand pin you are likely to roll back towards the water; bunkers are the challenge when the pin is on the right.
The first hole gives you a good taste of what’s to come. The course is visually stunning, hazards abound, and a good golfing brain is needed to plot your away around.
Hole 3
Three of the par 5s at the JCB are over 600 yards - long, even by today’s standards. This one has what feels like a boomerang dogleg around to the left - it’s one of the most acute doglegs you will find on any golf course.
Only the very longest hitters will be able to think about going for the green in two, for the rest of us a precise layup is important.
While the hole itself sweeps from right to left, the green complex moves the other way. The mound to the left and a spine running down the centre of the green will push balls toward the lovingly restored 18th century Uttoxeter canal that lies in wait on the right.
Hole 4
The JCB is a well-bunkered golf course but you won’t find any on the 4th hole - Hiseman’s tribute to Willie Park’s 2nd at Huntercombe.
The blind tee shot requires you to commit to your line off the tee and then it is all about the approach. The ball will feed in from the right hand side to this rolling, three-tiered putting surface.
With run-offs on all sides, missing the green could have quite a cost
Hole 6
While the 6th could be described as a short par 5 by modern standards, it is still a real test.
The hole winds uphill, first from right to left and then from left to right. Longer hitters will be tempted to carry the bunkers on the left and then go for it in two. For those playing it as a conventional par 5 the layup needs real precision, with a bunker waiting on the right and another short.
Hole 7
I really liked the 7th hole. It’s a long par 4 but it’s not just about hitting the ball as far as you can from the tee. The reverse-cambered fairway means that the key is to just carry the two bunkers on the inside of the dogleg. The ball will then run down the left hand side and open up the angle to the green.
Drive too far though and you may bound into the rough beyond, bringing the cross bunkers short into play. Of course you could drive safely away from the bunkers but, for many, that would turn the hole into a par 5.
9th Hole
While the JCB is a new course, the 9th feels like it’s been there forever. The tranquil setting, within a mature arboretum, makes this one of the truly special holes on the golf course.
Choosing the right club, allowing for the drop in elevation, is the key to avoiding water and sand and giving yourself a birdie putt. This was such a lovely part of the golf course. Much is made of the spectacular par 3 17th but this was maybe the pick of the par 3s for me.
11th Hole
Once you get over the fescue grass, the 11th at the JCB could be considered a homage to Augusta. From the tee you will have the choice of how much of the inside corner of this dogleg to cut off. If you are bold and go over the bunker on the right you’ll just have a wedge in. But go too far right and the punishment is severe.
Correct clubbing with your approach is vital. Alders Brook, short of this narrow green will gobble up many a ball, but there are problems long too. The grass on the bank was relatively long when I was there but if it was shaved down over time I think the test would be even better.
12th Hole
Regardless of the tee you are playing from, you will be faced with the same dilemma on this short par 4. Do you go for the green in one, and risk bringing the brook to the right into play, or lay up to the left and trust your wedge to get the birdie?
The JCB course may have been built for tournament play, but holes like this ensure it will challenge and thrill golfers of all levels.
13th Hole
The last of the par 5s comes at the 13th. Water is one of the defining features of this hole. For most of us, a tee shot to the right of the two trees is the safe play, longer hitters will go through the gap to the left.
From there it’s either 250 yards of carry over the water to attack the green with your second shot or, more likely, a layup down the ribbon of fairway on the left. The second part of this hole was completely flat before construction started so it required a huge amount of earth moving to create this lake and surrounding shaping.
The tiered green and surrounding mounds will push everything towards the water so once again there’s no time to relax until you are safely in the hole.
16th Hole
Throughout the course, Hiseman gives the golfer options. The 16th is no exception.
The fairway runs out at 250 yards before starting up again around the dogleg to the right. Players can layup short of the bunkers from the tee, leaving a medium iron in, or take on the carry over the corner.
The green, set in front of the wonderfully named Mince Pie Hall, may be the last real birdie chance for many. The next two holes bring one of the most demanding finishes in all of British golf.
17th Hole
Comparisons with Sawgrass may be inevitable on the 17th hole, but let there be no doubt - the JCB’s 17th is by far the tougher.
At 255 yards from the back tees it requires flawless execution to hit the putting surface on an island green. Clubbing is another challenge, with a 30 meter drop the hole will play shorter than the yardage
From the causeway crossing, to the beach-like bunkers at the front and rear of the green, the detailing is really well done.
Given just how spectacular it is, it is understandable that this hole gets so much of the attention. However, I felt that it was just a little different in character to the rest of the course. Maybe it was just because you could see cars driving behind the lake whereas the rest of the course is so secluded.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good hole, it’s just I think there are even better ones which might not have quite the immediate ‘wow factor’.
18th Hole
The 18th is a fitting finale to the JCB Golf and Country Club. It’s a long hole, sweeping up the hill and round to the left.
Centre line bunkers lie in wait if you hit it straight from the tee and then again for the last hundred yards into the green. Longer hitters will hug the left from the tee to give a chance of reaching this green in two. The wonderful three-tiered 18th green is sure to see many dramatic finishes in the years ahead.
The course has plenty of highlights and it will only improve further as it ages.
The quality of greenkeeping was as good as anything you will see - greens running fast and true and excellent turf. There are 30 greenkeepers working on the course and the impact of that was plain to see. The grass was really inviting to hit from and it seemed easier than normal to get the ball in the air, which was helpful!
I do think that the green complexes could be even further enhanced if the run-offs were longer and cut tighter as opposed to having collars of rough to gather the ball but that’s only a minor suggestion.
The 15th green shows the potential for further run-off areas
Golf buggies are the norm for getting around. I am usually a walking golfer but driving makes sense here. It is possible to walk it but there are some fairly long walks from green to tees which may tire you out.
I think JCB should be delighted with Hiseman’s creation and I am sure that it will be a worthy host to the world’s greatest golfers one day. Given the huge distances these players hit these days, they will score well. But there are nuances beyond most courses on the professional circuit today.
It’s very hard to know where it will finish in the UK rankings. It is probably the best inland course built in the UK since Loch Lomond some 30 years ago and will easily hold its own as a UK and Ireland top 100 course.
The business model it employs may be one of the factors that holds it back. Without more exposure it may just fly under the radar and find it hard to get the rating it deserves.
This is a tough tee time to get for sure. Those who manage to play it will find a course that tests them and rewards them, where the excellence of presentation is thankfully matched by the cleverness of design.
CONTACT DETAILS
JCB Golf and Country Club
Hollington Rd,
Rocester,
Uttoxeter ST14 5HY