Course Description
Manchester Golf Club
at Hopwood Park is an 18 hole Championship course, which is a mixture
of parkland and moorland set in some 240 acres. It totals 6,490 yards
with SSS 72. It presents a real challenge to the low handicap golfer,
yet the yellow course, 6,235 yards SSS 70 also offers a choice to suit
all handicaps.
The course of the Manchester Golf Club at Hopwood is laid out on a ridge of wild and rugged moorland half-way between Manchester and Rochdale. It is the sort of country one expects to find among the hills of Lakeland rather than seven miles from the Cotton capital. The rolling plateau, broken up by woods of sycamore and birch, and divided into two by a wide irregular ravine with a brook winding through the bottom of it, makes ideal golfing ground. Innumerable minor gullies and other under-features contribute to the adventurous quality of the holes. The wild hitter will often find himself in real 'tiger country' of bushes and bracken. And the course as a whole, with a total length of 6,490 yards, provides as stiff a test as is to be found in British inland golf.
Hopwood is not the Manchester Club's original home. When the Club was founded, as long ago as 1882, by Mr. John Macalister, its course was at Manley Park. From there it removed to Old Trafford, and it was not until a few years before the First World War that it entered into possession of its present delightful home at Hopwood Park. The Club House is actually the Cottage built in connection with Hopwood Hall. It stands in a secluded corner just off the main Manchester-Rochdale road, about a mile to the north of Middleton, so that it is within easy access of Manchester by road.
The course provides a fine test for any class of golfer. Three holes of round about 500 yards and three more of 450-470 yards allow ample opportunities for the big hitter, but big hitting by itself will not earn low scores at Manchester. In this boldly undulating country it is continually necessary to place our shots so as to leave ourselves with as simple a problem as possible for our next, and the course will always favour the player who has the brains to look a move or two ahead of the game. However, the weaker golfer will find that the difficulties of the course do not bear unduly heavily upon him. The two shot holes are mostly within two-shot distance for any class of player, provided be can pull out the right shots.
Full descriptions of each hole can be found on the individual hole pages.
Alternatively, a full narrative description of each hole on the course is available here.
Holes:
Local Rules
1. Loose stones may be removed from bunkers without penalty. Rule 24-1 applies.
2. Relief may be taken from any regular tractor path and artificially surfaced paths and their edges. All other paths are deemed to be in play.
3. Fixed sprinkler heads and grid covers. All fixed sprinkler heads and grid covers are immovable obstructions and relief from interference by them may be obtained under Rule 24-2. If such an obstruction on or within two club lengths of the putting green of the hole intervenes with the line of play between the ball and the hole, the player may obtain relief, without penalty as follows.
If the ball lies off the putting green but not in a hazard and is within two club lengths of the intervening obstruction, it may be lifted, cleaned and dropped at the nearest point to where the ball lay which:
a) is
not nearer the hole
b) avoids such intervention and
c) is not in a hazard or on a putting green.
4. A ball lying in an open drain made for the preservation of the course may be lifted and dropped without penalty.
5. The brook at all points and the hollows at the 6th, 10th and 12th are water hazards.
6. Trees
supported by stakes - if such a tree interferes with a player's stance
or the area of his intended swing, the ball must be dropped in accordance
with the procedure prescribed in
Rule 24-2b(i) (immovable obstruction). The ball may be cleaned when so
lifted.
Out of bounds
Beyond the fences marking the boundaries of the course. In or over the trench between the 6th and 7th holes, when playing the 6th hole. The cut trenches on the left of the 10th and 11th holes, beyond the 12th green, the left and right of the 14th fairway, left of the 15th, left of the 17th and 18th fairway. A ball lying in a trench marking a boundary is out of bounds
A practice ground is provided on the left of the second fairway and the driving range is located to the left of the 17th fairway.
Whilst playing the 7th hole, the white stakes between the 7th and 6th holes are deemed immovable obstructions. Relief may be taken from the trench in which the stakes are positioned.
©
Manchester Golf Club Ltd, Hopwood Cottage, Rochdale Road, Middleton,
Manchester M24 6QP. All rights reserved.
Tel : 0161 643 3202