A Day at Frinton Golf Club
There is something truly beautiful about waking up on a Saturday knowing you’re off to play a style of golf course you don’t usually get to play. Living in London, your choice is any number of variants of the parkland course. That means tight fairways, lots of trees lining approaches and pretty similar undulations on the greens. This isn’t to say that parkland courses are boring by any stretch, but when you play them week in and week out especially ones that all seemed to be designed by Colt or Braid, it can get a bit humdrum.
Today was not one of those days. Today I was waking up to make a pilgrimmage out to Essex to play Frinton Golf Club, a links golf course right on the North Sea, to play a long overdue round with Lloyd, aka OnePuttLife. Lloyd and I first met over a year ago at Ealing Golf Club playing in a member guest competition and really hit it off. He is a very strong golfer, with a 4.8 handicap and irons so bladed you’d think you’d be using them to put spread on your toast. He also happens to have the most epic job in the world, in my opinion, traveling the country working with golf brands to bring campaigns to live, but I’ll save a specific entry to talk more about that in the future… This post is about the golf.
With my new Manors gilet on, I decided to brave the day in shorts and a polo, after checking the weather it looked like we were in store for one last beautiful gasp of British summer before the chilled winds of Autumn catch us up. I set off from the house and made the trademark Lime bike journey with golf clubs strapped to my back down to Liverpool Street to catch the train out and with a coffee in hand settled in for the hour and a quarter journey to Essex. As the train rolled along, my excitement only grew. I’ve been lucky enough to play some of the best links golf courses in the UK if not the world, and everytime it’s a uniquely special experience. Something about the vast fairways, deep bunkers and firm greens just changes the way you approach the game.
Stepping up to the first tee, we were faced with a wide fairway, but not a long one. The short grass meandered gently to the left leading up to the green with a wood being the safer bet off the tee at my carry distances. With the 3-ball behind us looking on, I felt the pressure of the moment and proceeded to hit a squeeze cut that didn’t make it more than 7 feet off the ground, but found the fairway and we were away. The biggest flaw of my game, apart from chipping, has been a complete lack of weight transfer in my swing, leading to bad contact and bad compression. Todays focus was shifting and shifting HARD. And shift I did, sticking the green and two putting for par to set the tone for the day.
As we made our way around the course I was struck by its unsupecting beauty. With the sea wall looming large over the sunken land the course was built on, you almost felt as if you were nestled in a valley with walkers on the seaside towering 15 feet above the flats of the course. It’s truly a unique setting and the gentle sea haze hanging over the course added to the ethereal magic of the day. Frinton was incredibly unique for a links course, it lacked traditional pot bunkers like you may encounter at many of the Scottish offerings, but I found it’s rough and it’s OB areas to be more plentiful and more penal than what I’d encountered elsewhere, this put an exceptional premium on accuracy off the tee leading to many woods and iron shots and not a lot of driver, which was probably for the best given my current struggles with it. Watching Lloyd play was also something special, seeing low single figures golfers is a unique thing. The shots they can execute, the way they see the course, the meticulousness of their routines, really cements home the extra layers of work that need to be done to take your game to the next level.
As we went around, I was able to keep the big numbers on the cards and score well on the par 3’s and even the longer par 5’s were easily within reach thanks to all the work I’ve put in to increase my speed. We were in a fantastic groove, seemingly going shot for shot and really playing some quality golf as we meandered through the undulating fairways and firm but slower green conditions. Unfortunately a traffic jam on hole 14 as we waited to play our approach shots slightly knocked the vibe and took us out of the flow, but we were able to right the ship and battle to the end to post a solid score.
For me the day hadn’t been about scoring well or playing well, rather focusing on the changes I needed to make in my swing (GET INTO THE LEFT SIDE!!!!!!) and catching up with a mate I hadn’t seen in a long time. But in focusing on these things, I found the outcome of my game was much better than the previous day. And that’s all golf is, little improvements and staying grounded in the moment.
I look forward to my next trip out to Essex, I hope to play Frinton again in the not so distant future, a course that plays incredibly fair, challenges you to play your best golf, and looks the part to boot, what’s not the like? (Except maybe their MP…)
