To borrow an overused analogy, the first hole at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club is a warm handshake. With the second, you feel a tightening of the grip. By the third, you’re losing feeling in your hand and you’ve locked eyes with your amenable adversary. By the fifth, the fight is on and it’s got the point one of you needs to give. The crescendo is the all or nothing, risk-reward par 4 6th. Hole 6 Royal Cinque Ports gives you the option to: Firstly, make a statement. Secondly, respectfully loosen the grip de-escalating the stakes. Thirdly, honourably capitulate whilst maintaining your dignity.

At First Glance

What is clear immediately from the tee is there are at least two options. Go for the green or lay up. Choosing a direct line to the green, successfully played it can yield an eagle, likely a birdie and at worst a par. Statement made.  The second option is to lay up and play this as a two-shot hole. Walk off with four and everybody’s pride is left intact despite both parties each knowing there was a little left on the table. It is the age-old, time-tested, risk and reward par 4. However, it isn’t quite that straightforward… and that’s what makes this hole great.

Upon Deeper Review

After playing the hole the first time you realise there are, in fact, three available options each with layers of character:

Option A: Go for the green. An all-or-nothing approach that is not quite that straightforward. Fail the carry and you find yourself, not in a hazard, but playing from the dunes! Spray it wide right and over the sea wall, you find yourself on the beach rather than out of bounds. In either circumstance, a penalty drop or a stroke and distance penalty may have been the preferred option. If you’re going to make a statement, make sure you can pull it off…

Option B: Hit your tee shot as close as possible to the apex of the dogleg. Seems like the logical thing to do, right? While you have a better look at the green you probably will see only the top of the flag. While you may be nearer the green, the requisite shot will be awkward and decisions will need to be made. The closer you get to the green, the more undulating the terrain. Driving as close as you can to the generous landing area could leave you a short pitch from a decent lie to an awkward half shot from a precarious lie. You’d be surprised how many members putt from here…

Option C: The shortest tee shot to the level plateau 40 yards long and 25 yards wide beside the left side fairway bunker. This leaves you a level lie but also a semi-blind approach to an elevated green. The closer you go towards the bunker the more the green opens up to you. At first glance, this is the cop-out. However, it requires two very good shots to carry the day, as opposed to one of the highest order.

In Summary

What makes this hole so good?

All or nothing this is not. Many drivable par 4’s begin or end with one shot. Success or failure depends on the ability to pull off a single shot. Whiff and you can have another go. The bleeding stops and you can redeem yourself. Here, go for it and miss… it’s the beginning of a very long, short par 4. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

You cannot have it all. With many strategic golf holes, taking on the risk and pulling it off gets you all of the reward. Not here. Option B gets you closer but you’re almost guaranteed a somewhat dodgy lie. Option C gets you a level lie and a full shot in but it’s semi-blind. Even if you are successful in your first attempt, there is no let-up until you’ve tapped in on the green.

Conclusion

Hole 6 Royal Cinque Ports is one of many with strategic brilliance. There are layers of intrigue and little nuances that lift this short par 4 from good to great. When you play golf next, look for holes that offer variety as well as risk and reward. Beyond that, looking for holes gives you more options as you play them as opposed to less. Lastly, it’s my opinion a well-designed hole should be a little unfair and not give everything away all in one go. The best holes allow you to attempt to gain an advantage but still have some bother left for you to contend with. The 6th Royal Cinque Ports has all this and more. A great golfing hole with depth and character.

Take a flyover of Hole 6 at Royal Cinque Ports.

Photos by Jason Livy

Imagine having a world-class course that played a pivotal role in the history of the game. The roots of the modern game and every first-class course earth-wide could trace its design ethos to a single hazard complex, on a single hole. Imagine historical behemoths sketched, wrote and otherwise immortalised your course in the annals of history. However, imagine there is a hole that doesn’t fit, is not regarded as a sound hole by most, and is held in disdain by the membership.

What are your options? Buy more land, hire a world-class architect and take your chances that the endeavour would be well received and worth the effort and expense. What would you do if you discovered that a legendary architect actually laid out the solution in 1937 and it lay waiting to be rediscovered?

This is precisely where Woking Golf Club finds itself. The membership is not enamoured with the ninth. The fairway canters left to right, around a left to right dogleg to an elevated green. The required tee-ball and approach are not shots most members have at their disposal. Ultimately, there is a distinct lack of strategy at the strategic home of golf.

From 1893 to 1936, the ninth and tenth played as two short par fours. The knock against them? They were similar, played back to back and above all, were blind or semi-blind. Charles Ambrose wrote: “…leaving the 8th green (the golfer) had to retrace his steps to a teeing ground which gave him a semi-blind drive across an old quarry; and if he hit this tee-shot properly, he was left with an iron shot of sorts to a green in a hollow, completely concealed by a ridge.”

The Solution

The solution? In 1937, Tom Simpson made a blind, two-shot par-four ninth into a long par three. The new, elevated tee behind the current eighth green cured the blindness of the former tee shot. The new double-decker green brought forward and built into the ridge that previously caused all the bother on the approach. Three tiers provided two options. There was an opportunity for birdie if significant risks were successfully courted or a safe play to the first tier with two putts for par. 

The conclusion, according to Charles Ambrose? “Altogether, it is difficult to find any fault with the new hole. It is excellent, both in conception and execution.”

The result was the tenth had to change as well. Ambrose wrote: “The old tenth was, admittedly, the weak spot at Woking. For the tee shot, almost any old thing would do so long as the player steered clear of the cluster of bunkers on the right… then followed an iron shot up to a flat plateau green, towering high above the head of the striker, so that he had no idea where the hole was actually cut.”

The new, tenth tee moved behind the old ninth green. A single hazard was introduced into the middle of the fairway 230 yards from the tee. There was a 30-yard wide strip of fairway to the left from which the green was orientated to accept a 200-yard shot. The new green site moved left on the precipice of the hillside. There was a bunker to the high side and low side of the green which both came into play if you approached the green from the left of the centreline bunker. A pond was located below the green which collected anything left short or left. 

The Critics Response

What was the conclusion of the new tenth? Ambrose summarises “…When all is said and done… this hole may easily become one of the grandest in all of golf.”

In 1959 the two holes were again changed to their current configuration in an attempt to chase down a Par 5. Some felt the course would be more highly regarded with the addition of a three-shot hole. Soon after completing the work, the arbitrary definition of par was changed which reduced the hole from a Par 5 back to a Par 4. Instead of reverting to Simpon’s design, the club stayed the course.

From 1893 until 1937, the tenth was the weakest hole on the course. Between, 1937 to 1959, Simpson seems to have resolved the problem by creating two great holes from two indifferent. Since 1959, after alterations and with hindsight, the ninth is again regarded as the weak spot. A curious history of the Hidden Holes Woking Golf Club. 

The Future

Where do we go from here? The only reasonable solution would seem to be to try the Simpson configuration. Tim Lobb and Andy Ewence are ambitiously improving the course. The reinstatement of Simpson’s 9 & 10 should no doubt be high on the list as it would be popular with the membership and a marketers’ dream. Will it soon be possible to play Simpson’s newest holes, 70 years after they were lost? We hope so! The world of golf is owed it. One can only hope the Hidden Holes Woking Golf Club aren’t hidden for much longer. 

We wish to thank Lee Patterson for his contributions to this article.