Like The Addington, Knole Park is the creation of architect JF Abercromby who didn’t leave us many courses, but what he left is distinctive. Even over years of tree growth and neglect, The Addington was still one of the London heathland courses most worth a visit and with the current restoration by Clayton, DeVries, and Pont, it will likely be one of the 4 or 5 best.
While a London area course—Knole Park is about a 15 minute walk from the Sevenoaks commuter stop, which is the first major station to the city’s southeast and probably one of its busiest—Knole Park is not a heathland course. I tend to think that heathland courses are a less distinctive type of course than they’re given credit for; the defining feature is that they have heather but several of the better ones, like St. George’s Hill, don’t have that much. They also tend to have a lot of Scots Pine trees although some like Walton Heath don’t have many of these. Nor is the terrain distinctive. What distinguishes a heathland course is that it’s on acidic soil. But this doesn’t matter for golf per se—what matters for golf is the terrain and I just don’t see a systematic difference across heathland and non-heathland courses.
So Knole Park isn’t a heathland course in that it doesn’t have heather and pines but like Abercromby’s other most famous (heathland) course, it does have wild terrain. Actually, Knole Park’s terrain is even wilder than The Addington although it’s of a bit less consequence for playing because this course is much wider and there’s less chance that the wild terrain will result in a lost ball.
Knole Park is in a giant deer park—they’re abundant throughout the course—and gets its name from its location on the grounds of the spectacular Knole House, which dates to the 15th century and is one of the 5 largest houses in England. Because the course is in a park, golfers are accompanied by many pedestrians on a day visit to Knole House and there are many on the paths that cross the course, especially at its closest points to the house (6th, 7th, 13th, 14th holes). I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always found this multi-purpose aspect of so many British courses very charming although it can sometimes be a nuisance for the golfer and dangerous (i.e. St. Enodoc’s tenth hole). This property is so broad and open however that in my multiple rounds, it was never an issue.
So that’s enough about the general features of the property, how about the course? It was one of my personal favorites in England although I’d hesitate to say that it’s one of the best. The reason I think I liked it so much is the property’s openness, which makes it very beautiful and, combined with the very challenging terrain, makes the golf feel adventurous. It’s a bit the same feeling that I got playing at Cleeve Hill, although the golf here certainly isn’t as adventurous. Although the openness is the main thing that you’ll remember, there are a few points where the course could use to be a bit more open, with landscape trees having narrowed the corridors of a few holes a bit too much. Apparently the property lost many ancient trees in a 1987 storm and some of these were probably replacements. But the course doesn’t need them because even treeless, the land is dramatic enough to ensure sufficient challenge.
Like The Addington, Knole Park starts on a par 3. Also like The Addington and several of the other courses that start on a par 3 in England, this apparently isn’t the original first hole. Although a par 3 isn’t my ideal start, this is a good one, ~190 yards to a green that’s open in front but has a diagonal series of bunkers from short-left to long-right.
While a London area course—Knole Park is about a 15 minute walk from the Sevenoaks commuter stop, which is the first major station to the city’s southeast and probably one of its busiest—Knole Park is not a heathland course. I tend to think that heathland courses are a less distinctive type of course than they’re given credit for; the defining feature is that they have heather but several of the better ones, like St. George’s Hill, don’t have that much. They also tend to have a lot of Scots Pine trees although some like Walton Heath don’t have many of these. Nor is the terrain distinctive. What distinguishes a heathland course is that it’s on acidic soil. But this doesn’t matter for golf per se—what matters for golf is the terrain and I just don’t see a systematic difference across heathland and non-heathland courses.
So Knole Park isn’t a heathland course in that it doesn’t have heather and pines but like Abercromby’s other most famous (heathland) course, it does have wild terrain. Actually, Knole Park’s terrain is even wilder than The Addington although it’s of a bit less consequence for playing because this course is much wider and there’s less chance that the wild terrain will result in a lost ball.
Knole Park is in a giant deer park—they’re abundant throughout the course—and gets its name from its location on the grounds of the spectacular Knole House, which dates to the 15th century and is one of the 5 largest houses in England. Because the course is in a park, golfers are accompanied by many pedestrians on a day visit to Knole House and there are many on the paths that cross the course, especially at its closest points to the house (6th, 7th, 13th, 14th holes). I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always found this multi-purpose aspect of so many British courses very charming although it can sometimes be a nuisance for the golfer and dangerous (i.e. St. Enodoc’s tenth hole). This property is so broad and open however that in my multiple rounds, it was never an issue.
So that’s enough about the general features of the property, how about the course? It was one of my personal favorites in England although I’d hesitate to say that it’s one of the best. The reason I think I liked it so much is the property’s openness, which makes it very beautiful and, combined with the very challenging terrain, makes the golf feel adventurous. It’s a bit the same feeling that I got playing at Cleeve Hill, although the golf here certainly isn’t as adventurous. Although the openness is the main thing that you’ll remember, there are a few points where the course could use to be a bit more open, with landscape trees having narrowed the corridors of a few holes a bit too much. Apparently the property lost many ancient trees in a 1987 storm and some of these were probably replacements. But the course doesn’t need them because even treeless, the land is dramatic enough to ensure sufficient challenge.
Like The Addington, Knole Park starts on a par 3. Also like The Addington and several of the other courses that start on a par 3 in England, this apparently isn’t the original first hole. Although a par 3 isn’t my ideal start, this is a good one, ~190 yards to a green that’s open in front but has a diagonal series of bunkers from short-left to long-right.
The second hole is a straight-away, uphill par 4 of about 350 yards from the standard tees. There’s about an 80 yard walkback to a back tee that would make it a bit of a dogleg left. Two things are important here: one, don’t get your drive behind the massive oak tree left of the fairway; two, be sure to take enough club on the uphill approach.
I think I read somewhere that the first two holes at Knole Park were originally one hole, a par 5 playing to the second green. While I like both of the existing hole, I think that this hole would probably be an improvement. There’s be plenty of room to stick a par 3 somewhere else to make up for it.
One hole which you certainly wouldn’t want to replace is the 400 yard third, which is a great one. You play blind over a hill into a valley which houses a shared fairway between this and the fourth hole. But you can see the green from the tee so once you’re down there, it’s uphill to the green, which is cut beautifully into the surrounding hills. There’s a lot of trouble around this green in the form of little humps and hollows. Like the previous hole, you’ll probably need extra club for the approach.
The par 4 fourth is another hole that has been changed. The tee used to be just left of the third green, which created a blind shot over a big fern-covered (or as they’d say in England, ‘bracken-covered’) hill to the second half of the current valley fairway.
At some point, the tee was moved up the hill to the right of the third green, which creates a drive that crosses over the third fairway but gives a much better view. Despite my general affection for blind drives, having looked at the hole from the old tee (the pad is still there), I think it was a good change. It’s a very good looking drive from the current tees, with the fairway following the natural valley left to the green.
The problem with this hole is that it’s become choked-out by trees on the left and tick-filled junk on the right. The club could really use to lose the trees on the left—the drive would still be plenty difficult because a long hitter could clear the hill but a weak drive could get stuck on it.
At some point, the tee was moved up the hill to the right of the third green, which creates a drive that crosses over the third fairway but gives a much better view. Despite my general affection for blind drives, having looked at the hole from the old tee (the pad is still there), I think it was a good change. It’s a very good looking drive from the current tees, with the fairway following the natural valley left to the green.
The problem with this hole is that it’s become choked-out by trees on the left and tick-filled junk on the right. The club could really use to lose the trees on the left—the drive would still be plenty difficult because a long hitter could clear the hill but a weak drive could get stuck on it.
There’s about a 120 yard uphill walk to the par 3 fifth tee. I wonder if there used to be another hole in here? In any case, the current par 3 is a solid and exacting one. You need a well-struck tee shot because the green sits on a hill and you can’t run one up.
While there are a few good ones in the first five, for me, Knole Park really gets going with the sixth hole, which is simply one of the most brilliant driving hols that I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to tell from the tee, but it’s a split fairway, one obvious one in the valley in front of you but another blind one over the hill running in the direction of the green.
The hill creates one of the great driving challenges that I’ve ever seen. If you don’t carry it, your ball will either get stuck on it or kick down into the low fairway. It’s a shorter carry over it to the left but if you don’t fade a drive on this line, you can run into the junk on the other side. If you go for the longer carry, you have to be careful not to let it leak right because the right side of the left fairway slopes down into the right valley fairway. There’s a small bunker near the end of the valley fairway, right where a drive kicking right from the high-left line is likely to end up.
The hill creates one of the great driving challenges that I’ve ever seen. If you don’t carry it, your ball will either get stuck on it or kick down into the low fairway. It’s a shorter carry over it to the left but if you don’t fade a drive on this line, you can run into the junk on the other side. If you go for the longer carry, you have to be careful not to let it leak right because the right side of the left fairway slopes down into the right valley fairway. There’s a small bunker near the end of the valley fairway, right where a drive kicking right from the high-left line is likely to end up.
Maybe it doesn't look it, but the sixth hole drive is extraordinary, possibly my favorite anywhere. A drive up the fairway on the right will leave a completely blind second. There's fairway over the hill on the left but too far left and you can run through it. Hedge a little right or put too much fade on it and it can run down the hill into the right fairway or a small bunker at its left.
It's a bit easier to see this all from above. The tee is center-left although there's another bottom-left which creates a more oblique angle into the green. I suspect that the small bunker in the center gets a ton of action. It looks like there were more short of it guarding the high fairway. These should be restored.
While you have a good look at the green from anywhere in the left fairway, the approach from the valley is completely blind and must come over diagonal bunkers fronting the green at that angle. Although I didn’t get a picture, I was down there in one of my rounds and the view was very disorienting—I missed my aiming line for the green by about 20 yards!
While nothing too exciting, the seventh is a very pleasant short par 5 crossing an open landscape dotted by trees, some young some very old. The approach is semi-blind if you haven’t hit a long drive. The most important thing here is that you don’t let your approach leak too far right if going for the green because there’s a big wall guarding one of Knole House’s gardens.
Eight is a beautiful downhill par 3 that looks like it’s playing through a garden. Despite the beauty, it’s quite difficult; the green is deep but narrow and has a steep drop-off at its left. The right bunker is certainly no good as the green runs away from there.
Many would probably say that the course begins a bit of a weak stretch with the par 5 ninth. The ground is a bit tamer here and there isn’t so much to drum up interest between the tees and the greens. I actually think that the drive on nine is a pretty tough one. The bunkers on the right are 230 from the standard tees, 250 from the tips and cut pretty far into the fairway. There’s also marshy junk on the other side if you pull it.
I found the 170 yard tenth to be a lovely hole in its simplicity. But there’s a bit more trouble near the green than appears in the form of two bunkers left in addition to the obvious one on the right.
Certainly the most problematic hole at Knole Park is the ~430 eleventh. The hole probably doglegs 75 degrees to the right but it’s almost impossible to cut any of the corner because of the massive oak trees in the corner of the dogleg. So you only want to hit it ~240 out to the left. The longest hitters might be able to go over the trees but anyone who can do that should play the back tee at 485 yards, which I didn’t even know existed until I looked at the club’s website just now.
This is one of those holes that’d be much better if there were bunkers rather than trees on the corner of the dogleg. But these are some very large, old oaks and the tree-loving part of me that says ‘keep ‘em’ probably wins out over the good-golf-hole-loving part of me that knows it’d be a better hole without them.
This is one of those holes that’d be much better if there were bunkers rather than trees on the corner of the dogleg. But these are some very large, old oaks and the tree-loving part of me that says ‘keep ‘em’ probably wins out over the good-golf-hole-loving part of me that knows it’d be a better hole without them.
After three perhaps less-than-great holes, we have three excellent ones. The 200 yard twelfth is excellent. There’s room short over the bunkers to run one on and the green is very unusual, with a ridge running through the back that creates a small back shelf. The back section is barely large enough for a pin placement (it’d be a fun one) and I wonder if this section was either larger and encompassed some of the area behind it that’s now rough or if it wasn’t part of the green in the first place. I’d guess the former.
The 325 yard par 4 thirteenth is very unusual, but in a good way. The drive is uphill, yet there’s a marsh/pond halfway up the hill on the right side starting at about 225. You either need to lay up short, which makes the approach very uphill, play to the left, which is narrow and means you’ll have to contend with a stunted old oak tree left of the green, or carry it, which takes about a 240 yard carry up a hill. It’s one of the more unusual driving holes I’ve seen, but it’s a very good one. It’s also one where the trees planted too close to the fairway on the left actually do a lot to make it interesting by making option (2) more difficult.
The fairway on the long par 4 fourteenth is wide open but its right side kicks right and it’s quite easy to end up in the rough on a downslope on the right. If you hit the fairway, you’ll have a good view of what’s probably both the course’s most picturesque and interesting approach. It’s a bit tough to run one up here but the shot plays about 25 feet downhill, so it’s probably one or two clubs less than usual.
I mentioned that the club should combine the first and second holes into a par 5 and stick a par 3 in somewhere else. My suggestion would be here, playing from just left of the fourteenth green down to the base of the hill behind the green, just to the right of the fifteenth tee. This would make for a hole of ~150 yards, which would add some variety to the par 3s, all of which currently require at least a mid-iron.
Knole Park’s most Addington-like moment in terms of severity comes at the par 5 fifteenth. It’s a very tough drive from the back tee; you need about 230 to carry the ridge on the right side but if you shy away to the left, you can get stuck behind a grove of trees on the left that starts at ~280.
It’s critical that you hit a good drive here because otherwise, you won’t be able to carry your second up the massive hill in front of the green. Google Earth say that it’s only about a 20ft. rise—it felt like at least twice that. If you go for it and don’t make the carry, your ball can run well off to the left. If you can’t make it, you’ll have to lay back to ~150 and have a shot that’s so uphill that you will wonder if you can even hit your short iron high enough. Very difficult hole for shorter hitters or those who miss their drive.
Sixteen completes Knole Park’s sextet of difficult par 3s (the shortest is #10 at 170 and the other five are all >190). This 200-yarder might be the most difficult of the bunch. The difficulty here is that if you miss your long-iron/hybrid by even a little bit, the ground is likely to carry the ball down the hill to the right, almost to the junk. But the bunker left is about 20 yards short of the green and you can use the ground past it to run one onto the green. It’s an excellent hole and I’d say probably the best of the par 3s.
Each of the par 3s at Knole Park is a good hole in its own right but as a set, they’re a bit too difficult and lacking a bit in variety, with 4 and 5-irons all day. I love courses with six par 3s but unfortunately this is a case of the whole being less than the sum of its parts. The Addington also has six par 3s and that set is superior to Knole Park’s (and almost any other course) in good part because of the variety of lengths.
The 540 yard par 5 seventeenth is a tricky driving hole because the fairway slopes gently away on the left and more steeply away on the right. It’s best to play this one just off the trees to the left because there’s a hidden string of bunkers on the right from 220-270.
The 540 yard par 5 seventeenth is a tricky driving hole because the fairway slopes gently away on the left and more steeply away on the right. It’s best to play this one just off the trees to the left because there’s a hidden string of bunkers on the right from 220-270.
The approach is downhill over a valley and you’ll need to be able to carry to with about 110 yards of the green to carry it. But we’re on high ground here and if you’re playing in the summer, the ball rolls a lot, making this hole play much shorter than the yardage. In one of my rounds, I had probably 230 to the green and cold chunked a 4-iron. I almost didn’t find the ball…because it had rolled all the way to the back of the green.
The 400 yard eighteenth features another of those lovely English drives: completely blind over a hill about 80 yards in front of the tee. Even though they could have put the tee on high ground left of the seventeenth green, they stuck it in this ditch near the boundary wall. I love it. I wish we had more drives like this in the US.
But that’s really the only interesting thing about the drive because the fairway is wide-open. The second shot…definitely not one of my favorites over a small pond. Altogether, not a very inspired finishing hole, especially for such an inspirational course.
Over two visits and four total rounds, I always found Knole Park to be one of the most enjoyable courses in the London area. It’s beautiful, a very pleasant walk, and there are several very nice holes (and one all-world one, the sixth). Reflecting on it a few years later though, it just doesn’t have the strengths of London’s best. The bunkering is fine, but nothing too special in its placement or shaping. Generally they’re a bit too small, not fitting the scale of the property. The shaping on an around the greens is also a bit weak. Now the London courses generally aren’t known for their greens contouring, but the best ones all have interesting mounds and hollows that create a lot of interest throughout. Unfortunately, Knole Park doesn’t have any of that.
Like The Addington, I suspect that Knole Park has become a bit degraded from Abercromby’s original course. It’d be interesting to see what this course looked like in its early years. Hopefully the club will have a look at this and consider making changes to get the course closer to its original presentation if it has in fact gotten away from this. One thing that it could definitely use is tree removal. There are plenty of stately old oaks that should remain, but too many landscape trees have been planted over the years and both interfere with several shots that would be plenty interesting without them and clutter the otherwise dramatic landscape.
Still Knole Park is one of the London area’s most pleasant courses, easy to get to from the city, and is a nice contrast in style to the more prominent heathland courses. If you’re spending some time in London and have an afternoon to get away to play some golf, I’d highly recommend it.
Like The Addington, I suspect that Knole Park has become a bit degraded from Abercromby’s original course. It’d be interesting to see what this course looked like in its early years. Hopefully the club will have a look at this and consider making changes to get the course closer to its original presentation if it has in fact gotten away from this. One thing that it could definitely use is tree removal. There are plenty of stately old oaks that should remain, but too many landscape trees have been planted over the years and both interfere with several shots that would be plenty interesting without them and clutter the otherwise dramatic landscape.
Still Knole Park is one of the London area’s most pleasant courses, easy to get to from the city, and is a nice contrast in style to the more prominent heathland courses. If you’re spending some time in London and have an afternoon to get away to play some golf, I’d highly recommend it.