Page 107 - Golf World (February 2020)

Travel

so close to each other, you have a choice of where
your second base should be – Padstow/Rock,
Trevose, or Newquay. In Rock, you can’t go
wrong at the stylish, family-owned St Enodoc
Hotel overlooking the Camel Estuary and just
half a mile from St Enodoc GC. You’ll be playing
at Trevose Golf and Country Club, so you could
stay at the club which has a range of
accommodation types to suit all budgets. Or you
could choose the handsome and renowned
Headland Hotel in Newquay, which opened in
June 1900 and offers not only hotel
rooms but also one-, two-, and three-bedroom
cottages. Whatever you opt for, the next two
days will include some of the most enjoyable golf
you’ll ever play.

Where to Play

Coming in at No. 53 in our ranking of English
courses, St Mellion is Jack Nicklaus’ debut
European design which opened in 1988 and
hosted six Benson and Hedges International
Opens on the European Tour between 1990 and
1995 – winners included Seve Ballesteros,
Bernhard Langer, and Jose Maria Olazabal. Part
of the Crown Golf portfolio, St Mellion
International Resort underwent a £100m
redevelopment in 2008/2009 that restored the
Nicklaus Course to its very best, transformed the
property’s original course, built in 1976, into the
new Kernow Course, and saw major updates to
the 80-room, four-star hotel. Always regarded as
a particularly tough test, the average winning
score on the Nicklaus Course at those B&H
International opens was a shade under 282 (-6).
Pick the right tees, though, and you’ll no doubt
enjoy a number of really attractive holes, none
prettier than the gorgeous, 203-yard, downhill
11th where the great Golden Bear shanked his tee
shot during the opening day exhibition. The
green fee starts from £80 (£40 Kernow).
See www.st-mellion.co.uk for details.
Full disclosure here – St Enodoc’s Church
course has been this writer’s favourite course in
the world for well over 30 years, so forgive me if
the following few paragraphs begin to gush
superlatives. Records show that golf was first
played on the dunes around the 12th Century
church (Enodoc, a hermit from South Wales
who lived in a cave, had come to Cornwall around
500AD) and nearby Daymer Bay in 1888, though
the club wasn’t established until 1890. Ten years
later, a Dr Theophilus Hoskin bought 300 acres
around Trenain Farm and Brea Hill and leased
part of his property to the golf club which hired
James Braid, then a three-time Open champion,
to lay out 18 holes in 1907.
Though the firm of (Herbert) Fowler & (Tom)
Simpson made some changes in the early 1920s,

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