Thought I would jot down a few noters about Old Thorns to whet everyone's appetite for 2 weeks time.
First thing to say is that the venue itself is decent. The hotel facilities are of a good quality and recently refurbished. The restaurant and bars are decent, the sports bar is fine for a day time bar but there is a residents bar as well which is more suited to an evening session. I would say some of the decor and lighting raised a smile here and there, there is a definite fascination with coloured lighting!
The course is really beautiful and interesting. it is a thinking golfers course that is for certain, lots of elevation changes, only a couple of holes that are just straight up and down. Unfortunately it had been greens maintenance week last week so the greens were sanded and aerated but hopefully they will have recovered in time. Fairways were not in the greatest condition, sheer weight of golfers and a hot early summer taking their toll I think, but definitely playable.
There is a range on site, however it is irons only so if you were hoping to sort any driver issues best to sort before the weekend!
As the place focuses on golf weekends the rounds on both days were slow, about 4.5 hrs both days, which is a little slow for my preference. I'll post some photo of some of the holes and shout if you have any questions.
As the forum image upload is so poor, here is a google photo album from the weekend:
Old Thorns Album