This club is proud of its trees and the fact that you'll feel practically alone on the course due to the "green walls" between holes. And they're right, it is a very beautiful place. But as always, there's no free lunch: the trees shield the course from wind and sun, so neither can particularly help to provide first class playing surfaces. Fortunately the other classic - slightly offline shots clattering into the forest - is mitigated by reasonably wide fairways.

It's still far from a bomber's course, on many tees driver is too much club, even for average hitters. The most extreme example is the short 7th, where some players may even hit a shorter iron off the tee than into the green. On the other hand the long 13th presents the average hitter with a risk/reward opportunity, he can actually drive over the trees guarding the corner of the dogleg.

There are undoubtedly some interesting and pretty quirky holes on offer, the set of par 3s is unusually good and the large elevation differences are managed gracefully. Building in terraces and incorporating a few longer green-to-tee walks aren't the most popular measures, but they do help in avoiding excessive steepness.

The course is in good nick relative to what can be achieved on a wooded site, although a massive deployment of chainsaws would do wonders without changing its character.