The Mission Course

The Mission Course was originally conceived of back in 2000, though its name was not known then. Planning permission was granted to develop this on the 5th April 2001 and thus started a lengthy process of applying to various bodies for grant funding, all without success.

When the Ryder Cup Legacy Fund was established to support grass roots golf, this appeared to be the ideal source of funding and, although the project was initially rejected in 2005 due to the existence of the full size Abbey Course on site, support was ultimately offered in early 2006, with work able to start only days before the planning permission would otherwise have expired. The Mission to get funding was over and the Mission to get it built began.

Originally scheduled to be completed and open late in the 2007 season, the wettest summer ever seen impacted badly on the timing of works and growing in. Finally, almost 2 years after breaking ground, 7 years after Planning was granted and 8 years after it was first dreamt up, the Mission was over and the Mission Course began.

Today this provides an extremely valuable community facility – a great place for kids to come and enjoy and a valuable teaching aid for the Professional staff. Many, many groups of youngsters are taught here and it is the main site for Mike Davies’ work with disabled and special needs groups – part of his own personal Mission. When not in service for the forgoing, our members use it to hone their short game skills – the greens were all built to USGA standards!

The hole names reflect input from all members of the team who worked on this: