"I Lost My Balls on The Isle Of Purbeck" - Golfbreaks.com review.

And so it was one dark morning in October we set off from the Fens heading for the Beautiful South and the promise of 3 days of prime, guilt-free golf in wonderful downtown Dorset. "Guilt-free" because it was a rare, "sanctioned by the missus", weekend break dedicated to golf rather than the usual snatched round between regular family duties, and "prime" because we had been booked by Golfbreaks.com into what looked like being 3 of the best golf courses in the country!

Our itinerary was as follows:

Friday - The Lakeland Course, Dorset Golf and Country Club
Saturday - Isle of Purbeck
Sunday - Bulberry Woods

In between rounds we were to be the guests of The Arndale Court Hotel in Poole for two nights to include dinner and breakfast.

After the customary motorway service station fry-up on the way, we navigated our way to The Lakeland Course at the Dorset Golf and Country Club, as we were to play that first before checking into the Arndale, passing places with entertaining names such as Rufus Stone and Tarrant Hinton.

On finding the course we checked in without problem and made our way to the excellent driving range to begin our pre-round warm-up. It was with great confidence then that I stood on the first tee looking forward to what would hopefully prove to be a fantastic round. Perhaps it was the rain then, that had just started to fall, which caused me to duff my tee shot into the trees on the left? That tee shot set the tone for the day unfortunately.

The course itself was terrific - just a shame that my golf did not match it. Most laughable moment of the round was when we teed off on the 17th and actually played to the wrong hole (the 9th I think). Then when we left our "17th" we could not work out why we couldn't find the 18th! When it actually dawned on us what we had done we lost half an hour waiting for other groups to play through before we could tackle the real 17th hole, finish our round, and make our way to Poole and the sanctuary of the Arndale Court Hotel.

The Arndale Court is a 3 star hotel, which is now showing signs of ageing (aren't we all?). The staff though were very friendly and helpful, and after a quick change of clothes it was down to the dining room for the evening meal and a beer or two. The meal itself was of the two course variety and very nice indeed, and the beer was cool and hit the spot rather more accurately than I had hit a golf ball that day. Good stuff. The first evening was completed in a quayside pub in Poole to the rocking strains of a local band as we contemplated what the next day might bring in terms of a golfing challenge, and how indeed we might rise to that challenge (or not as the case may be).

"The challenge" turned out to be the Championship Course at The Isle Of Purbeck, which has existed since 1892 and which has incredible views at every hole looking out over Poole Harbour, the Solent and the Isle of Wight. The course is described as "an exciting test for even the most accomplished golfer" which can also be worded as "a downright frightening prospect for the relative beginner". On many holes you had to carry around 60 yards of impenetrable gorse before even reaching the fairway. What made the course even more daunting was the fact that it was also very busy so you had other golfers right up behind you watching you tee-off into said gorse.

The Isle of Purbeck is a fantastic golf course with fantastic views, but I think it is fair to say it really is not a course for the beginner. We were actually relieved when we finally finished the course and felt like we had been ten rounds with Mike Tyson - yes it was that gruelling. Evening meal at the Arndale was again top class and another visit into Poole's buzzing quayside provided the perfect end to what had proved to be a quite challenging, but ultimately rewarding day.

And so to the final day. After breakfasting and checking out from the Arndale our first mission for the day was to find the local Argos and invest in a large bag of lake balls - The Isle Of Purbeck had truly castrated us the previous day and we needed fresh balls before tackling our third and final round at Bulberry Woods.

We arrived before our allotted tee-time but were allowed to tee off early in the bright autumn sunshine. This course was a pleasant contrast to the rigours of Purbeck being a flat, open parkland course with wide fairways and championship standard greens. It was actually a joy to play, and our weekend finished then with a nice relaxed round which contrasted greatly to the anxiety experienced at Purbeck. If one thing was reinforced this weekend it was the fact that you cannot play good golf if you are stressed or anxious, and the more relaxed and confident you are the better your golf will be. All in all then a great long weekend of golf, which for the all in price of £199 per person (including hotel and all greenfees), was great value for money. The organisation of and communication from Golfbreaks.com was first class throughout, and the whole weekend went without a hitch (apart from the high scoring!). I would certainly recommend Golfbreaks.com to anybody, and am currently researching their website to find this year's excursion. Hopefully the standard of golf will be better than last year but I am sure the service from Golfbreaks.com will be of the same high standard.

John Bookman - Golfworld.org.uk

Read about our Country and Western and Golf weekend at Brean Sands - click here.