It’s been 19 months since Andy Mortimer started his tour of Hull and East Yorkshire’s golf courses. And in this, his final review, he finds his game stretched to the limit at Ganstead Park . . .

The picturesque fourth hole, a 140-yard par-three over a lovely little lake and with a deep bunker to the left

Any golfer will tell you how difficult it is to have all facets of your game working in tandem. Rarely, it seems, will you be able putt, drive, pitch and chip to your optimum – it’s frustrating but, in simple terms, that’s golf.

However, if you are planning a trip to Ganstead Park Golf Club any time in the near future, you had better hope you have one of those miracle days where it all comes together.

The 18-hole course, in Longdales Lane, Coniston, is one of the toughest tests I have encountered in my golf course reviews, which come to an end this month and have seen me travel all over Hull and East Yorkshire. Never before have I left a round as physically and mentally drained as I have this one . . . and I was using a golf buggy to get around!

I played the 33-year-old course with teaching professional Dave Smee (40). Dave has been at the course, man and boy, since joining the club as a junior and then taking over the reins as one of its two golf pros alongside brother, Mike. Together they run perhaps the best stocked pro shop in the county and rule the roost over a course where you need all the equipment you can get your hands on.

“Ganstead Park is a tough test, particularly off the competition tees if you don’t hit a good ball,” said Dave as we warmed up on the first tee, a 490-yard, par-five hole, today playing straight into the wind.

“But it’s not all about driving because, even after a good drive and second shot, you are still left with fast, sloping greens and greenside bunkers, so a good short game is also essential.

“It tests all facets of a good golfer’s game but is also fair on our members. We have blue tees pushed further forward for the senior golfers and we’ve cut our rough down a lot for our higher handicappers.”

Hardly the most confidence-inspiring opening, I put Dave’s words to the back of my mind before driving off on the monstrous-looking first hole. Thankfully, I had enough about me to strike a decent ball down the left-hand side of the fairway and, despite being proud of my efforts, it took Dave just a few seconds to ruin my ego trip. “You’ve still got about 250 yards to go when you get there and you will need to avoid the ditch on the left and tree to the right,” he said. Oh – so it was going to be like that, was it?

Dave continued: “There’s quite a lot to think about with this second shot and you have two options. You can either use a wood and go for the green or you can lay up to the left and hit a wedge, which is the clever route.”

Andy escaping from trouble

Liking the sound of the “clever route”, I pinged a seven iron to the pond and left myself just over 100 yards to go. It was all going brilliantly and, even after a slight miscue with my next shot, I was happy by the time I had reached the green to have a 20ft putt for par. But then there was another issue to overcome – the greens.

Now over the past 18 months, I’ve played on a lot of sloping, speedy greens, but the ones at Ganstead are the fastest I have ever encountered. What I thought was a slow, uphill putt coming from the right was, in reality, as speedy as heck and sloping left. The same happened coming back and I ended up leaving the first with a seven.

“If you are not careful, these greens are very easy to three-putt,” said Dave as he tapped in for a par.

“They are very fast at the moment so you can’t really go hard at your first putt. The trick is to take a short backswing and go slowly towards the hole or you could end up with a lot of tricky five-footers back.”

He added it was also important – if your game would allow it – to aim for a part of the green below the flag on your approach shot.

“If you can leave yourself with an uphill putt the greens are much more manageable when they are as fast as this,” he said.

The first hole over with, we moved quickly onwards and upwards and continued through the next four relatively short holes. The second was perhaps the most picturesque and interesting, reachable in one off the tee but easier to get there in two if you go left and pitch on over the trees. This, I was told was the “clever” route again. “I never go for it in one anymore,” said Dave. “The green is too shallow so it’s better to shoot an iron left off the tee and go over the trees with your second shot. There is much less chance of it all going wrong that way.”

Also of note in this section of the course is the fourth – a 140-yard par-three over a lovely little lake and with a deep bunker to the left. This comes into play mainly because of a left-to-right wind usually coming in over the course.

Dave said: “You have to score well on these first holes because, after this, the course opens up and becomes much longer off the tee.” And he wasn’t joking. Looking down at the scorecard I could see par-fours coming up at 394-yards, 405-yards, 450-yards, 421-yards and 437-yards in length and, with the wind getting up, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

Yet another of Ganstead's bunkers

The seventh was one of my favourite of these longer holes. At 350-yards it was more fun to play than the others, with a long fairway sloping to the right into the trees and a bunker front-left of the green. This meant you couldn’t aim too far left off the tee and had to rely on the slope taking your ball down to the right hand side – but not too far. Go too far and you’re in the trees and in trouble!

I played it as well as I could, shooting straight off the tee and then slightly left with my approach. I didn’t catch my second shot quite as well as I had hoped though and left myself with a pitch over the bunker and my, by now, customary three-putt. This wasn’t going to be a scorecard to show my friends.

Another favourite hole was the long ninth – a 450-yard par-four and the hardest hole on the course. It comes back down the slope to the clubhouse and is typically back-wind. The clever – or annoying part if you are playing badly – is a well-disguised pond to the front-right of the green that traps any errant approach shots. It didn’t catch mine because I was hunting in the rough on the left, but I dare say it has had plenty over the years.

As Dave and I crossed the road to the second paddock and the 10th tee, the Skirlaugh-born golf pro explained to me a little about his own and the course’s history.

He said: “I started to play golf when I was about four years old. My brother – who is 16 years older than me – used to play and so did my dad, so it was a natural thing for me.

“I got down to scratch and played a lot on the amateur circuit while also helping my brother out in the pro shop, here.

“I turned professional when I was 25 and I am now a PGS qualified golf pro. I do a lot of teaching here and don’t get that much chance to play the course myself.

“When I started it was just a nine-hole course, but that all changed in 1989 when the second field across the road was bought and it was expanded to 18 with a number of hole redesigns.”

And with 600 members, it seems to have been a success. Despite being built on clay soil, the course is well-drained and the greens are in great condition all year round. It is quite open, however, and, as I discovered, the wind can play havoc with your club selection.

The second field across Longdales Road contains holes 10 to 14 and are predictably quite a slog despite having two par-threes at holes 10 and 14.

In between these relatively simple-looking holes are two monster par-fours and a huge par-five, the 13th, that, off the competition tees, measures some 540-yards. It also contains bunkers either side of the fairway, an out-of-bounds tight left and a lake by the green.

Thankfully, Dave and I were off the men’s tees and here he explained the reason for reducing the length of the rough grass earlier this year.

He said: “This is a very good course for the lower handicapper but we wanted to be fair for our members and keep the play moving as well.

“Reducing the length of the rough grass makes the course less of a slog and it means somebody who shoots in the rough isn’t in a worse position than, say, a golfer who misses the short grass completely and ends up on the next fairway.”

Once the second field is complete, it’s time to return to the main paddock for the last four holes. The 15th is a memorable 225-yard par-three and the finishing two par-fives continue the slog.

And if I was to have one gripe about the course it would possibly be the length. A round seems to go on for a long time and I did tire easily towards the end.

I did, however, enjoy the experience. The staff were all very friendly and I think the course designers have done a good job with not much available land. When I learn to use a driver, I’ll certainly go back.

Verdict: Ganstead is probably one of the toughest golfing tests in the region. Off the white tees, in particular, the course is incredibly lengthy but even if you combat the length, don’t expect any favours on the greens because they are fast and contain some hard-to-read slopes. You must score well at the beginning and end of your round to even hope to play to your handicap. Worth a punt to test your game, but crossing the road for part of the second nine is a little off-putting.

Ganstead Park Golf Club is in Longdales Lane, Coniston, Hull, HU11 4LB.

For more information on Ganstead Park Golf Club, call: (01482) 817754 or visit: www.gansteadpark.co.uk

Membership: Full playing husband and wife, £960; full playing male, £550; full playing senior male, £505; full playing lady, £490; full playing senior lady, £460; five-day male, £430; five-day lady, £405; student, £150; junior, £30 (under 12), £50 (12-16), £80 (16), £105 (17), £150 (18-20).

Green fees: Ganstead Park also offers a twilight green fee. Call for more details.