Beaudesert was an estate and stately home on the southern edge of Cannock Chase in. It was one of the family seats of the Paget family, the Marquesses of Anglesey from 1546.
The estate was broken up by the 6th Marquess, due to financial difficulties. Demolition began in 1935; however, it was never completed and some ruins remain standing.
Beaudesert translates from the French as beautiful wilderness. It is still today a beautiful, serene wilderness - especially the holes furthest from the clubhouse.
Some of those playing on Wednesday declare Beau to be their favourite course in the Midlands. One of my old school friends, Jon Gough made his first appearance at a Teetours event; Jon is also a fellow member of Little Aston and we sat chatting about the course after his round. We both agreed that if Little Aston wasn’t there we would be very happy to play our golf at Beau.
The wonderful, free-draining, springy heathland turf, winds its way through the massive, ancient woodland of picturesque Cannock Chase. Which makes for a delightful experience whether you are hitting the ball well or not.
The course is not daunting; there are several thinking man’s golf holes - especially the 18th. What really makes Beau is the greens. They are big! So that means they are easy to find, but they are not just big - they are big roller-coasters:
One player said that if you became a good putter at Beau, you would travel well to anywhere.
Another player said that the greens would either drive you mad or you would get used to them (so a bit like being married then?)
I arrived at Beau on Wednesday morning in good time, 90 minutes before the first tee slot. So I thought I would borrow a club buggy, take out the prize hole markers and have a look at the course conditions.
As there were a number of members starting before our round, I thought it best not to disturb their round as I trundled off the the far end of the course. I spotted a track that appears to go straight up the left hand side of the first in the exact direction of the furthest hole I needed, the 6th - It did indeed. However, this track is not for golf buggies, it is for walkers, horses and everyone who wishes to enjoy Cannock Chase WITHOUT going onto the golf course. This means that finding somewhere to get back on to the course is difficult - Very difficult!
The sensible thing would have been to turn round and come back to the established access to the course; but sensible wasn’t on my agenda at 8.30 on Wednesday morning. Eventually, near the 5th fairway I found a way back through to the course - NOT! Because I had not seen the ditch. One of the back wheels of the buggy dropped into the ditch and that was the end of my journey.
I spent my formative years working on a farm, and in those days, without mobile phones, if you broke down in the middle of nowhere, you had to fix it yourself. So I set about hunting in the undergrowth and found some logs that had been left from a felled tree. I used them to fill in the ditch and, after half an hour, I eventually managed to get the buggy moving.
As I drove back to the clubhouse to begin booking in the players I chuckled to myself that no-one else was going to do anything that stupid. So I awarded myself “Chump of the Day”
