Nick Bayly pays a visit to Mad Swans in the South Downs, the recently opened golf and leisure venue reborn from the site formerly occupied by Blacknest Golf & Country Club in Hampshire, and finds a hive of activities and experiences on offer for all the family – and not all of them golf-related
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been mid-way through a particularly slow and challenging round of golf that someone in our group – often me – chirps up with the classic line “If golf was reinvented, golf would never be 18 holes!”
I believe we have the fine gentlemen golfers of St Andrews to thank for this particular number being settled on, as they did in 1764, when deciding that the Old Course’s original 12-hole course should be reduced to 10, which they would then play eight of those holes on the way out and all ten on the way back, adding up to the 18 that then became the accepted universal standard.
All this is a roundabout way of understanding why, in an age when leisure time is an increasingly precious commodity, that the team behind one of the most innovative new golfing concepts to have launched in the UK in recent years fell upon 12 holes as being the ideal number with which to launch their new product, Mad Swans.
Founded by British entrepreneurs Joel Cadbury and Oliver Vigors, who also co-founded Longshot Ltd, developers of Beaverbrook Golf Club in Surrey, Mad Swans currently comprises two venues. The first, Mad Swans in The Mendips, is located in Somerset on a course once occupied by Farrington Golf Club and opened just over a year ago, while the second, Mad Swans in the South Downs, which I visited just two weeks after it opened at the beginning of June, is in Hampshire, on a site that formerly was home to Blacknest Golf & Country Club near Alton, which is midway along the A31 between Farnham and Winchester.
The decision to attach local geographical features to their new names is clearly a thinly-veiled attempt to imbue a sense of being at one with nature, as is the tagline on the front cover of the membership brochure, which reads ‘A breath of fresh air’. The ‘Mad Swans’ element of the name is said to have derived from a mis-heard comment during an early meeting about the founders being ‘mad ones’ to consider launching the concept in the first place.
There is clearly a well-worked out operational template in place, with both sites offering virtually the same range of facilities, the same dining concepts, the same accommodation set-up, with synergies drilling down to the finest of details.
MOVING WITH THE TIMES
Regardless of the names, Mad Swans’ management team’s guiding mantra has been to drive a horse and cart through the stuffy, buttoned-up atmosphere that pervades many traditional golf clubs and to introduce a ‘no rules’ kind of mentality. Thus, you’ll find no dress codes in operation at Mad Swans venues, and you won’t find an honours board in ‘The Lodge’, the main building that loosely performs the role of a clubhouse, mainly because there aren’t any members in the traditional sense, and there aren’t any competitions to enter. And there are certainly no reserved car parking spaces for club officials and captains.
On my visit on a hot Sunday afternoon in early June I found the place buzzing with activity – the car park was rammed, families were out playing games of corn hole on the lawn outside the lodge, the driving range was mobbed, the padel court was in action, the dining room was booked out for Sunday lunch, and staff could be seen moving briskly between all the various locations serving drinks and pizzas.
GOLF & MORE
The 18-hole courses at both sites have been repackaged and renovated into 12-hole layouts by leading architects Tom Mackenzie and Martin Ebert, with the land previously occupied by a third of the old courses now given over to a wide range of accommodation, large bell tents for hosting weddings and parties, 18-hole putting courses and courts for padel and pickleball. There is also a fleet of e-bikes for exploring the 200-acre site or cycling further afield.
Next to the main building at the South Downs venue is a 14-bay, 280-yard, covered driving range called ‘The Swing Barn’, which is kitted out with Toptracer technology and comfy sofas. Users can rent bays by the half-hour, with £10 per person getting you 30 off-peak minutes with unlimited balls, while there’s two-hour ‘Let’s Swing’ package which, for £20pp, includes unlimited balls and a pizza delivered to your bay, which represents great value for those that plough through a basket of 50 in a matter of minutes and work up an appetite.
PUTT PARK
Just a few yards from the lodge is an impressive 18-hole putting course, named the ‘Putt Patch’, which has been superbly executed with mounding to separate each hole, bunkering (thankfully not filled with sand) and fiendish angles that make two-putting a challenge, and six-putts all-too possible. There’s a £10 fee to play the course, with a putter and ball provided.
GOLF RE-IMAGINED
What is left of the original golf course has been subject to plenty of investment, with new drainage and irrigation systems installed, while the greens have all been re-laid and were in excellent condition during our visit, running smooth and true.
The routing is smart, looping close to the clubhouse so that you can cut your round short after six or 10 holes, and with 12 holes taking a two-ball a little over two hours to complete, it leaves plenty of time to fit in all the other activities on site, or to go home and crack on with the rest of your day.
The par-47 layout can be played off a choice of four gender-neutral tees, with the back tees stretching the course to 4,030 yards and the front tees reducing it to a more manageable 3,210 yards. The card is divided into sixes rather than nines, and features three par-fives, five par fours and four par 3s.
While I didn’t come across any mentally challenged swans during my round, I did see plenty of perfectly sane Canada Geese, a flock of which were making use of the course’s many ponds and water features to set up temporary home. The par 3s were a particular highlight, with three of them featuring water – which always add to the drama – with the 145-yard 9th, which offers an island green, being the best of a strong bunch. Refreshingly, none of the short holes were much over 150 yards, even from the back tees, making them much more inviting for new golfers, as well as being a challenge to more experienced players looking to dial in their wedge game.
On the course, solar-powered robotic mowers quietly patrol the fairways, cutting diesel use and freeing up the greenkeepers to focus on maintaining the greens and teeing areas. The course signage is also worthy of note, with the yardages for each hole carved into tree stumps whose angled surfaces have been vanished to a high shine.
Despite being the course being flat, there is a fleet of bespoke Club Car Tempos golf buggies for hire and extremely fun-looking, three-wheeled electric motorbikes to inject even more speed – and fun – into a round. The buggies are fitted with built-in Bluetooth speakers for playing your own choice of music through, while there are ice boxes for loading up with refreshments, with a selection of canned beers and soft drinks available to buy in the pro shop. The retail side focuses on soft goods, with lots of nicely designed apparel and accessories with Mad Swan branding in the pro shop, but there is little in the way of hardware, which seems appropriate given the target market.
FLEXIBLE FEES & CREDITS
Green fees are charged on a time-sensitive and seasonal basis, and are priced at a sliding scale of £30, £36, £42, £54 and £60, with mid-week evening rounds after 6pm being the cheapest and summer weekend rounds between 8am-10am being the only times that attract the top-end rate. Rather than operating a traditional membership, Mad Swans runs a credit system for its most regular visitors.
Credits can be used for whatever activities you like on site, whether that be golf, padel, pickleball, driving range hire, or the putting course, with each activity priced according to time of the week and time of the day. A £975 outlay will get you unlimited week-day golf for a whole year, which works out at £18.75 a round if you play once a week, but they can also be used to book a padel court, play the putting course or book a bay in the Swing Barn, so for the same money you could play 24 rounds of golf, book 24 driving range sessions, and enjoy 10 rounds on the putting course.
FAMILY FUN & FABULOUS F&B
The spacious lodge/clubhouse at the South Downs venue is neatly divided into a variety of entertainment and hospitality spaces, including a comfortable lounge for morning coffees, an American-style diner called ‘The Hangout’ which boasts booths with red banquet seating and features a cocktail bar and pizza oven; while there’s also a more formal dining room, ‘The Potting Shed’, that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and an outdoor area that leads seamlessly to an games area.
Besides the diner is a children’s games room featuring digital darts and electronic shuffleboard, both of which can be booked for a small extra fee, alongside more traditional range of board games and puzzles.
The F&B at Mad Swans is several cuts above traditional golf club fare. Ollie Dabbous, a multi-Michelin starred chef and strategic investor in the business, is the mastermind behind the culinary offering. After coming off the golf course, we devoured four freshly cooked 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas, which come in a variety of classic toppings, as well as some more unusual ones. Grapes paired beetroot was a new one on me but was well very received. An in-bay F&B service is offered in The Swing Barn, with staff taking orders and delivering drinks and pizzas to golfers while they hone their skills.
It being a Sunday, several hours later one of our party tucked into a sensational suckling pig full roast dinner in the main restaurant, while others enjoyed tuna tartare and freshly grilled asparagus from a menu that was bristling with innovative twists on a range of seasonal dishes, including crab linguine, a garden vegetable risotto and a duck salad. Breakfast is similarly luxury hotel quality, with eggs cooked to order and the quality of the ingredients matched by the faultless presentation.
STAY & PLAY
In order to sample the aforementioned breakfast we stayed overnight in one of 12 ‘eco-cabins’ that are currently in operation on site, with more set to come on stream. Shaped like sea containers, and built by Finnish company Nokken, the cabins feature stylish dark wood interiors with centrally-located double beds dominating the main space, with one end given over to a full height patio door that leads out on to a decking area with seating for two.
They also feature a separate toilet and a vast walk-in shower, although some also have baths, and there is a small kitchen area with a fridge – fresh milk and bottled water included – kettle and coffee machine, and a complimentary jar of homemade cookies and a small pot of honey produced by the venue’s on-site hives. A massive drop-down projector screen replaces the usual flat-screen TV, which turns your bedroom into a cinema with the touch of a button.
Those with young families, or those who don’t fancy a cabin, can opt to stay in a range of rooms and suites located on the first floor of the main building.
Apart from the impressive array of facilities, what impressed me almost as much about Mad Swans was its people. From the moment we arrived, to the moment we left some 24 hours later, the staff were all warm, welcoming and extremely helpful. Nothing was too much bother. And despite being incredibly busy, and having been open just a few days, the relaxed yet professional attitude of the young team served to enhance the calm, relaxed atmosphere that seems pervade every pore of the venue. It takes a lot of hard work – and excellent training – to look this effortless, and they’ve pulled it off with aplomb.
Ultimately, Mad Swans is quietly confident in what it’s building. A space where you can try a new sport – or fine-tune an old one – eat well and spend time with family and friends in the fresh air. As far as the golfing element is concerned, it’s hard to find fault in the ambition of the concept. Make the game more fun, more accessible, and as quick or as long as you want it to be, and priced at a level that makes it affordable while not stinting on quality.
With another site already having been purchased, and other potential venues being targeted, you can expect to have a Mad Swans coming to a place near you before long.
For more details, visit www.madswans.com