If you fancy yourself as a bit as a golfer then try Chartham Park and see how you measure up to one of the best courses to be opened in Sussex during the last decade.

Play to your handicap there and that will give much cause for satisfaction. Have a really bad day then put that down to experience and go back for another try.

Chartham Park, only two miles from the town centre of East Grinstead, is well worth a visit although high handicaps will find the examination rather too stiff.

On an encouraging note, Paul Lyons, the Sweetwoods Park pro, burned the course up the other week with an eight under par 64. But Lyons is a greatly experienced performer and has a habit of breaking records. The average player will have the good sense to visit Chartham Park and enjoy the delightful parkland layout that Neil Coles designed among a rolling landscape where oaks and cedars stand in perfect harmony.

There is water to enrich the scene, lakes filled with carp and patrolled by a variety of web-footed birds. As for birdies of the golfing variety, these are in short supply unless you can hit the ball straight and far besides chipping and putting to a high standard and, I almost forgot, and are well practised in the art of recovery from sand.

Chartham's growing reputation was further enhanced when the Davies & Tate finals for the Sussex Inter-Club Matchplay Championship were played there three years ago and all manner of high-class events have singled out the venue as it has become recognised as one of the best in the South of England.

The course was completed in 1990 following the purchase of Chartham Manor but did not open for play until a clubhouse was built. To make way for a spacious building the old manor house was knocked down. In its place is a facility that has all the trimmings including a restaurant.

Originally, Chartham Park was owned by a Japanese family but was not a private members' club. In February, 1999 it was sold to American Golf (UK) for an undisclosed price and only this summer they sold out to Clubhaus, the golf and country club operator.

Evidently, Chartham Park is a desirable addition to the portfolio of big players in the market and the 350 members must be hoping they will enjoy more time on the course and see less of visiting societies and corporate days.

But, if financial stability is to be maintained, a course must promote outside business as best it can. The trick is keeping members happy. Clubhaus, I gather, have ambitious plans for adding a fitness and leisure centre under the same ample roof as the golf club and given the catchment area, that should prosper.

Having struggled round, I have felt in need of a restorative pampering in a steam room or sauna. However, if you take the course easy and try not to knock the ball out of sight, quite good results may be obtained.

Neil Coles, sweet-tempered soul that he is, provided a gentle start for which one must be grateful considering the full distance of the 18 is 6,680 yards. The opener allows an inviting downhill drive to a generous fairway with water on the right.

Get that over and it is best to stay slightly to the right to avoid a hidden pond on the left. A perfect length drive will open up the green and if your short game is up to scratch then a par should follow. The first short hole calls for a downhill shot to a green surrounded by three tight bunkers and a large pond to the right. Next comes a real test for those able to hit a big tee shot.

This must stay clear of two bunkers and a majestic oak on the right.

A straight belt will catch the downslope and take full advantage. But then the second shot must keep left as the right is guarded by two lakes and bunkers that can also trap the third attempt.

From tee to pin from the whites this is the longest hole at 533 yards. The green, incidentally, is shared with the eighth.

A birdie may be had at the next where thick woodland on the right is the major danger from the tee. The elevated green should only need a short iron but it slopes from right to left and towards the player and these contours are hidden from a distance. Keep below the stick.

Probably the most dramatic hole is the 394-yards sixth and nowhere is an accurate drive more important. The line is a little to the left on to a level plateau with thick woodland either side. The second shot is a great challenge across a valley to a green sited on the next brow and protected with bunkers front and right.

No relief is available at the seventh, a really testing par five. The majority of players elect to play three safe shots to ensure reaching the green without mishap.

Usually the wind is against at the eighth where getting up for two is a matter for congratulation. The tenth is a great par four which is the longest on the course and David Hobbs, the Chartham pro, selects the par five 11th as his favourite as it is so picturesque. The lake on the right waits for a fade or slice. The perfect drive at this beauty will allow a second shot to be threaded past three pine trees on the left. Two good blows set up a short pitch to a raised green.

And I could go on and on but that might give too much of the game away suffice to say that the 18th is a classic finisher; par five with water threatening both the drive and second shot. Mature trees put a further premium on accuracy. The last third of the hole is a bit uphill towards the three-tiered green with two sunken bunkers waiting to trap the unwary.

Chartham Park, not surprisingly, is a favourite with Tour pros like Jamie Spence who sometimes goes there to tone-up his game. Players on this plane do not see the dangers confronting lesser mortals but, I must confess, it is nice to see them suffer sometimes.

Of all the plusses about Chartham, I think the greens take the palm. Stay straight, keep out of the woods and putt well and the reward is all the sweeter for the entire course, while dazzling the eye, is very much a test of technique as well as nerve.