“Just played Stand in a NWMGA comp. My first visit, won’t be my last. What a fantastic course, rolling fairways and fabulous greens. If you’ve never played it, you’re missing a hidden jewel.”

The words of one Jim Driscoll, sharing his views with the internet world, having just played the glorious acres of Manchester’s Stand Golf Club. And, back in 2004, he wasn’t alone. A golfer known simply as Johnson was at his most elegiac when he wrote … “In my opinion, one of the best golf courses in the whole of the North West of England.”

This hidden jewel, happily, isn’t too hidden. No more than a few minutes from Junction 17 on the ever frantic M60, Stand is easy to find. And, once there, it’s all suddenly a very different country. Parkland. Heathland. It’s Sunningdale and its Wentworth, the only difference being that Stand is some one hundred and eighty miles further north. And, to paraphrase Walter Hagen, if you can take time out from smelling the flowers and get on with your golf, then you’ll find there’s a very good game to be had at Stand.

The eighteen holes were designed by the redoubtable Alex Herd, the first ever man to win the Open using a rubber-cored Haskell ball. Hoylake, 1902, just for the record. Two par-5’s, two par-3’s and 6411 yards of sheer golfing pleasure, Stand has the further advantage of being largely based on a sandy sub-soil, which means  -  the odd Siberian blizzard notwithstanding  -  that the course can be played all the year round.

Stand was completed in 1904. The year that Royce met Rolls, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly premiered in Milan and Charles E. Mendes invented the ice-cream cone. A year of great beginnings, indeed, and all have stood the test of time. And if you don’t believe that, then go and see Stand for yourself - but make sure it’s in the Springtime, when rhododendrons on the 13th will show you what golf is like on the other side of the Pearly Gates. A hidden jewel indeed.