Silvermere Golf — Hotel in Elmbridge

Went to the store to look at some irons i had seen advertised, turns out they weren't in stock.

Fair enough.

The shop is very well stocked and laid out, there are some bargains to be had in the form of last seasons irons & clubs, essentially this is like a golf supermarket, pick the product you like and take it the checkout.

Although there were lots of staff hanging around, there is no personal service, i don't think they've heard of custom fitting.

I found a set of irons i wanted to try, i asked to demo it which they we're fine about, taped up the face of a 7 iron and sent me to the till where i HAD TO PAY for some range balls to demo a club i was thinking about buying.

I hope i didn't look like a time waster, i had come off a course and was dressed in golf gear so i should have looked like an ideal punter.

I was just sent to the till, although the sales guy had nothing to do he didn't bother to come with me.

I wandered my way up to a nice but busy range, found an available bay and tested my iron.

Now, i used to work as club fitter so i know what i'm looking for in a club, however they didn't know that, no one was there to measure my swing speed, measure loft & lie etc, recommend alternative irons etc. I was left to my own devices.

Sure enough i liked the iron and went to buy them.

Found the salesman, who just sent me to the till.

Paid at the till, i waited for them to bag up/box up my irons.... and just waited as they went to serve the next customer.

I had paid several hundred pounds and was expected to walk out the shop with a load of irons loose under my arm.

As mentioned i used to work as club fitter, under no circumstances would i let anyone leave my shop without at least measuring swing speed & lie angle on a set of irons, my customers would be spending a lot of money, ideally we would have worked thru 3 or 4 different sets of irons identifying the best head and shaft and then ensuring they were correctly fit.

That wasn't always possible but i would always be insistent that we covered the basics before a customer made a purchase.

There was no hint of this here, the shop seemed to be staffed by 24 handicap 'know it all's' who wanted you in and out as fast as possible.

If your lucky enough be 'standard everything' and know roughly what you're doing then you'll be fine here, otherwise go somewhere to get properly fitted.

The whole complex is a sausage factory, turning over punters as quickly as possible before moving onto the...

An impressive Golf complex, double decked range with pro tracer. One of the biggest pro shops/golf store I've seen. The drive in was gave empting glimpses of the 17th and 18th holes which get you excited to what lays ahead. We arrived 10 mins before Tee time of 0810 as directed under the current covid-19 guide lines. There was a line forming outside the golf store only 2and day of trading since lockdown. We arrived at the starters hut and was greeted by a very helpful man who I believe is one of the pro's. He gave us some tips for the first 6 holes, leave your driver in the bag, the longer holes come later and you might struggle to hold the fairway. We obviously thought we knew better, the first was a left dog leg par 5, easy to reach in regulation. Survived the first but the course was true to his advice on the next par 4's until we reached the 7th. The fairways were green and well maintained and the greens looking smart, not the fastest but rolling true. Thoroughly enjoyed our round and were getting tired after 3 or 4 long holes crossing a small valley which became a slog up to the greens with our doggy knees. When we crossed the road to the 17th hole, WOW!!! What a sight, beautiful lake with the smart looking "Inn on the Lake" to our right (cant wait to return and try the food) straight over to a perfect green sloping down towards the lake. It showed around 150yards to the middle from the tee it looked more like 180 with 160yards being water. We both lost a ball in the water, changed to my hybrid which hit the centre of the green and was stopped by the gentle bank at the back of the green. Great hole bobbed on this visit. Then came the 18th, a narrow fairway needs a gentle drive or an iron to reach the right hand dog leg with a second shot over the water to the green next to the "Inn on the Lake" cant believe duffed my simple wedge shot into the reeds! End of an enjoyable round, just started to spit with rain. We discovered we could buy take away beer, to drink socially distancing. The beer was need and welcome, I will be back to enjoy some food and a beer on the terrace when things get back to normal. Thanks Silvermere, considering becoming a member although living in Berkshire means would be a journey as my home course. Still deciding maybe I should...

Not for the first time, went to the Inn on the Lake for Sunday lunch, but the overall experience contrasted starkly and negatively compared to previous visits. Although the food was as excellent as ever, the service quality was way down from 5* to about 2*.

It became very clear that the waiting staff were divided into two groups; Those who are awake and focused on providing good service, and a smaller group of feckless lazy individuals, who ignore customers, chat amongst themselves, and when forced to will take drinks orders but not necessarily deliver them. The real mystery here is why the busy professional ones weren't protesting more about the lazy ones, although upon reflection they were probably not doing so because to do so infront of customers would be awkward and unprofessional. Management need to monitor this and provide guidance and training (or P45s) before standards slip and a hard won excellent reputation is harmed by reviews like this one.

Couldn't help but notice a 10% service charge automatically added to the bill, which isn't clever and wasn't there on our previous visit. Good service should be rewarded at the customer's discretion and may warrant a tip bigger than 10%. Cannot help but speculate that this has been done either to protect the under-performing servers from not getting tips, or worse, perhaps created them by removing their motivation to provide...