Description
This start to the Top Field – the last of the three distinct areas of the course – brings the second of the par threes. It climbs gently but steadily from a tee overlooked by the inviting clubhouse bar to a green only just outside the grounds of the castle. Hence the name, referring to an ancient hidden ditch (ha-ha) close behind the green, invisible from the tee but not to be visited – invariably resulting in either a penalty drop or, more likely, a tramp back to the tee. The ditch, originally intended to prevent livestock wandering too close to the castle, apparently provided insufficient protection from golfers when the then Earl of Scarborough sanctioned the first course design in 1909, meaning another twenty years before the hole could be brought into play. In 2017 a deep, wide swale was added which snakes up the hole and should be avoided at all costs. The slope leading up to the green leaves the flag, but not the hole, visible from the tee, although the entrance, between deep bunkers is relatively wide. The slope from the back can be beguiling with the embarrassment of a firmly struck putt running down and off never far away.
