Centenary Clubs 2024
The 2020s is a decade in which a good number of golf clubs throughout the UK and Ireland are celebrating their 100th birthdays. Here are just five of those who are sure to have enjoyed their champagne in 2024.
Knole Park
With a small but remarkably high quality portfolio, JF Abercromby designed this beautiful course near Sevenoaks in Kent which opened for play in November, 1924. It is blessed with a spacious and endlessly varied routing through a large, still-active, gently undulating deer park. Next door is palatial Knole House, and despite some lengthening half a century ago, the course is pretty much as it was.
Two of the prettiest of its six short holes are the 5th which is played over a valley up to a perfectly-sited green, and the downhill 8th which is flanked by ponds and bracken. The extremely enjoyable and nonetheless challenging course at Knole Park is very much one of a kind.
- GF: 18 holes £100 Mon-Thu, £120 Fri-Sun
- W: knoleparkgolfclub.co.uk
Teignmouth
South of Exeter on the Devon coast and blessed with a gloriously elevated setting up at 800 feet, this centenarian has panoramic views out to sea, over the town and estuary, and inland towards Dartmoor. It was laid out by Alister MacKenzie a decade before he went on to design Augusta National, and with the exception of the 13th, it is still largely his handiwork.
His most obvious legacy are his trademark two-tiered greens surrounded by humps and bumps. On a beautiful coastline with some lovely courses, this is a delightful place for golf with masses of variety including, as at Knole Park, six diverse and testing short holes.
- GF: 18 holes £60 Mon-Fri
- W: teignmouthgolfclub.co.uk
Bury St Edmunds
The friendly and popular club at Bury St Edmunds is home to two courses; an interesting and challenging full-length layout as well as a 9-holer that is great value for money. The championship course was designed by the double-Major winner and first British Ryder Cup team captain, Ted Ray.
Despite the appealing and unusual par 5-3-5 start, the very playable main course has two well balanced nines with a pair of 3s and 5s on each. The holes on the southern side of the course are well separated by mature woodland and there is much to enjoy here as at many of the other best golf courses in Suffolk.
- GF: 18 holes £70 Mon-Fri, £80 Sat-Sun
- W: burystedmundsgolfclub.co.uk
Kilkeel
Peacefully located around a 30-minute drive south along the coast and inland from Royal County Down, Kilkeel is a charming club that flies somewhat under the radar but has much to offer the travelling golfer. For its first 70 years the members enjoyed a 9-hole course before the creative flair of Eddie Hackett saw its expansion to a full 18 in the 1990s.
Punctuated by ditches, it runs over a large tract of parkland with plenty of mature specimen trees. There are three par 5s, two of which bookend the course, and just three short holes, the best of which is the 11th.
- GF: 18 holes £35 Mon-Fri, £50 Sat-Sun
- W: kilkeelgolfclub.com
Tyrrells Wood
The attractive and undulating parkland design at Tyrrells Wood is close to the M25, but happily the intervening hills offer complete peace and seclusion. James Braid designed the course just before the club was formed, and the 1st and 10th both run straight downhill from the spacious and well appointed listed building that serves as the clubhouse.
Harry Colt made some later changes, and the holes are well separated by magnificent trees that place a premium on straight driving. There are just three short holes, the pick of which is the fine 16th, and a pair of enjoyable par 5s that run in opposite directions.
- GF: 18 holes £75 Mon-Fri, £85 Sat-Sun
- W: tyrrellswoodgolfclub.com
