Golf Courses

One Golf Club, Two Very Different Courses – We Tour The UK In Search Of Clubs With Wonderfully Contrasting Layouts

Gog Magog - Old Course - Hole 18

The UK and Ireland is home to in excess of 3,000 golf courses, a good number of which are part of the same club, share similar topography and are understandably also similar in nature. Here, we take a look at clubs with more then one course but where they vary substantially and so offer great variety to their members and those seeking a 36-hole day out.

Gog Magog

The closing hole on the Old Course at Gog Magog

(Image credit: Kevin Diss)

Blessed with a beautifully peaceful site on the outskirts of Cambridge, this unusually-named club is home to not one but two of the very best courses in the county. The gently undulating Old Course opened just before the club was founded in 1901, and has subsequently benefited from the input of various architects including Willie Park Junior and JF Abercomby. The Wandlebury is Martin Hawtree’s mature but somehow more modern-looking expansion of the club’s nine-holer, and there are plenty who struggle to choose which they prefer. There is no doubting that together they add up to an extremely enjoyable and varied downland destination.

  • GF: 18 holes £90, either course

The Vale Resort

The Vale Resort

The Vale Resort has two very different courses but each feature water

(Image credit: The Vale Resort)

Although neither course is particularly old, they are dramatically different from one another at this fine golf destination just to the west of Cardiff. The Lake Course was the first to open, and is perhaps more of a traditional parkland design although water still comes into play on the vast majority of the holes. Opening just over 20 years ago, the Wales National Course is a more modern-looking, longer, and even more dramatic course where water is once again frequently in play. Here, length, accuracy and confidence are required all the way.

  • GF: 18 holes £50 Lake, £60 Wales National

Burhill

Burhill - New Course - Hole 18

The closing hole on the New Course at Burhill with the grand clubhouse beyond

(Image credit: Andy Hiseman)

Just five minutes from Top 100 UK&I  favourite St. George’s Hill and opening for play in 2001, the New Course at Burhill is almost a century younger than its sibling and makes for the perfect contrast. Designed with tournament play in mind, it is a little longer and slightly more open in appearance, but looks can be deceptive and it has hosted many professional events. The Old is another Willie Park Junior creation which opened for play in 1907, since when little has changed with the many mature trees and strategic bunkering continuing to ask all the right…

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