(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
- Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
- Founded: 1928
- Designed by: Herbert Fowler
- Green fee: £145-£300
- 23/24 ranking: Up 1
The Red Course is an example of one of the very best heathland golf courses in the land and opened for play in the late 1920s. It has an unusual and intoxicating configuration consisting of six of each par.
Only at the 11th and 12th do you play the same par consecutively, and this constant variety is more than matched by the design characteristics of the individual holes themselves.
– The Berkshire Red review and key info
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
- Location: Formby, Merseyside, England
- Founded: 1884
- Designed by: Willie Park Jr, James Braid and Harry Colt
- Green fee: £185-£260
- 23/24 ranking: Down 1
On a coastline packed with top-drawer golf, Formby is one of the very best with the bonus that it contains elements of both links and heathland.
Founded in 1884, this forward-thinking club is also future-proofing its original course which was redesigned by Willie Park Junior in the early 20th-century before further Braid, Colt and Donald Steel changes.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
- Location: Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland
- Founded: 1851
- Designed by: Old Tom Morris
- Green fee: £195-£345
- 23/24 ranking: Up 1
Much has changed at Prestwick since it hosted the first of its 24 Opens in 1860, but its wonderfully, rumpled terrain still provides a tangible link with the challenge those early Open competitors faced.
It is both historically significant yet still hugely relevant and great fun. That is Prestwick’s charm.
– Prestwick review and key info
(Image credit: Larry Lambrecht)
- Location: Rosapenna, Donegal, Ireland
- Founded: 2003
- Designed by: Pat Ruddy
- Green fee: €125-€150
- 23/24 ranking: Up 2
The Pat Ruddy designed Sandy Hills Course at Rosapenna opened in 2003 but has a feel of a layout that has existed much longer.
Carved through the dunes, it’s a supremely natural layout and a great example of sympathetic modern course design. It’s a course of nuances and subtlety with green complexes featuring some challenging slopes and falloffs.
– Rosapenna Sandy Hills review and key info
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
- Location: Deal, Kent, England
- Founded: 1892
- Designed by: Harry Hunter and James Braid
- Green fee: £125-£210
- 23/24 ranking: Up 8
This two-time Open venue follows a broadly out-and-back routing with one or two deviations, including an Old Course-style loop at the far end.
The outward nine hugs the…
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