Effingham Golf Club

Effingham Golf Club: sitting high atop the North Downs with breathtaking views of the London skyline, Effingham is a traditional members golf club. It boasts a Harry Colt designed course, recently upgraded by Tom Mackenzie of leading golf architects Mackenzie & Ebert.

Laid out on a chalky subsoil the course is regarded as one of the best draining inland courses in the South East of England, ensuring excellent year round golf. The layout takes you on an enjoyable journey of two nine-hole loops. The front-nine wraps around two good-sized fields, while the stronger back-nine also heads out and back from the resplendent Georgian mansion clubhouse, standing alongside which is a centuries old cedar tree ( ... an obvious choice for the club logo). On each nine, the better holes seem to come on the inward stretch.

Effingham's generous landing areas give you plenty of room to work the ball, much needed when the wind blows across the downland. The good-width fairways also come in useful for those hard summer bounces, and for occasional blind or semi-blind tee-shots, required on a few of the uphill holes. Small copses of trees and Tom Mackenzie's recent bunker work combine to break-up the innate openness of the undulating terrain. Alongside the par-4 9th tee there's the chance to "recharge your batteries" at an excellently stocked halfway house.

Pick of the holes: from the par-3 13th green you'll get the best view of the City of London skyline. Wembley stadium and the faraway Chiltern Hills (north and west of London), feature on other holes. We most enjoyed the long par-4 15th, played downhill from an elevated tee with Tom Mackenzie's reworked bunkering much in evidence. The hangars and terminal buildings of Heathrow provide the distant backdrop to this hole.