Furness Golf Club (Old Links)

Furness Golf Club (Old Links): this historic golf club, founded in 1872, plays home to England's sixth oldest golf course, and third oldest seaside links course. Slightly older seaside links are found at Royal North Devon (1864) and Royal Liverpool (1869).

Located on Walney Island at the end of the Furness Peninsula, the layout enjoys a scenic backdrop of the Lakeland hills and views across the Irish Sea to the west. To the east, there's a fair amount of residential housing beyond the course.

A smattering of gorse bushes and revetted bunkering need to be avoided as you play along the generally good-width fairways. An abundance of interesting features may not typify this somewhat workaday links, but its not without its challenges and undoubted seaside links character.

On this out-and-back layout the "turn" comes as early as the well-bunkered par-3 6th (Earnse Bay). After this the beachside holes really join the party. Much of the back-nine weaves back and forth at the clubhouse-end of the layout. Here you'll find the most elevation change and the best holes, climbing as they go to the highest point on the course at the short par-4 16th (Titleist Corner).

Pick of the holes: two long and formidable par-4s, both play alongside the beach, and both demand your A-game. At the 9th (Tower) you'll need to drive uphill onto a doglegging fairway, while at the 11th (Pebble Beach) a drive lost to the right could easily put you in the Irish Sea. Separating these two toughies, is the wonderfully plunging, bunker-ringed par-3 10th (Fort Walney).