Huntercombe Golf Club

Huntercombe Golf Club: this relatively short but captivating tree-lined heathland layout, is much revered in English golfing circles. Huntercombe is not only known for its excellent conditioning and absorbing easy-walking layout; it's also a defining "older-style" course of historical importance, especially amongst course design aficianados. It remains much as originally laid out by its first owner, the great Willie Park Jr.

Starting life as an open heathland layout, two characteristics of this now tree-lined course stand out ( ... and that's not including the many stunning oaks and other mature trees that line the course). The large and subtly sloping greens occasionally throw a wobbly, with a substantial shelf or two incorporated into some of the putting contours. No better examples than at the par-4 4th where a quarter of the green sits significantly below the other three quadrants, and at the par-3 15th, where you play to a wonderfully "sunken" green.

Despite the relatively flat terrain, Huntercombe is laced with all manner of grassy mounds and depressions. Willie Park's innovative creations here, much copied around the world, have been variously described as: depressions, hollows, pots, trenches, pits and "graves" ... some with "crowns", some without ... and rising above the ground are assorted mounds, moguls, hummocks, ridges and delicate "chocolate drops".

In addition to the 100 or so grassy "hollows", there's also 13 bunkers (there were originally 25), one water hazard, and plenty of flashes of gorse and heather. The layout is relatively flat, apart from the gently sloping par-4 2nd and correspondingly gentle uphill par-4 3rd, and offers an easy-walking round for players of all ages. Huntercombe's easy-draining chalky sub-soil provides an excellent base for the immaculate fairways.

Pick of the holes: there's a lot to choose from, but two of our favourites include the much-mounded par-3 7th, with "chocolate-drops" to the right of the green, and the "basin green" par-3 15th, with plenty of "earthworks" also fronting the putting surface. The pick of the views is an easier task ... from the short par-3 1st green there's a wonderful view out across the Thames floodplain and the Wittenham Clumps!