Sudbury Golf Club

Sudbury Golf Club: Originally founded as Acton Golf Club in 1896, the club moved in 1920 to its present location at what was then Horsenden Farm, alongside the Grand Union Canal. The renowned Harry Colt was charged with designing the new course and the firm of Fowler & Simpson set about implementing Colt's design.

The course has many recognisable "Colt" characteristics: two nine-hole loops that each head out-and-back from the clubhouse; good-width but never overly generous fairways; a mix of straightaway and doglegging hole; "pulpit" (elevated) greens defended by left and right front bunkers, and a relative absence of water hazards (Colt was aware of the pain of golfers losing balls into water).

Typical of so many of his courses, Sudbury is a Colt design that gives equal consideration to both the "accomplished player" and what he called the "duffer". The lightly tree-lined holes enjoy a modest degree of elevation change, but blind shots are kept to a minimum (another welcome Colt trait).

Although residing in the heart of London's western suburbs, only at the good-length downhill par-4 1st do you play alongside a road. The remainder of the course offers a peaceful parkland oasis, flanked by another golf club to the west (the 9-hole Horsenden Hill GC) and the Grand Union Canal to the south. Housing flanks only one hole, the leftside of the tough but bunkerless uphill par-4 18th. As ever, Colt has you signing off with one of the layout's most challenging holes.