Aldeburgh (Championship)

If you play Aldeburgh between May and late June, you will be presented with beautiful narrow fairways weaving their way between bright yellow gorse. You will be hard-pressed to find such an awe-inspiring sight at any golf course. Clearly, you need to be on top of your game. Looking for golf balls in this terrain is a painful business. "I am also very fond of Aldeburgh," wrote Darwin, "though now and again when I am sore and spiky from sitting in gorse bushes, and hot and tired from searching for my ball, I could wish there was just a little less gorse."

Deep, sleeper-faced bunkers protect some of the greens. Combine this with the ever-changing wind and you are presented with an excellent a golfing challenge. Or as Darwin said: "I know no course more likely to teach driving accuracy. There is nearly always a wind on that most pleasant heath, and there are very often avenues of gorse, and you simply must keep straight."

Aldeburgh is a traditional two-ball club; foursomes, not three or four-ball play is the order of the day. Aldeburgh Golf Club has hosted a number of important ladies and men’s amateur events over the years, but it’s a course the average handicap golfer will also enjoy enormously.

9th October 2008 – Perry Hunt commented on our article: “In common with a large number of top courses, Aldeburgh has cleared some gorse away from the fairways and tidied up years of natural overgrowth. As a result of a recent review, in association with Nicholsons, the course has been lengthened to 6,600 yards (par 68), bunkering has been modified and the Club is partway through a programme of modifying 4 or 5 holes. Finally, Aldeburgh offers splendid golf throughout the winter (no placing, no temporary surfaces and fast true greens) something many higher ranked courses cannot always offer, especially for our modest greenfees!”