Windermere

“Whoever first coined that atrocious phrase, ‘Golf is a good walk spoiled’ was more than likely an idiot.” Wrote Nick Edmond in Following the Fairways . “One thing’s for sure, he (or she) had never visited Windermere Golf Club in the Lake District. Golf not only takes us to such beautiful places, as Henry Longhurst used to say, but it regularly guides us to some beautiful vantage points. Had our idiot stood on the 8th tee at Windermere he would assuredly be forced to revise the ill-informed comment. Golf, if nothing else, is a good walk with a good incentive. (Better not tell that idiot then that the 8th at Windermere is called ‘Desolation’!)

Windermere Golf Club celebrated its centenary in 1991, Cleabarrow Fells, the land on which the course is laid out was originally leased from the Rector of Windermere before being purchase outright by the club in 1912. The 200 acres comprised, in addition to classically undulating Lakeland terrain, a serious amount of heather, bracken and rocks. However, it was soon converted into a sporting 9-hole course [by George Lowe the professional at and the designer of Royal Lytham St Annes Golf Club] and so well was this received that a further 9 holes were added before the end of 1892.

The Club’s centenary booklet reveals a colourful history. In the 1920s, the course measured 4,320 yards but had a par of 72 (today it is 5,122 yards, par 67.) Holes had interesting pars in those days and our friend ‘Desolation’ though a similar length as now at 143 yards, was a par three and a half!”