10 best golf courses by the sea

Teeing off by the sea

 
Tee off with the ocean lapping at your feet or feast on crab sandwiches in the clubhouse at these top coastal courses around the UK.

By Mary-Vere Parr
Photos: Alan C Birch; KevinMurrayGolfPhotography.com

For an overnight stay

 
Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, Rest Bay, Porthcawl, Mid-Glamorgan

Fans of this course believe it epitomises all that is best about the traditional game: a beautiful site sloping to the seashore with panoramic views unimpeded by sandhills; 18 holes facing every which way in the testing sea breeze, demanding every skill - and possibly club - in the bag; and a wooden clubhouse (rooms from £45 per person per night), which sells itself as ‘wonderfully quirky\' and ‘old school\'. The Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) visited in 1932 - his full-length portrait hangs there still. Handicap minimum: men 20; women 30.

Call 01656 782251 or visit www.royalporthcawl.com.

For being the best?

 
St Andrews Links, St Andrews, Fife

St Andrews is the home of golf. Ten courses, seven of championship class, offer a variety of links, heathland and clifftop play. The Old Course, where golf was reputedly first played in 1400 (the first written record is 1552), has hosted 27 Opens but any Golfing Joe (with a handicap of 24 and under; 36 for ladies) can apply via the daily ballot to look down the 18th fairway from the famous Swilcan Bridge. The local golfing cognoscenti also recommend the more remote Royal Dornoch Golf Club, Sutherland (01862 810219, www.royaldornoch.com), where golf has been played only since 1616.

For St Andrews, call 01334 466666 or visit www.standrews.org.uk.

For a sunny spring day

 
The Royal St George\'s Golf Club, Sandwich, Kent

Fictionalised as ‘Royal St Marks\' in Ian Fleming\'s novel \'Goldfinger\' (Fleming was a member here), Royal St George\'s is a naturally beautiful course, forming a lazy figure of eight in the sand dunes leading to Pegwell Bay. A regular Open host, the 18-hole course features the deepest bunker in championship golf. Ladies may play only as male members\' guests.

Call 01304 613090 or visit www.royalstgeorges.com.

For sea views

 
Hillside Golf Club, Southport, Merseyside

A footpath divides this 18-hole course in England\'s unofficial golfing capital from its illustrious neighbour, The Royal Birkdale Golf Club, and many believe it\'s as good. Australian golfer Greg Norman called the back nine holes ‘the best in Britain\'. For 6,217 metres, it snakes its way through sandhills and pine woods, with elevated tees giving views over the Irish Sea.

Call 01704 567169 or visit www.hillside-golfclub.co.uk.

For taking the rough with the smooth

 
Teignmouth Golf Club, Teignmouth, Devon

During the War, the Air Ministry dug 400 three-metre posts into the fairway of this 18-hole course, created in 1924 by Dr Alister MacKenzie, to prevent enemy aircraft landing. It is now restored to its former glory and you can negotiate MacKenzie\'s tricky greens in a series of open competitions and a July festival.

Call 01626 777070 or visit www.teignmouthgolfclub.co.uk.

For children

 
North Berwick Golf Club, East Lothian

Children have their own nine-hole course next to these links, which start in the town and stretch west along the sandy shores of the Firth of Forth. Youngsters are also allowed in the lounge of the ‘New Clubhouse\' (built in 1879) but not the historic restaurant, formerly the club locker room, which features original wood-panelled lockers.

Call 01620 895040 or visit www.northberwickgolfclub.com.

For a short walk

 
Ballycastle Golf Club, Co Antrim

Lying at the foot of one of the Glens of Antrim, Glenshesk, this 18-hole part-links, part-parkland championship course (right) on the Causeway coast offers a picturesque mixture of locales. The first five holes run alongside the banks of the Margy and Carey rivers. Then the course heads for the beach before climbing to two ‘up\' holes, with views of the Mull of Kintyre, Rathlin Island and Ballycastle Bay.

Call 02820 762536 or visit www.ballycastlegolfclub.com.

For literary links

 
St Enodoc Golf Club, Rock, Cornwall

Mark Twain may have said that ‘Golf is a good walk spoiled\', but other literati beg to differ. The poet Sir John Betjeman is buried near the tenth hole of this, his favourite golf course. His grave can be found by the lych gate of the 12th-century St Enodoc church, which lies among the dunes at the centre of the undulating fairway overlooking Daymer Bay. The Church course is renowned for its Himalayan bunker - reputedly the biggest in Europe - but there is a shorter Holywell course for a gentler round. Local breads, cheeses and Newlyn crab are served on the clubhouse bar balcony.

Call 01208 863216 or visit www.st-enodoc.co.uk.

For a brisk walk

 
Hunstanton Golf Club, Old Hunstanton, Norfolk

The cavernous bunkers, undulating fairways and ‘fast and true greens\' of this 18-hole links course should detain you no more than three-and-a-half hours, urges the unofficial club website. To eliminate ‘the scourge of slow play\' (queues at the tees), no more than two people play each round. However, you\'re encouraged to linger longer over a pot of ‘tee\' in the Edwardian clubhouse.

Call 01485 532811 or visit www.members.aol.com/bagnjol.