Reigate Heath

Few courses in England carry quite the same atmospheric charge as Reigate Heath. Laid out across a stretch of open Surrey heathland, the course dates to the 1890s and is one of the older clubs in the south of England, with the unmistakable character that only genuine heathland turf and decades of continuous play can produce. Its most celebrated feature is the windmill that serves as the clubhouse — a working 18th-century structure that has become one of golf's more singular landmarks, and a reminder that this ground was shaped by forces well beyond the game itself.

The layout plays over gorse, heather, and sandy subsoil typical of the Surrey heaths, in the same broad tradition as the great heathland courses of the region. At par 67 it is compact rather than exhaustive, but heathland golf rewards precision and local knowledge over raw power, and Reigate Heath asks for both.

Reigate itself sits at the foot of the North Downs, about 25 miles south of London — commuter country, but with a landscape that still opens up into genuine countryside the moment you step onto the heath.