Hollingbury Park Golf Course

Few municipal courses in England carry as much history as Hollingbury Park. Laid out in 1908 on the ancient chalk downland north of Brighton's city centre, it was designed by J.H. Taylor — one of the Great Triumvirate of late Victorian and Edwardian golf — giving a publicly accessible layout genuine architectural pedigree. The course occupies a high, exposed ridge of the South Downs, and that elevation defines everything: wide views across Brighton to the English Channel, firm and fast-running turf in dry summers, and a wind that can make a familiar scorecard feel entirely foreign from one visit to the next.

As a municipal course managed by Brighton & Hove City Council, Hollingbury has long served as the everyday course for a city not naturally associated with golf. It has nurtured generations of local players who might never have taken up the game otherwise.

The downland setting gives the course a links-like quality without being coastal — tight fescue lies, ground game rewards, and a stripped-back landscape that puts shot-making front and centre rather than spectacle.