Perranporth

Few settings in British golf are as elemental as this one. Perranporth Golf Club sits on the north Cornish coast, occupying a stretch of Atlantic-facing duneland that ranks among the most dramatic linksland in the southwest of England. The course plays across and through genuine sand dunes, with the kind of tumbling, unpredictable terrain that no architect could manufacture — wind off the Atlantic is as much a factor in club selection as yardage ever is.

Cornwall's golf scene is quietly serious, with a string of coastal and heathland courses that reward the traveller willing to venture beyond the county's better-known attractions. Perranporth itself is a small seaside town built around one of the longest beaches in Cornwall, and that vast expanse of sand and dune continues directly into the course's character.

Links golf here means reading the ground as much as the air, keeping the ball low when the weather turns, and accepting that the terrain will offer a different examination every round. For those who enjoy golf shaped by nature rather than a master plan, this is a compelling destination.