West Surrey

Few courses in the Surrey Hills carry quite the pedigree of West Surrey Golf Club. Founded in 1910 and designed by Herbert Fowler — the architect also responsible for Walton Heath and Saunton — the course occupies a stretch of classic heathland terrain above Godalming, with the sandy soil, heather, and Scots pine that define this most distinctive of English golfing landscapes. Fowler had a gift for routing holes that feel inevitable rather than imposed on the land, and West Surrey is a fine example of that restraint.

The course has built a quiet but genuine reputation in a county that sets an exceptionally high bar. Surrey is arguably the most golf-rich county in England, home to Wentworth, Sunningdale, and a dozen other clubs of serious standing, yet West Surrey holds its own — a members' club that rewards those who know it without shouting for attention.

Godalming itself sits in the Wey valley on the edge of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, an unhurried market town that feels a world away from the London commuter belt despite being little more than an hour from the city.