Royston

Royston Golf Club sits on the Hertfordshire chalk downs just south of the market town that shares its name — terrain that gives the course an open, breezy character quite different from the wooded parkland that dominates much of the English Home Counties golf scene. The downland turf drains fast and runs firm, rewarding ground-game thinking and punishing the aerial approach player who ignores the wind. At par 70, the layout leans on its par 3s and shorter par 4s to provide the variety, and on a breezy day the exposed hilltop holes play considerably harder than the card suggests.

Royston itself is a compact Hertfordshire town with a long history — the Icknield Way, one of Britain's oldest trackways, passes nearby — and the golf club carries that quiet, unhurried feel of a traditional English members' club with deep roots in its community.

For visiting golfers, this is a genuine taste of classic English downland golf: fast-running fairways, punchy winds, and the kind of honest examination that requires course management over raw power.