The Worcestershire

Few English inland courses command quite the sense of drama that The Worcestershire does. Laid out across the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills — a ancient ridge of Precambrian rock that rises sharply from the surrounding plain — the course works with terrain that most architects would simply not dare attempt. The result is golf that is visually stunning and physically demanding in equal measure, with sweeping views across the Severn Valley and into Wales on clear days.

The club itself is one of the older establishments in the Midlands, and the hillside setting gives the course a character that flat-country layouts simply cannot replicate. Elevation changes are a constant factor in club selection, and the turf on these free-draining slopes tends to run firm and fast in summer, rewarding bump-and-run play over aerial heroics.

Malvern Wells sits just south of Great Malvern, a Victorian spa town whose elegant architecture reflects the era when taking the waters here was considered essential. The Worcestershire feels very much a product of that same unhurried, purposeful age.