Little Aston

Few courses in the English Midlands carry the quiet authority of Little Aston. Laid out in 1908 by Harry Vardon — one of the most celebrated figures in the history of the game — and later refined by Harry Colt, the course occupies a stretch of Staffordshire parkland that has aged beautifully over more than a century. It has long been regarded as one of the finest inland tests in Britain, consistently ranked among the country's top courses and a perennial fixture on respected national rankings.

The design is classically English: broad avenues of mature oaks and beeches frame fairways that reward intelligent positioning over raw power. The ground game matters here, and the greens — subtle, firm, and fast — have a way of exposing overconfidence. The Rover-sponsored tournaments it hosted in the latter decades of the 20th century brought professional scrutiny, and the course passed without embarrassment.

Sutton Coldfield sits just north of Birmingham, prosperous and well-tended, and Little Aston reflects its setting — a private members' club of genuine distinction, unhurried and entirely serious about its golf.