Hill Barn

Few public courses on England's south coast have served their community as long or as loyally as Hill Barn. Sitting on the chalk downland above Worthing, the course occupies ground that feels genuinely ancient — the open, rolling turf of the South Downs, where the grass stays firm and the wind rarely takes a day off. That downland character shapes every round: the terrain is natural rather than manufactured, the views reach out toward the English Channel, and the conditions shift dramatically with the seasons.

Worthing itself sits in a dense belt of Sussex golf, with the Downs providing the backdrop for several clubs in the area. Hill Barn is the municipal option, which in practice means it has introduced generations of local players to the game and remains a genuine community asset — busy most weekends, welcoming on weekdays, and accessible to golfers of every level.

At par 70, the course plays shorter than a full championship layout, but the downland lies and the prevailing southwesterly breeze have a way of adding strokes that the scorecard never hints at.