Chiltern Forest

Few courses in the Home Counties announce themselves quite like Chiltern Forest, which occupies a stretch of genuine Chiltern woodland outside Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The Chilterns are designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the forest terrain here is no marketing invention — beech and oak close in on most holes, autumn colour is exceptional, and the contours of the chalk escarpment give the land natural movement that a designer would struggle to manufacture.

A par 70 layout signals something tighter and more strategic than a wide-open parkland test. On wooded courses like this, accuracy off the tee matters far more than raw power, and players who curve the ball will find the trees a constant conversation partner. The shorter overall distance is offset by what the forest demands: precise shaping, patience, and a willingness to take your medicine when a fairway is missed.

Aylesbury sits at the northwestern edge of the Chilterns, with London close enough that the course draws a committed golfing community — members who know these fairways well and tend to defend their home turf accordingly.