Our Top English Links

In my mind Royal St. George’s at Sandwich is a championship links golf course with few, if any, superiors.

The links at Burnham & Berrow begins at a pulsating pace and rarely lets up until the moment you reach the comfort of the historic 100-year-old clubhouse where you are able to relax and reflect.

Hunstanton is a fine championship links situated on the edge of The Wash in North-West Norfolk.

Royal Birkdale is a golf course which is incredibly hard not to like but at the same time it’s not an easy one to truly love.

I always enjoy my visits to play Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club at Deal, the Kentish town that the course is often referred to by name.

As you would expect from a club that has seen the Claret Jug contested over its links on no less than eleven occasions Royal Lytham & St. Annes didn't disappoint.

If anyone dare claim there is a better 36 holes of links golf at one golf club in England than at Saunton I'm pretty sure I could make an unquestionable case for this wonderful piece of linksland.

In my eyes Silloth is a golf course that has the ability to transcend your typical ‘championship links’.

If you’ve got an itch sometimes you’ve just got to scratch it… even if it’s in a hard-to-reach place! And in my personal quest to play all the true links golf course in the British Isles that was exactly the case with Castletown.

Playing at Formby was one of my earliest links golfing experiences and I will therefore always have fond memories of what is undoubtedly a hugely memorable and top quality golf course.

Prince's is a truly superb 27-hole links complex that makes for a great play & stay venue but the emphasis is certainly more on the play side of things, it's all about the golf here.

It could be argued that no golf club has had a greater influence on the amateur game of golf than Royal Liverpool, the second oldest links in England behind only Royal North Devon.

Royal North Devon, or Westward Ho! as it is often fondly referred to, is a very special place. Perhaps it should be called Royal North Heaven!

Royal West Norfolk Golf Club, often referred to as Brancaster, is a quirky course that time has forgotten about. And it’s much the better for that.

Southport & Ainsdale offers everything that the other famous links courses on this fabled stretch of Lancashire coastline can… and the golfing connoisseur would perhaps argue it delivers even more than this.

Hillside is one of several first-class championship links in prime golfing territory on the West Coast of England. Located tight between Birkdale to the North and Southport & Ainsdale to the South it makes a tasty filling for what is a delicious sandwich of links golf.

It’s safe to say there’s a lot more to Rye Golf Club than the actual golf course.

They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and I was well and truly mesmerised when I first set sights on Wallasey.

The West Lancashire Golf Club was founded in 1873 and is among the ten oldest golf clubs in England.

St. Enodoc Golf Club, sitting proudly above the affluent village of Rock on the North Cornish coast, is a much revered and cherished place to play golf.

If anyone dare claim there is a better 36 holes of links golf at one golf club in England than at Saunton I'm pretty sure I could make an unquestionable case for this wonderful piece of linksland.

Prince's is a truly superb 27-hole links complex that makes for a great play & stay venue but the emphasis is certainly more on the play side of things, it's all about the golf here.

Looking out from the clubhouse at Berwick upon Tweed Golf Club you would be forgiven for thinking that the course wasn’t really up to a great deal. You would be wrong. Very wrong.

Hayling is an extremely fast running golf course played over pure linksland.

I love pretty much everything about the intriguing and challenging links at Littlestone. There is a rustic charm to this most appealing of layouts where you enjoy all the best traits of seaside golf.

If you like your links golf a little bit on the extreme side (I do) then you will love Perranporth. It not only has a ‘wow’ factor, it has several of them!

Seacroft is a golf course for those who like their links golf pure and undiluted.

Located close to Hartlepool in the North-East corner of England Seaton Carew, where golf dates back to 1874, has a reputation for being a bleak, chilly and grim links.

Seascale is a 125-year old links oozing charm, character and class.

Sheringham is a spectacular clifftop links golf course with a number of memorable holes.

Saint Annes Old Links sits amongst distinguished guests along England's North West coast. It holds its own.

Trevose Golf & Country Club is a real darling of the South-West golfing tapestry.

There is uniqueness about Bude & North Cornwall that lovers of true and natural links golf will find not only alluring but extremely exciting.

Cleveland is one of a small handful of true links golf courses on the North-East coast of England; the only one in Yorkshire and the oldest too.

It may have only been February when I played Dunstanburgh Castle but I strongly suspect this will be the biggest surprise of 2015. What a gem of a links course.

Furness could well be deemed the forgotten links of Cumbria.

A round at Hesketh is very much a game of two halves. Well almost.

On a visit to the South-West that entailed no less than seven links courses Newquay proved to be the surprise package of the lot.

Established in 1889 West Cornwall Golf Club at Lelant is the oldest in the peninsula county, it is also one of the finest.

The adjacent Jubilee course at Rye was also a real surprise, not only in terms of the quality but also the unusual configuration.

I like nice surprises. And that's exactly what I got when I played Fleetwood Golf Club for the first time in August 2013.

Great Yarmouth & Caister was founded in 1882 making it the oldest golf club in Norfolk. It’s also one of the best.

It's a long time since I've walked off a golf course and been as impressed and surprised, compared to what I was expecting, than at Newbiggin.

The Channel Course is virtually the same as the main course but in miniature.

I was very interested to see Alnmouth Village following a reader’s recommendation after the publication of our article about the best nine-hole golf courses in the United Kingdom.

It’s not until you are willing to venture a little bit off the beaten path that you are able to discover such golfing gems as Dunnerholme.

Hartlepool is a slow burner of a golf course. It takes three or four holes to really warm up but once it does it produces some excellent true links golf.

It’s a real shame that Warren Golf Club, located at the seaside town of Dawlish Warren in South Devon, was omitted from the “True Links” book showcasing the 246 true links golf courses of the world.

The Martello course at Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club is the only links course in Suffolk and one of only a handful in East Anglia.

Littlehampton has one of the best starts to any links course I have played. The opening two holes really are of the highest order.

Minehead and West Somerset is a true links golf course set against the rugged backdrop of the Brendon Hills with captivating sea views all the way along the impressive back-nine.

Warkworth is a delightful Old Tom Morris nine-holer with a lovely ‘linksy’ feel to it.

Dating back to 1892 Weston-super-Mare is a historic club with a true links course considered by many as one of the best in the South West.

Leasowe is one of three true links golf courses located on the Wirral Peninsula.

Seahouses is a golf course that will long live in my memory.

Silecroft is a springy, nine-hole clifftop links occupying a compact strip of coastal land high above the Irish Sea in the Western Lake District.

The East Coast of England, with the exception of East Anglia, is a fairly barren place for links golf.

When it comes to links golf Southport is arguably the United Kingdom’s number one location, almost unquestionably England’s and without doubt a real hot spot.

I concluded a six-day, 14-course trip to Ireland with a round at Warren Municipal. Why?... you might ask. And rightly so.

The second course at Trevose very rarely crops in conversation but during a family holiday to the Cornish Resort I made sure to play it.

The third course at Trevose, aptly named the "Short Course" is just 1,360 yards.