Bedford & County

The course was originally part of the Clapham Park estate which was farmed by Lancelot Clark and he would invite friends round to play golf with him, using roughly cut greens that were wired off from grazing sheep.

A 9-hole course was opened in April 1912 with a 36-hole exhibition match, and one of the participants was Scottish amateur Charles MacFarlane, who took part in the England-Scotland Amateur Match at Royal North Devon that same year.

MacFarlane then set out a new 18-hole course which was called the Mid Bedfordshire Golf Course and this opened with another exhibition match in May 1913 involving MacFarlane and another Scotsman, George Duncan, who would go on to win the Open in 1920.

On 26 April 1923, the course re-opened after it had been redesigned by J. H. Taylor and Fred G. Hawtree and the new layout also saw the introduction of bunkers for the first time. Three years later, the club changed hands, becoming Bedford & County Golf Club.

During World War II, holes 6 to15 were requisitioned for agricultural use and it wasn’t until June 1952 that the full 18-hole layout was brought back into play. Since then, drainage has been improved and tees extended to promote all-year usage of the course.

Today, the course extends to 6,420 yards, playing to a par of 70, with tree-lined fairways, strategically-placed bunkers and manicured greens challenging golfers of all handicaps. A brook can catch the unwary as it wanders through the 7th, 10th, 11th and 15th – with the last of these holes regarded as one of the toughest par fours in the county.