Ealing

Originally called Castle Bar Golf Club when it formed in 1898, Ealing changed name to its current title shortly after it was founded. James Braid was subsequently commissioned to lay out an 18-hole course for the club before Harry Colt carried out modifications in 1926 when the A40 road was constructed just to the north of the property.

Down the years, improvements have been made to the layout in terms of adding new tee positions, pruning trees and upgrading bunkers but the routing has remained intact, even if the playing order has changed a number of times. The club was also one of the first to automatically water its greens and this irrigation system has since been extended to cover the fairways.

Ealing is a typical parkland track with tight, tree-lined holes laid out on the flood plain of the River Brent. As you might expect on such a flat landscape, the river encroaches at several points during a round here; none more so than at two of toughest holes on the card, the long par four 6th and the left doglegged 13th, where the meandering waters cut across the fairway in front of the greens.

Other notable holes at Ealing include the back-to-back par fives at 7 and 8 and the two par threes on the back nine at 14 and 18 – the former is a tough “short” hole which plays as long as 227 yards from the back tees whilst the latter is a new closing hole that was recently brought in, along with a new par four 17th, to replace the old pair of par five finishing holes.