Hindhead - Surrey - England

12th Surrey - Best in Area 39th England Ranking 91st Britain & Ireland Ranking
Hindhead Golf Club,
Churt Road,
Hindhead,
Surrey,
GU26 6HX,
England

  • +44 (0) 1428 604614

Hindhead Golf Club originally featured on the Top 100 website as a Gem and was nominated by Chris. It was added to the site in February 2005. Since then, Hindhead became an English Top 100 ranked course and then appeared within our 2016 Britain & Ireland Top 100 ranking list for the first time. Keith Baxter, Editor-in-Chief, has been singing Hindhead's praises for more than a decade and comments as follows:

Martin, a friend of mine, is a member at Hindhead Golf Club and I have been lucky enough to play here on numerous occasions. Each and every time I stand on the 2nd tee I ask myself the question: Why on earth is Hindhead not ranked more highly?

Hindhead Golf Club was founded in 1904 and it was the inspiration of a number of golfing enthusiasts. It is therefore “elementary, my dear Watson” that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was amongst the original founders.

The Devil's Punchbowl is a large hollow of dry sandy heath to the west of Hindhead and it’s overlooked by Gibbet Hill, which is the second highest hill in Surrey. The front nine at Hindhead is laid out through these heather strewn Ice Age valleys and the back nine plays on the hillside heathland plateau. The location is not only breathtaking, it’s truly beautiful.

"If you've never played the course before," wrote Tom Doak in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, "it would be difficult to convince you that there is a fairway waiting down there from the 2nd tee." By the time you reach the 3rd hole – one of the best par threes I’ve ever played – you too will be asking yourself the question why is Hindhead not in the Top 100? By the time you reach the par three 6th, the signature hole, you’ll be so convinced that this is a Top 100 course that you’ll be mentally writing a letter to one of the glossy golf magazine's Top 100 ranking panellists.

Undoubtedly, the front nine is the most dramatic and memorable, but the back nine also represents fine golf on ideal golfing terrain. The tee shot at 17 is intimidating and the right to left sloping fairway is tough to hit.

In my mind, without doubt, Hindhead was one of the best, if not the best course never to have appeared on a Britain & Ireland Top 100 list. A decade after first listing Hindhead as a Gem it entered our Britain & Ireland Top 100. About time I say, and I'm not alone in my opinion, Hindhead was one of Peter Alliss' favourite courses. Additionally, Hindhead was featured in Frank Pennink's Choice of Golf Courses: “Perhaps the most picturesque of Surrey’s many beautiful heather-and-pine courses.”

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Reviews for Hindhead

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Description: The front nine at Hindhead Golf Club is laid out through heather strewn Ice Age valleys and the back nine plays on a heathland plateau. Rating: 8.2 out of 10 Reviews: 63
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M J Smyth
On getting a recent invite to Hindhead (mid-October) the first thing that struck me was just how many times I remembered the legendary voice of golf Peter Alliss talk of how good not only the greens were but also the Ham, Egg & Chips! I was literally counting down the days….. A warm welcome was received on arrival with an excellent full English – Yellow tee breakfast to be precise - setting the standard for the day which wasn’t to drop.

Playing off the white tees at 6390yards the 1st offers up a generous fairway getting my round off to a routine bogey. Standing on the 2nd tee Luke Donald could do worse than spend some time with his oil & canvass as the view across the valley was just breath taking, not a bad par 5 to boot. My first standout hole is the par 3 third at 193yds to a narrow green with no bail out whatsoever. Bunkers right & a fall off left that had most of our four ball fighting for a bogey. Great short hole! Four & five continue through the valley asking for cut approach to four & a draw tee shot at the dog leg fifth. I was really starting to like this layout of designer JH Taylor, he who was famed for many a dog leg as a design trait. Contrasting par 3s in length, 6th short as in a 9ir & 8th for me a driver on the day mixed up with a couple of solid par 4s brought us to the best half way hut this side of Sunningdale.

The back nine although not as memorable as the front nine still had some classic stand out holes starting with par 3 tenth & typical of all the par 3s at HH with plenty of hidden danger. The par 4 SI 2 14th hole asked for two solid knocks to a green that although relatively quick on the day I would not want to get on the wrong side of the pin in high Summer. The run in from here was a good mix up of solid par five sixteenth and intimidating tee shot off 17 with the match tightly balanced. 18 for me was the best finishing hole this year! 441yds and slightly uphill the tee shot asks for a pro draw before hybrid approach to a green tucked in just under the nose of the clubhouse bar.

It was in the Alliss bar post round after a lovely shower that it really started to sink of what a gem of a club HH is. It is little wonder the Surrey county team hone their skills here given the course condition especially the greens. If you haven’t played it you won’t be disappointed.
November 09, 2015
8 / 10
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7 people found this review helpful
James
The third stop on our Hampshire/ Surrey border tour brings us to Hindhead, the others being Blackmoor, Hankley Common and Liphook. On balance these courses offer the best value/quality ratio in the whole of the British Isles for a golf tour and if you throw in a bonus trip to Hayling for a spot of Links Golf you have the makings of the best Golf trip money can buy in these Isles.A tale of two nines at Hindhead. The most undulating and physically demanding of the courses on this tour. Some might say, also the prettiest. Whichever nine you prefer you can be sure of this. The greens and all round maintenance of the course are unparalleled. The new bunkers set new standards of excellence. It is a unique place that will offer the opportunity to hit shots you will not be able to hit elsewhere. You will not forget Hindhead in a hurry. A charismatic course with idiosyncratic holes. A great place to visit.JCB LAY
July 26, 2015
8 / 10
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6 people found this review helpful
Alex Iveson
A pleasure to be able to call myself a member of Hindhead. The course is a visual masterpiece, with stunning nature and landscaping to blow you away. front 9 as mentioned is as good as it gets whilst back 9 on a par with many more talked about courses. Greens are fast, true and complex with 4 putting a possibility if not careful. Greenkeeping staff are stars and have implemented some great changes with more to come! How it doesn't sit higher in the rankings is beyond me but does keep the traffic on the course to a bearable number.
February 28, 2015
8 / 10
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5 people found this review helpful
James Bloomer
Finally a review for one of my very favourite unsung courses. Front nine here is staggering. As good as anywhere outside the top 3 or 4 inland courses nationally. Gorgeously framed shots through and sometimes down steep valleys, to some of the fastest and best greens you could wish to putt, and never less than varied, beautiful and fun (as well as difficult!) The first two par threes personal favourites. The third, with its huge drop to the left and bunkers and heathery bank to the right, would be in top ten par threes nationwide, and I have been lucky enough to play many places. One could frankly pick almost any front nine hole though. Back nine could never live up to that, but has always been very good, in my opinion. Fascinated to hear of raising of tee at 14, which was always visually wrong before. If they could do anything about the non-descript par three 15th and the tee shot at 16 which requires a snap slice (the rest of the hole is excellent), they really would have some course here. As it is, VASTLY underrated. I prefer it to all 3 W's, the Red at the Berkshire, West Sussex, and rate it the equal of the much better known Hankley Common.
December 07, 2014
8 / 10
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2 people found this review helpful
Keith Baxter

Martin invited me to play Hindhead earlier this month and so, after being too long away (some 8 years), I returned to sample one of Surrey’s delights. A gorgeous, shirt-sleeved autumn day set the tone for yet another engaging round.

I’m impressed with the changes… the greenkeeping team here at Hindhead are something else. The programme of heather regeneration is working really well. Far too well for my rather wayward game I must admit - I left a couple of my Srixon’s in the purple stuff for the members to find and then lose at some later date. The work to the bunkers and green surrounds belies the reality that these renovations are so very recent. But the most impressive change in my mind is the raising of the 14th tee, which has transformed the tee shot’s value and is an aesthetic triumph.

Despite torrential overnight rain, the course played well and it was useful to see how the bunkers were holding up under such difficult conditions. The short answer is that the bunkers played really well. But I do hope most sincerely that the club decides not to adopt the grey sharp sand, which is being trialled across a number of bunkers. The sand is perfectly good to play from, but is entirely the wrong colour, and in my opinion will jar with the natural colour palette of this unsung course. Finally, I concur with the previous reviewer. I too would want to be a member here at Hindhead if I lived closer and they’ve got a pretty good club team too. Hindhead were runners-up to Southport and Ainsdale in the 2014 English Champion Club tournament. Keith Baxter

October 29, 2014
7 / 10
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kevin
Just wished I lived closer as I think a no brainer as for being a member there.Great interesting course which is aesthetically very pleasing also a very decent half way house. The first hole doesn't reveal what the course is remotely like and then Wow, you stand on the second tee perched on top of a valley and you start to see the layout of the next three holes.The course throws up a decent challenge and quite a few more absolutely stunning holes as you progress in your round.You then finally come to the 18th which again although a decent hole it seems to secretly cloak the course once more like the first. All I can say is the members are very lucky.
October 24, 2014
8 / 10
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Alex Grant
Played this Saturday 30th August after hearing so many positive testimonials. Course was in superb condition and the first 9 did not disappoint. Huge valleys wind their way at the bottom of the course and a little local knowledge of green complxes would have been useful for a first timer. Greens were a little slower than they looked having been top dressed and had a good dousing of rain in the previous two days. Pro assured us that at the height of summer they would be very slick. 2nd nine much more like Walton Heath/Hankley etc but still with all the gorse a challenge. Members could not have been more welcoming and the wife even got a round of applause on 18th for chipping over a bunker to 3 feet. Aleady planning a return visit soon.
August 30, 2014
10 / 10
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Tim Lloyd
I was lucky enough to play 36 holes at Hindhead yesterday and what a day it was. Hindhead is simply a stunning golf course, full of character and such a joy to play. I've never played a course where you get the feeling that the course itself is willing you to play well - rare to find on a course of this calibre! The setting is beautiful, the course brilliantly contrasting and the condition first class - the greens are absolutely superb. A lot of reviewers have covered the front and back 9's but I truly believe the front 9 is as good as any front 9 in England and the back 9 is brilliant as well with a tough finish to keep you on your toes. Everyone we met was friendly down to earth and clearly happy and proud to be there. This is the sort of club and course that I'd join in a heartbeat if I lived locally. Lunch was delicious too. The menu, varied and generous in its portions and the patio for a post round pint is as good as it gets right at the back of the 18th. Any golfer reading this has to play Hindhead, you won't regret and I for one can't wait to go back and play it again. Tim L
August 28, 2013
8 / 10
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Ben Payne
Hindhead remains a fantastically fun golf course to play. The scenery is spectacular and every hole on the course is a very memorable. I really cant understand why this must play course is not rated higher. If i were to have any criticisms, the greens when we played were a bit slower than most people would like (although they had just been dressed), also the par 3s i think are maybe slightly less exciting than the rest of the course, which is admittedly brilliant.
August 17, 2013
8 / 10
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James
I have just played in the prestigious mens open here. It was very hard! These were the best greens I have played all year. The whole course is immaculate, The description above is spot on. A wonderful golf club that is a joy to play. JCB LAY
September 09, 2012
8 / 10
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