Liphook Golf Club is a heathland golf course set on the Hampshire-Sussex border within the South Downs National Park. Arthur Croome's 1922 design, later refined by Tom Simpson, remains one of England's earliest examples of strategic golf architecture. A 2019-2022 rerouting modernised access while completely preserving its strategic character throughout.
Liphook Golf Club
Liphook Golf Club is a heathland golf course set on the Hampshire-Sussex border within the South Downs National Park. Arthur Croome's 1922 design, later refined by Tom Simpson, remains one of England's earliest examples of strategic golf architecture. A 2019-2022 rerouting modernised access while completely preserving its strategic character throughout.
Experience one of England's earliest examples of strategic golf course design, where heather, pine and birch reward accurate positioning over raw length.
Liphook Golf Club was founded in 1922, when its committee appointed Arthur Croome to lay out the course. Croome, a golf writer who later became a partner in the architectural practice of Fowler, Abercromby, Simpson and Croome, was a committed supporter of the strategic school of design over the older penal approach. Liphook was the only course he ever designed.
The first nine holes opened for play in September 1922, with the remaining nine completed and opened in June 1923. Tom Simpson, a fellow partner in the same architectural practice, joined the club and became Master of the Green following Croome's early death. Simpson carried out several strategic refinements, including the prominent mound protecting the 14th green that became known as Simpson's Folly.
In 1949, the order of the two nine-hole loops was reversed to suit the site of a new clubhouse, which was completed in 1961 close to the original 10th hole. The course design then changed relatively little for several decades. Between 2019 and 2022, Tom Mackenzie of MacKenzie & Ebert carried out a phased rerouting project timed to conclude with the club's centenary.
The first phase, completed in 2019, added two new holes, the 8th and 9th, along with a new green on the 11th that created the course's longest par five. The second phase merged the old 10th and 11th holes into a new 10th and realigned the 15th to use an existing railway underpass.
Liphook plays to a par of 71 across heathland terrain split into four sections by a road and a railway line, with golfers crossing between them as the round progresses. The ground is sandy and undulating, with natural depressions and rises that place a premium on shot placement rather than distance. Heather, pine and silver birch border the fairways throughout, reinforcing the original strategic design brief.
Most of the course remains attributable to Arthur Croome and Tom Simpson's original strategic concept, with the 1st and 18th holes credited to John Morrison and several holes in the 7th-to-16th stretch reworked by MacKenzie & Ebert as part of the centenary project. The par-4 14th remains one of the course's defining holes, its approach played blind over Simpson's Folly toward a green guarded on the front left by the mound he added after Croome's death.
Liphook stands as a rare example of a single architect's only design becoming an enduring strategic test, refined rather than replaced by those who followed. The 2019–2022 centenary rerouting addressed a long-standing safety issue without disturbing the heathland character established a century earlier. For golfers visiting Hampshire's heathland courses, Liphook offers a layout still shaped by the strategic design principles its founders championed.
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
California, United States
New Jersey, United States
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
New York, United States
New York, United States
Overall rating
4.5
Overall rating
4.5
