Moor Park Golf Club oozes quality. The High is a classy golf course and a warm welcome awaits in the spectacular clubhouse mansion.
Moor Park Golf Club (High)
Moor Park Golf Club oozes quality. The High is a classy golf course and a warm welcome awaits in the spectacular clubhouse mansion.
Located conveniently near to London, but sufficiently protected by mature trees to shield us from suburbia, Moor Park Golf Club's elegant High course layout will provide a challenging test of golf in pleasant park surroundings.
The clubhouse at Moor Park is an elegant 17th century mansion, the most photographed clubhouse in golf, perhaps with the exception of the R&A clubhouse at St Andrews. It has been used for many purposes throughout its illustrious history: home to the gentry, religious hierarchy and requisitioned as the HQ for the Parachute Regiment during the 2nd World War. It was here that the doomed battle of Arnhem was planned.
Moor Park also made it into the Guinness Book of Golf Facts and Feats as the club with highest membership in England (1,600).
Designed by Harry Colt, the High course opened for play in 1923. Two years later it hosted the PGA Matchplay Championship.
“It is park golf with a dash of something else, wrote Bernard Darwin in his 1925 book, The Golf Courses of Great Britain, “for in the middle of the round, close to a fine clump of beeches, there is a strip of bracken country. It is here that the best and most amusing holes are to be found, and Mr. Colt has used every available inch of it.”
The Bob Hope Classic was held here during the 1980s, along with many other professional tournaments. The club has also staged a number of blue-ribbon junior events, including the Boys Amateur Championship and the English Boys’ Stroke Play Championship, formerly the Carris Trophy.
“They do say you remember a golf course with special affection if you’ve played it well,” wrote Peter Alliss in The Good Golf Guide, “and that’s certainly one of the reasons for my liking Moor Park. In the 1964 Esso Golden Tournament I played the best golf of my life. I hit the ball well throughout, hardly missed a short putt and holed not a few long ones as well. It was a round robin matchplay event with a selected field. You played everybody. I won all my matches except for a half with Ken Nagle and a loss to Christy O’Connor, who both finished with birdie 2s.”
There are some very good holes on the 6,700-yard layout, opening with a friendly par four. The 2nd is a good driving hole, requiring a solid tee shot across a valley to a fairway that doglegs to the right. The 4th is a long downhill par four, two accurate shots are required to reach this green in two. The 8th, 440 yards, is one of our favourites, sweeping downhill and then back uphill to a sloping green protected by a lurking pond with the half-way house sitting welcomingly behind the green.
The homeward nine is really more of the same, some strong and long par fours with a couple of short and reachable par fives. If anything, the back nine is more memorable and certainly a much tougher proposition than the outward nine. Two troublesome holes are the par three 12th (one of the best inland par threes in the country) requiring a bold tee shot over a valley and the 14th, a fantastic long par four where the approach shot must carry a hidden gully dissecting the fairway.
Moor Park oozes quality. The High is a classy golf course and a warm welcome awaits in the clubhouse mansion, but don't overlook the club's Harry Colt-designed West course. It may be rather short, but it's lots of fun and it's not as easy as it appears on the scorecard.
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
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The purpose of the Review of The Month feature is twofold. Top100GolfCourses has always aimed to salute and encourage those who are putting admirable effort into reviewing the world’s great golf courses. Moving forward, we are also looking to learn from these experts! We’ll be chatting with the month’s star authors and discussing topics such as golf in their area, what they like to see in a strong course review, and of course dig a little deeper into their own winning review. December 2023’s Review of The Month comes from David Scoular, who traveled to the northernmost corners of Hertfordshire to play the chalk-soiled gem that is Royston Golf Club, which claims to be the oldest 18-hole golf course in England. You can read David’s winning review, and find other Royston writeups here. -- There is truly something special about traversing out and back across Therfield Heath. Although Royston Golf Club was founded in 1892, the course will be celebrating 400 years of Golf in 2024, providing justification to the note emblazed across the scorecard, "The Oldest 18 Hole Golf Course in England". The course features firm, fast fairways, playable all year round. This is thanks to its location, upon fast-draining chalk-based downland. Making the course a worthwhile pilgrimage for any golf starved individuals throughout the winter months. Royston is regarded as short by modern standards, measuring 5,910 yards. but due to its exposed position, perched high on common land. The varying wind direction and small green targets require well planned shots. None more so than the 8th, "Rand's Folly" . The hole stretches along an undulating fairway with a slight right-to-left slope from a blind tee location. requiring a drive to the left side of the fairway setting up a precise shot into the raised, fort like green. The par threes are all interesting. The two stand out holes, been the 5th & 10th. The fifth, requires a long iron across a broad valley, played predominately into the prevailing wind. The Tenth, a 221 yard valley hole, played from an elevated tee to a well guarded green, can be regarded as the courses hidden gem. Pars on either holes are well received. The stretch from the fifteenth to the eighteenth tee, offers wonderful variety, and excellent opportunities to improve a score. The climb up to Wee Knock, the short 16th will require a few moments to catch your breathe, in this moment make sure the correct club is selected. Anything short or left will be thrown off this blind raised green. The18th, played from a high tee with wind normally behind offers most golfers the opportunity to reach this Par 4 in one. I am pleased to see Royston feature in the county rankings. A county well regarded for its parkland golf. The Par 70 course has no two holes alike and should delight the enthusiastic golfer. I look forward to my next visit.
Bishop's Stortford Golf Club, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England Click any of the large images to return to the main Bishop's Stortford page All photographs courtesy of Bishop's Stortford Golf Club 2nd green 7th hole 3rd hole 12th green 17th tee 18th tee Aerial view Clubhouse
Hadley Wood Golf Club, Barnet, Hertfordshire, England Click any of the large images to return to the main Hadley Wood page All photographs courtesy of Hadley Wood Golf Club On the tee 7th hole 12th hole 13th hole 17th hole The clubhouse
