“Northwood is the best course on which to be taken ill,” wrote Bernard Darwin, “since it is there that play half the doctors of London. But there is nothing in the golf to make you ill, since, especially in dry weather, it is very attractive.”
Northwood Golf Club started with a 9-hole course that was set out on farmland next to an area known as “The Gravel Pits,” where clay for making bricks had been mined. Within a decade of the course opening, architect Tom Dunn had added another nine holes, acting on advice from J.H. Taylor. A more recent development saw the upgrading of all the greens to USGA standard.
Two sets of returning nines are routed around a heavily wooded estate, complete with a wandering stream that comes into play at several of the holes. Hawthorn bushes, gorse and heather are all traditional features of the course, both strategically and aesthetically. To mark the centenary of the club in 1991, a lovely stone bridge was constructed to span the stream close to the first tee box.
Today, this parkland/heathland track measures 6,473 yards in length and it plays to a par of 71, with many of the fairways doglegging one way or the other to their intended target. There are only three par three holes on the card, the first of which arrives early in the round at the 148-yard 3rd hole. There’s then quite a wait to play the other two short holes as they don’t appear until the 13th and 15th.
