Portal Golf & Spa Resort (Championship)

There's plenty of golf to be played at the leafy Portal Golf and Country Club in the northwest of England, forty-five holes in fact. Donald Steel has fashioned several courses in Cheshire but maybe he saved his best for the Portal Championship course, which opened for play in 1990.

We're not buggy lovers, but the Championship course is sufficiently undulating and definitely long enough at 7,037 yards from the back tees to make a cart tempting. The land was once a battlefield and two of the named holes include the opener "Agincourt" and "Waterloo" the penultimate hole. Choose your tee carefully unless you want a personal skirmish.

There are also some strong golf holes on the Championship layout. The 3rd is a monster 602-yard par five and it's a ball-striker's delight from the elevated tee. Only the game's longest hitters will try to reach this green in two and undoubtedly some big hitters will have tried and failed, only to find their ball in the lake which guards the front of the green.

The par three 14th, called "The Horn", is a delightful short hole, with its green also surrounded by water. At "Waterloo" the par four 17th, you may meet your very own Waterloo by going into Adam's Well, where an inscription once read: "Tho' if of this ale, you drink a pail, you'll never ail."