Sandy Lodge Golf Club

Founded in 1910 and often described as an inland links, Sandy Lodge Golf Club was designed by Harry Vardon and is one of Hertfordshire’s jewels.

“It deserves its name in that it is wonderfully sandy.” Wrote Bernard Darwin in The Golf Courses of the British Isles. “It is a fine training-ground for the driver, and also for the putter, for there are no better greens near London.” More than one hundred years later, Darwin’s comments still hold true.

Sandy Lodge was formed by a frustrated London businessman called James Francis Markes who was tired of playing golf on the muddy parks around the capital. Markes soon realised that the land at Sandy Lodge Farm was perfect golfing country and he enlisted his close friend and six-time Open champion, Harry Vardon, to fashion a golf course.

The result was a wide-open, windswept, inland course that resembled a seaside links and Sandy Lodge remained that way until the outbreak of the Second World War when it was turned over to grazing. Fortunately, the course was restored after the war, but unfortunately large sandy waste areas were grassed over and tree and shrub growth ensued, changing the look and feel of Sandy Lodge.

Despite its changed outer look, the Sandy Lodge golf course remains true to its original roots. It may not be the longest golf course in the area – measuring a little less than 6,500 yards from the back tees – but it’s still a fair and enjoyable challenge for golfers of all levels.

With six par threes and five par fives on the scorecard, there is no shortage of variation at Sandy Lodge. The pick of the half-dozen one-shot holes is the long, downhill 15th called Markes’ Pride which is ringed by a quartet of bunkers and numerous trees. Laddie’s Cockpit, the 7th, in contrast to 15, is a bunkerless par three but it’s a very attractive one shotter that requires careful club selection in order to mark par on the scorecard.

Sandy Lodge is a not only genuinely sandy, it’s also a very hospitable club and the membership is very fortunate to have such a lovely course to tee it up on every week.