St George's Hill Golf Club (Red & Blue)

St George’s Hill Golf Club is one of the prettiest of the numerous heathland courses on the Surrey/Berkshire sand belt... it's also one of the best. In 1911, a local builder came up with an original idea to build luxury fairway-side houses and, by chance, Harry Colt was the chosen architect. The course opened for play in 1913 and it is considered (alongside Swinley Forest) to be one of Colt’s greatest designs.

The most notable difference between St George’s Hill and the heathland layouts in this area is the terrain. The land here sweeps and undulates like a rollercoaster and Harry Colt used these dramatic elevation changes superbly in his design.

At this stage, it is worth pointing out that there are three loops of nine holes, called Red, Blue and Green. At one time, St George’s Hill was a 36-hole complex but sadly, no longer. The main course is comprised of the Red nine and the Blue nine, the Green nine is somewhat shorter.

The spectacular panorama from the front of the clubhouse, or the pavilion as it was originally called, totally whets your appetite. It is one of those views that grabs you and makes your heart pound in excited anticipation. You cannot help but want to get out onto the first tee as quickly as possible.

Opening up is a super 384-yard par four played from an elevated tee. A good drive will leave your tee shot at the bottom of a valley, your approach will then need to be struck steeply up the hill to an inviting green that waits patiently at the top. The 2nd hole is even better, a brutal 458-yard par 4, a blind drive over the brow of a hill will leave a tough approach shot from a hanging lie which must carry a stream on its way to a distant raised green. And so it goes on, with many more memorable holes, especially the par threes. In fact there isn’t a single weak hole here at St George’s Hill.

Tim Lobb was engaged by the club to produce a design policy report in 2015, after the architect had rebuilt the practice ground and created a new green for the short par four 6th on the Green nine. The report indicated the club had strayed from its Colt heritage, resulting in Lobb replacing the green on the 1st hole, restoring an original Colt bunker on the left side of the fairway and adding a new bunker on that side closer to the new green. Further bunker work (mainly to enlarge hazards and introduce peripheral heather) has since been carried out on another twelve holes.

In 2023, the Renaissance Golf Design firm, headed by Brian Schneider, was appointed to produce a new masterplan for all twenty-seven holes at the club.