Sundridge Park (West)

Concealed inside a patchwork of residential streets, Sundridge Park Golf Club is something of a hidden jewel in the suburbs of Bromley, with its 36-hole golf facility located less than ten miles from Big Ben, as the crow flies. The club might be a little out of sight but it’s easily accessible from Central London to the north and from the M25 motorway to the south.

Formed in 1901, Sundridge Park operates two championship golf courses. The East is the more challenging of the two layouts and it was used as a regional qualifying venue for the Open during the mid-1990s. The shorter West, though it doesn’t have the same tournament pedigree, complements its younger sibling beautifully with all the charm you’d expect to find on a century-old layout.

Willie Park Junior advised on setting out the first 27-hole layout at the club, comprising an 18-hole course for gentlemen and a 9-hole track for ladies. On 25th April 1903, four days after the Ladies’ course was unveiled, the main 18-hole course was officially opened by James Braid and Sandy Herd when they played an exhibition match to mark the occasion.

Braid returned a decade later to remodel the course, lengthening the layout by altering three holes and installing forty-eight new bunkers, all of which were constructed by Fred Hawtree, who was then the club’s head greenkeeper, At the time, the course was described as “sporting, difficult rather than easy” with “magnificent greens.”

When the East course was developed by Sir Guy Campbell and C.K. Hutchinson at the start of the 1930s, the West course was also modified and seven new holes (the 3rd to the 9th) were added to the layout on new ground and the redesigned course opened for play on 20th May 1933 with a 36-hole exhibition match between Percy Alliss and Alf Padgham.

Nowadays, the course can be stretched to 6,019 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 69, with only two par fives on the scorecard at holes 6 and 11. The River Quaggy comes into play at the 1st, cutting across the fairway 100 yards in front of the green, and this tributary of the River Ravensbourne is crossed several more times during the round.

The back nine finishes with three terrific holes: the short par four 16th offers a real birdie chance for those who don’t get too greedy off the tee, the 17th is the longest par three on the course with the strongest short hole stroke index, and the tight par four 18th rises steadily uphill and slightly left to a heavily sand-protected home green.