Thorndon Park - Essex - England

I'd been itching to play Thorndon Park for a while. Coming from Berkshire, navigating the M25 round to the M25 is painful, but absolutely worth it to play this gem.

A beautiful parkland course, with has some fantastic backdrops, offered so much opportunity to score well, with spacious fairways and well manicured greens. But the course bites back with brilliantly positioned bunkers (I must have dropped in about 5 or 6 today).

The bunkers make scoring a challenge, but avoid them and you should score well. The greens were bouncy and hard, but very true, so all fair in my book.

A terrific course, well worth driving for. Happily go back when next in the area.

I’ve just had the pleasure of playing this golf course and loved every second of it. After playing the majority of the courses in Essex, I can see why this one in particular stands out. From the picturesque views, to the stunning greens, you can really see why people rate this golf course so highly. There aren’t many golf courses in this area where you’d feel confident enough to wear summer shoes in the winter, but this is definitely one of them. My favourite part was playing the 3rd hole, which was a stunning par 4 that needed a drive over the lake and the 18th hole, which looks out onto the very beautiful manor. I feel like this course is a must play for anyone who wants to play the best around and I am looking forward to playing here in the summer too.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of Thorndon Park when I made the journey down from Norfolk to start my little golf trip this past Sunday. Essex certainly isn't renowned for it's golf courses so I had to see what this place did differently from the rest.

You'd be forgiven for muttering an expletive after turning around, putter in hand for a warmup when you lay eyes on the giant mansion which is Thorndon Hall. The idea of building a golf course on this deer park only came about when the hall was badly damaged by fire in 1878, and some businessmen found it the perfect location for a golf course and housing estate. And whilst the estate never materialized, I'm sure glad the golf course did.

The clubhouse was even located in the east wing of Thorndon Hall, the east wing and chapel were leased to the golf club until 1968 until they bought the great building. This was short-lived as a new clubhouse was erected in 1974 and Thorndon Hall sold off to developers.

As for the course itself, it's a pretty parkland course with some blind tee shots, thick rough and a couple of great looking holes. Accuracy off the tee is the priority here, it's very easy to lose a ball just a few yards off the fairway.

Whilst the condition of the course was brilliant, the few criticisms I did have about Thorndon Park was the condition of fairway bunkers. I did find it quite odd the greenside bunkers were in pristine condition whilst the fairway bunkers were not. Maybe as Keith mentioned in his review back in 2018 they hadn't quite got round to this yet, just lucky I didn't end up in any!

Some courses tend to have a few great holes and try and use that to compensate for how average other holes are on the course. Thorndon shows consistency here as I couldn't really point out a bad hole. On the flip side I can't really think of a wow hole. The 9th probably came the closest for me with an elevated view of the par 5 hole in front. The fairway narrowly snakes it's way through until it reaches the green at the top of the hill.

The 12th is probably worth a mention too. A great example of how just adding a bridge to a hole turns a standard par 3 into something more special.

Overall, Thorndon Park is a contender for top 100 in my opinion. It may not have the quality over 18 holes to go higher but I can definitely see why it's there.

First review alert , Thorndon park holds a very speacial place in my heart as it was the first top 100 course (England) i visited. Although living less than 10 miles away i waited until i thought my game was good enough to play , Boy was it worth the wait every hole felt like an Amphitheatre. For the most part you wont see another group its a pleasure to play and always in supreme condition . well played Mr colt well played.

I can understand why Thorndon Park is rated #1 in Essex (#95 in England), the scenery is stunning, you wouldn’t think you were 30 minutes from East London. Every hole is completely different and totally isolated from each other by the trees. At 6216 yards off the yellows I wasn’t expecting too much of a challenge, but was I wrong!!! The amount of bunkers/sand traps on this course is immense, without a doubt you won’t make it round this course without ending up in one. The other big challenge is the greens, if you are able to land the ball on the green and make it stay you are doing very well, they are lightning fast. This is a must play course if you live in Essex or are visiting, best make yourself aware of the clubs dress-code & rules etc as this is a private members club.

This is my first time reviewing, so here goes nothing…

Thorndon Park is an outstanding example of a British Parkland course in the heart of Essex, teeming with wildlife and woodland, its a truly serene place to play 18. The position of the course deep in Thorndon Park offers golfers a noise pollution free round, allowing you to embrace nature’s peace and focus on the round at hand.

I’ve played here numerous times over the last 5 or so years, and it’s safe to say the course really keeps you on your toes. A fantastic mix of different length par 3s, a reachable par 4, a long uphill par 4 which you’ll do well to par and the reachable par 5 9th all contribute to offer every type of available golf hole - as soon as you’re gifted shots, you’re then struggling to keep them.

It’s been great to see the course improvements are finally bearing the fruits of the labour, with all the new bunkers in place, new fluffy sand added and a lot of tree removal. The new layout of the course mimics that which I’ve seen on TV but not managed to play, for example Wentworth. The greens play fast and true and the fairways are in impeccable condition, offering a real advantage to fairway finding golfers. Playing off the whites, the course stretches to 6511 yards, and with some tee shots that require an iron for position, it plays long.

To rattle off some holes of note, I’ll start with the 2nd. This is a picturesque par 3 guarded by bunkers on all sides. The hole shouldn’t be a struggle, as it’s a perfect distance for my 7 iron, but the usual crosswind makes it a tester. The 4th hole is one of the iron off the tee for position holes, with a ditch halfway down the hole on a downslope always in the mind off the tee. A heavily guarded green makes the approach tricky as well, with a par is a great score on this one! The reachable par 5 9th offers a wide fairway off the tee that lets you properly open up the shoulders off the tee, with a nice drive catching a speed trap and leaving you just over 200 yards to the green. The 18th hole back up towards Thorndon Hall is also one to note, with the hall’s presence offering up a spectacular finish to the round.

Being a local to the area, I can’t think of a course to beat it and not one that I would rather be a member of. It is well deserving of the #1 spot in Essex and I believe can challenge higher up the lower quartile of the Top100 of England.

Despite being beaten by my daughter Rachelle (aka Baby Baxter), who rubbed salt into the wounds by holing a ridiculously long putt on the 18th to receive a standing ovation from the members who were packed onto the terrace, I really enjoyed Thorndon Park when I teed it up here a couple of weeks ago.

Don’t ask me why, but this was the first time I’d played Thorndon Park, even though I lived in Essex for a dozen years and played most courses in the county during that period. Parkland courses generally don’t receive much love in the UK but this is certainly one of the better ones. Its position in the lower quartile of the English Top 100 is bound to be questionable, especially given that there are so many other great English courses that are on the cusp of this very competitive ranking list.

I only have two criticisms and both are perennial qualms that haunt many Golden Age English courses. 1. Tree encroachment and 2. Tired bunkering. Thankfully the club is tackling both these issues under the progressive management of the new Secretary and the Course Manager and his team. The bunker renovations are underway and work will be completed in time for the club’s centenary celebrations in 2020, also many trees have already been felled.

It’s not clear what Lancelot “Capability” Brown envisaged when he remodelled the park at Thorndon Hall for the 9th Baron Petre in the 18th century, but the great landscape architect most definitely created New Hall Pond which has to be carried in a “how much dare you bite off” kind of way at the wonderful par four 3rd hole (par five for the ladies), which sweeps left around this lake.

As with most Harry Colt-designed courses the one shotters are very good. The greensites are thought provoking without being too wild and the pleasantly undulating topography provides more than enough engagement. I was most surprised and delighted by the lack of traffic noise – it’s a quiet spot – even though the M25 motorway and the busy A12 are close by.

I’d say Thorndon Park deserves its place in the English hundred and has the potential to cement its spot in the rankings once the bunkering and tree removal programmes are complete. Probably a 4.5 rating at the present moment is how I’d rate the course, but I’d liked it more than enough to round things up rather than down.

Essex is a county with many golf courses but it is not really renowned for having any venues near the top of the pyramid when it comes to discussing the best of golf in Great Britain.

I’m ashamed to say this was my first ever round of golf in Essex but it would appear that Thorndon Park, designed by Harry Colt in 1920, is the needle in the haystack.

Hidden away on some lovely golfing turf close to Brentwood a round here delivers some of the best park golf you will find in England.

As with most courses of this nature there is a lot of sedate stuff going on but there are flashes of excellence throughout the round too which more than merit a quick detour off the M25.

Covering almost 250 acres the site is actually an ancient deer park and the rolling nature of the property provides for some fine holes at this established private-members club.

Green sites at the seventh and 17th are particularly pleasing to the eye, as well as your golfing imagination, whilst the fourth and eighth also make for wonderful approach shots. The Palladian mansion of Thorndon Hall acts as the most wonderful backdrop to the final hole and adds to the sense of nobility.

The greens, though recently hollow-tined and lightly sanded, held enough interest and despite heavy overnight rain the courses remained firm; it was noticeable that a lot of drainage work had been undertaken on the approaches to some greens. The jury obviously remains out as to how the course will play in winter but the signs are promising.

Like most inland courses there are far too many trees encroaching on several holes nowadays and whilst the course pleasingly retains good width for the most part it would be even better should a lot of the clutter be removed to highlight a variety of specimen and unusual trees. There are many examples but the rising eighth in particular would be a glorious looking par-four if there were much less timber.

All considered I enjoyed my round at Thorndon Park; it was especially nice to see the ball get such a big and high bounce on the fairways.

From a golfing perspective (heading down from the North) I’d always recommend driving round the M25 in an anti-clockwise direction towards Surrey but should you find yourself on the East side of the London Orbital I can think of few better places to play.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

I play most of my golf in Essex but never had the opportunity to play at Thorndon Park until recently and I can say that this is without doubt the best course in Essex I have played. In fact it would be at home in the more fashionable golfing counties of Surrey or Berkshire. We played in early April so the course was still recovering from the winter but it was still in good condition so will be even better in the summer. The fairways feel fairly generous from the tee but it was still tough to score on. The bunkering was very pleasing on the eye both from the tee and on shots into the greens. The greens were receptive but still fairly quick and true. If I lived a little closer i would find it very hard not to be a member there, looking forward to going back in the summer.

A thoroughly pleasant place to play golf. The club is approached down a long wooded driveway which gives a clue as to what follows.The course starts gently with a fairly tame, and relatively open par 4 first hole. This is followed by the first of the par 3’s, and then a lovely par 4 where the braver your tee shot, the further it must carry over water. A decent tee shot leaves a relatively short approach, albeit to an undulating green which can easily kick off a poorly struck shot. A very good hole.The 4th is a relatively short par 4, but made significantly harder than expected by only being able to hit a long / mid iron from the tee because of a water hazard. This leaves a lovely, but tough approach with little margin for error from around 150 years or so.The 5th, 6th and 7th are pleasant rather than memorable holes, but there then follows a run of beautiful tree lined holes – perhaps the best stretch of the course. The 8th is a long par 4 requiring two very precise shots to a tight fairway and then a raised green. The 9th is the first of the par 5s, starting from a lovely raised tee high in the trees and winding through to a narrow green set near the clubhouse. The 10th and 11th also have a feeling of isolation before this feeling is interrupted with the short, uphill 12th. However this is immediately followed by the lovely 13th. Again isolated in the trees the drive is one of the highlights from the raised tee. The 15th is perhaps the best of the par 3’s over water, and is followed by a tight, but reachable par 5. 17 and 18 are two more challenging par 4’s of around 400 yards, both requiring pinpoint approaches to undulating greens.The course was in immaculate early season condition with all aspects of the course being in great shape. The greens were very firm and fast and it took a good shot to hold them (as it should be).It really is a lovely setting with a feeling of spaciousness on each hole and well worth a visit. The clubhouse is well equipped and sits nicely overlooking the 18th green. The only slight disappointment is that it is no longer the old mansion that is used as the clubhouse (this stunning building set directly behind the 1st tee / 18th green now being privately owned and not connected to the golf club). Despite that minor issue, a round at Thorndon Park really does make for a lovely day out.