Golf Clubs in Essex And London

There are some 80 golf clubs in Essex affiliated to the Essex Golf Union which was inaugurated in 1924, and around the same number in London. However, with the Essex Ladies County Golf Association founded in 1900, meaning the women’s game was nearly a quarter of a century before the men’s Union was formed.

Golf clubs in Essex include the well-known Chelmsford Golf Club which was re-modelled in 1924 by Harry Colt. The October of 1987* brought with it a rarely seen hurricane in the UK, which devastated a lot of the English countryside and damaged many golf courses.

It brought down many trees, which in turn (over time) opened things up so that there was greater air movement, and the course became much drier. It is now said to be one of the best maintained courses in the county.

Romford Golf Club can be found in Gidea Park in Essex and is a testing course of 6,383 yards with a par of 71. Everything seems reasonably straightforward until you reach the par four 4th where you are often playing into the prevailing wind. It is 477 yards and the Pro’s tip is “carry the middle bunker for the second shot, card a five and move on”. The hardest hole is the par four 14th   which is 455 yards and has a pond just short right of the green.

Other well-known Golf clubs in London include The London Club, The RAC Club, The Grove but there is some bad new, as council become even more strapped for cash, they are selling off some golf course land for housing one such club is Beckenham Place Park GC between Penge and Bromley. This was a challenging and enjoyable course meandering between the ancient trees in the park but alas, from 2016, this course no longer exists.

Meanwhile, Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf Club (opposite to the famous Dulwich College and is an undulating course with astounding views of London from Canary Wharf to Wembley. This is another course designed by Harry Colt in 1894, although some alterations to bunkers were made in 2007 and the tees were rebuilt. 

*The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among the most damaged areas were Greater London, the East Anglian coast, the Home Counties, the west of Brittany and the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy which weathered gusts typically with a return period of 1 in 200 years.