Sunningdale Golf Club Review: 36 holes of golfing nirvana

Sunningdale Golf Club Fact File

• Location: Berkshire, less than three miles from Wentworth, and 40 minutes into central London
• Year Established: 1900
• Par: Old 70, New 70
• Length (yards from yellows): Old - 6,085   New - 6,049
• Green Fees (weekdays): £395 for Old and New, £700 for both
• Signature Hole: Old, the par-4 12th with the classic Colt bunkers. New, the par-3 5th which is just a gorgeous short hole
• Website: sunningdalegolfclub.co.uk

With both its old and new courses widely regarded as being among the three best in England, any GB&I ranking worth its salt will have Sunningdale Golf Club's iconic pair of heathland tracks firmly esconsed among the top 10.

Founded in 1900 on land owned by St John's College, Cambridge, Sunningdale's Old Course came to life through the vision of Willie Park Jr: the first person to truly take advantage of the geology and flora of the incredible Surrey/Berkshire sand-belt. Incidentally, the club's first Secretary was none other than Harry Colt, who would use his legendary architectural prowess to bring the New Course here in 1923.

Willie Park Jr was the designer of the Old and this was ready for play in 1901 and it was one of the early examples of how a brilliant course can be created from heathland and pines. Dripping in history, The Old has a list of admirers and iconic rounds drawn from basically every iconic era in golf. 

Bobby Jones was particularly fond of it, shooting a now-legendary 66 (made of 33 shots and 33 putts, using a 2-iron or wood on 10 of the holes) around the Old in qualifying for The Open in 1926, which he would go on to win. “I wish I could take this course home with me,” Jones said afterwards.

Colin Montgomerie played the Walker Cup at Sunningdale in 1987 and he ranks it as high as anything. Speaking at the 2021 Senior Open, he said: "I talked to a few of the Americans who haven't been to Sunningdale before and a few of them have played Pine Valley which is ranked No. 1 in the world and they compare it to that. That's the biggest compliment that anyone can make to a course is to compare it to No. 1. It's superb. Everyone loves it and they should.

"To its credit it has not actually changed from 1987. The trees have grown but it's still Sunningdale. The holes haven't changed, the bunkers haven't changed. There are three very short par 4s but they are also very This is as good as it gets for inland courses."

Sunningdale Golf Club Review

Whenever the distance debate is brought up, so is Sunningdale. Why? Because most of us would love to watch as much tournament-level golf played here as possible. The Berkshire golf club has played host to four Women's Opens, three Senior Opens (including 2025's playing of the event) and several European Opens—in which Bernhard Langer, Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam and Nick Faldo would all prevail in the space of just six years.

Open qualifying remains a regular visitor to Sunningdale, while the celebrity-soaked Sunningdale Foursomes remains one of the game's great season openers. Great Britain & Ireland's women recaptured the Curtis Cup here in 2024—uniquely doing so entirely on the fabled Old Course (Sunningdale has historically used a composite course to host professional events).

Sunningdale Old was once a barren, open piece of land – now it's probably the greatest inland course in the UK. Lined with pine, birch and oak trees and on sensational turf on the Surrey/Berkshire sand belt, there are few strips of land outside of the U.S. or Melbourne set up more perfectly for golf. With open heathland meeting dense thickets of pine, birch and oak, it's substantially more enclosed than the New Course, affording it an almost magical charm.

Interestingly, many, such as Paul McGinley, rate the New ahead of the Old. Former amateur star and TV analyst Bruce Critchley is part of the fabric of Sunningdale and he describes the difference between the two courses better than most of us could ever dream of.

"Had it not been for the presence of the Old next door, the New would probably be rated the best of the Surrey and Berkshire heathland courses, if not in the whole UK. The difference in the two courses is that whereas the Old flatters and charms, the New demands and examines to the point of undoing all who are not totally in control of themselves or their game."

Both courses have a par of 70 and are very similar in length, around 6,400 yards, and the New is more of a driving course and is less tree-lined with some incredible views. The short 5th always gets a mention, a classic Colt par 3, played over heather and sand, to a two-tiered green – as does the elevated drive on the 10th on the Old which must be one of the most photographed tee shots on a par 4 anywhere in the world.

Final Verdict

Ask any discerning golfer where they would go for 36 holes on the ultimate bucket-list day out, and Sunningdale would rightly stand among the most popular answer. The grand old oak trees that guard the Old Course's 18th is one of the most recognisable sights in the game and makes up the very simple logo of the club. To be a member here must be one of the greatest thrills, to have a choice of either the Old or the New and to tuck into the world-famous sausage sandwiches at the halfway house or the never-ending charms in the magnificent clubhouse.

Real negatives about Sunningdale are astonishingly hard to find. My slightly pompous misconception about the Old was that I would be hitting a lot of short irons, something that wasn't helped by beginning on the short par-4 9th in a shot-gun start. But it's so much more than that, and unless you routinely hit the ball in excess of 300 yards, it forms pretty much the perfect golfing test. Even if the tour were to visit, we'd wager it'd stand up as a more interesting test than most courses we see on a yearly basis.

Langer was a winner here in the 80s and, for him, Sunningdale hits all the right notes.

"It's one of the greatest courses you have in this country and it's withstood the test of time. I was paired with Gary Player in the Pro-Am, and he's telling me stories about this place from 60 years ago, and I've been coming here 40 years and the place really hasn't changed dramatically. He remembered seeing that tree for the first time, and it's still doing well, and so is the course. 

"The clubhouse hasn't changed dramatically, the course hasn't changed at all and it's been good all through these years. It's still good and I'm hitting a lot of 4-, 5- and 6-irons into the par 4s. It's by no means a chip-and-putt course."

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ️️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here