Golf clubs

Course

First impressions of a course from a clubhouse bay window are usually revealing. But not here at Ashburnham, where the first and last holes are entirely untypical of what lies in between. In fact, add in the flat, parallel-running 2nd and 17th, along with the short 16th, and the rest is very much a course within a course. These remaining 13 holes are classic links. They dive through the dunes with a beguiling combination of blind and open vistas; some are arrow-straight, others are dog-legged – occasionally more than once. All are completely natural; if it is manicured, target golf you prefer, look elsewhere. A few are fearsome, a few are (theoretically) straightforward, and every so occasionally Ashburnham throws up the kind of hole that is simply impossible to play without foreknowledge of its perils and secrets. One such example is the 8th, where the drive is blind in the truest sense of the word, and another is the wonderfully contrary par-five 14th, which calls for a drive to the first of two fairways then a second hit more with hope than certainty over a marker post whose function is not immediately clear. Elsewhere there are some truly colossal par fours, the 9th and the 15th spring immediately to mind, and some altogether more subtle ones. Take the 12th, which demands a drive down a funnel then turns sharply to the left. The temptation from the tee on this par four of moderate length is to hug the left of the fairway but all that results is a blind and highly awkward second over a hill.

• Number of holes: 18
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6916