County Durham has more variety than people give it credit for: links on the coast at Seaton Carew and Hartlepool, parkland round Durham itself, and courses on the high ground in the west of the county, like Crook.
Seaton Carew, founded in 1874, was the first golf club in both County Durham and Yorkshire and is the tenth oldest in England. Brancepeth’s clubhouse is the castle’s old stables and coach house.
Here’s every course in the county I’ve reviewed, best first. It includes the Teesside courses on the north side of the river, which are in County Durham.
- 19.0
Seaton Carew, Micklem
Founded in 1874, reshaped by Alister MacKenzie, and played among the dunes at the mouth of the Tees with a nuclear power station on the skyline. The best golf course I have played.
- 28.6
Brancepeth Castle
A Harry Colt original from 1924, laid out in a deer park, cut in half by a ravine, and played in the shadow of a medieval castle. One of the least shouted-about great courses in the North of England.
- 37.9
Wynyard, Wellington Course
Martin Hawtree's Wellington Course hosted the Seve Trophy in 2005 and still plays like a championship venue. Thirty years on, is it the best inland test in the North East?
- 47.8
Billingham
A really good course and a friendly club, played in a team scramble on the winter layout. The town council built it in the 1960s, and there’s a good story behind how it got built.
- 57.3
Crook
Founded in 1919 on the hills above the town. The fastest greens I have putted on in the North East, a quarry to carry twice on the front nine, and a clubhouse that was too often shut when I was a member.
Green fee bands A visitor round midweek in summer. £ under £30 ££ £30 to £49 £££ £50 to £69 ££££ £70 to £99 £££££ £100 and over
