Billingham Golf Club

At a glance

Club	Billingham Golf Club
Location	Sandy Lane, Billingham, TS22 5NA
Founded	1967. The course opened on 5 April 1969
Architect	Frank Pennink
Type	Parkland, tree-lined, with a stream and ponds
Course played	The Millennium Course, the winter layout. Blue tees, 5,282 yards, par 69
Course rating / slope	65.7 / 114 from the blue tees
Summer course	The Imperial Course. 6,326 yards, par 71 from the whites, rated 71.0, slope 130
Shape of the par	Six par 3s, nine par 4s, three par 5s on the winter card
Visitor green fee	£35 midweek, £40 at weekends (summer 2026)
Professional	Mike Ure. Driving range and putting greens
The format	Spring Any Combination Texas Scramble, 21 March 2026, teams of three
Team score	66 gross, three under par. Team handicap 4, 62 nett

First impressions

Billingham Golf Club is on Sandy Lane, right in the town, with houses close by around the clubhouse. You wouldn’t think there was a proper parkland course behind them, but past the clubhouse it opens out into rolling parkland, with a stream running through it and trees everywhere.

It was a competition day, with the scramble sign up outside the clubhouse, and the atmosphere was friendly.

How the club started

Billingham is a newer club than most round here. It was founded in 1967, and it only exists because the town wanted it.

In 1964 a building firm, Moore and Cartwright, put in plans for an 18-hole course on Northfield Farm, west of the A19. It was going to be called Wolviston Golf Club. The council approved it in September 1964, but the builders never started, and in March 1966 the planning permission was withdrawn.

A group of local golfers led by Bill Allen didn’t let it drop. They formed a working committee and tried to raise the money themselves, about £100,000, and when that didn’t work they went to Billingham Urban District Council. The town clerk, Fred Dawson, backed them, telling the council that “a town is as strong as its organisations and a golf club would be a great asset.” The council agreed to buy the land, build the course and a clubhouse, and lease the lot to a club that didn’t exist yet.

It bought 136 acres and the farm buildings for £27,200. A contract to build the course went to a firm called Verge and Embankment Beautification Ltd, for £29,195 4s 8d. On 9 May 1967 there was a public meeting at Bede Hall to get the club going, and 625 people turned up.

The club was registered in November 1967. By the end of that year it had 204 members, including a ladies’ section of 50, each paying £10 plus a £5 entrance fee, for a golf club with no course and no clubhouse. At the first AGM in April 1968 the new captain invited everyone to his Captain’s Day. It had to be played at Appleby Golf Club, because Billingham didn’t have a course yet.

The lease was signed on 27 March 1968 at the very last meeting of Billingham Urban District Council, just before it was abolished and the new County Borough of Teesside took over. It was for 60 years at £5,000 a year, with an option for the club to renew. Bill Allen later called it “a damn close run thing.”

Work on the clubhouse started on 16 April 1968, and the course opened on 5 April 1969. There were problems early on. The club’s history mentions weeds in the greens, poor drainage and broken fences.

The architect

The course was designed by Frank Pennink. He was born in Delft in the Netherlands, won the English Amateur in 1937 and 1938, and played in the Walker Cup in 1938. After the war he went into course design, and his firm, Cotton, Pennink and Partners, built courses all over Europe. His Old Course at Vilamoura in the Algarve opened in 1969, the same year as Billingham. Closer to home, he added four new holes at Seaton Carew in the 1970s.

The club’s own history says the 1964 Wolviston plan named Henry Cotton as the architect. Pennink’s partner was a different Cotton, C.K. Cotton, so the two may have got mixed up somewhere along the way, or Henry Cotton may really have been lined up for the earlier scheme.

Two courses

Billingham plays as two different courses depending on the time of year, and you need to know which one you’re getting. The full course, the Imperial Course, is 6,326 yards and par 71 off the whites, rated 71.0 with a slope of 130. On paper that’s a proper test. In winter the club uses the Millennium Course, which has a different routing with more par 3s. Off the blues that’s 5,282 yards and par 69, rated 65.7 with a slope of 114.

We played the Millennium Course, because in March it was still in for the scramble. So bear in mind this review is on the shorter, easier one. Northern Golfer’s write-up of the summer course picks out a few holes we didn’t get: the 2nd, an uphill par 5 with water 50 yards short of the green, a downhill 200-yard par 3 at the 5th, and the 11th, a 400-yard par 4 they call the signature hole.

The holes

Every hole has a name on the card. There are six par 3s on the winter card, from the 106-yard 2nd, Caswells, to the 167-yard 6th, Hawthorns, and three par 5s. The longest is the 10th, Northfield, at 519 yards, presumably named after Northfield Farm, the land the course was built on.

The 5th is called Dawson. The town clerk who backed the club in the 1960s was Fred Dawson. I don’t know if that’s where the name comes from, but it would make sense.

The par 4s go from short to long. The 1st, Ridge, and the 7th and 8th, View and Davies, are all under 280 yards, so a good drive leaves a wedge. At the other end, the 5th, Dawson, is 407 yards and stroke index 2, and the 15th, Dyke, is 425 yards and stroke index 1.

Northern Golfer reckons the trees are the main defence, and put it like this in 2021: “the trees are tall and quite dense which means most trips off line will lead to at least one dropped shot.” They also mention old photos in the clubhouse showing hardly any trees for the first 20 years. Hard to picture now. It’s pines, birches and broadleaves everywhere you look.

Billa’s Wrath

Near the stream there’s a carved wooden sign naming holes 11, 12 and 13 Billa’s Wrath. The club doesn’t say where the name comes from, but it ties in with the town’s. One explanation of the name Billingham is that it was the home of Billa’s people, an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The sign is carved with a squirrel, birds and flowers, and the club says you can see deer, foxes, squirrels, wildfowl and birds of prey on the course.

On the winter card, 11 to 13 are the 118-yard 11th, Millennium, the 465-yard par 5 12th, Crows, and the 395-yard 13th, Poplars, stroke index 3. In summer Billa’s Wrath starts with that 400-yard signature 11th, with water down the left, We played our three in level par.

Our round

A Texas scramble is a team game. Everyone tees off, you pick the best drive, and all three play the next shot from there, all the way into the hole.

We started with five pars, bogeyed the 6th, the 167-yard par 3, then birdied the next two, View and Davies, the two short par 4s. Out in 33, one under. The 10th, Northfield, cost us a six. After that we didn’t drop another shot. We birdied the 15th, Dyke, the stroke index 1, then birdied the 17th and 18th to finish. Back in 33, two under.

66 gross, three under, with birdies on three of the last four holes. 62 nett off a team handicap of 4.

Condition

It was March, so the trees were still bare, but the fairways were green and freshly cut with stripes on them, and the bunkers were tidy.

Other golfers rate it too. When I looked in October 2026, Billingham had 4.6 out of 5 on GolfPass from 29 reviews, with 4.6 for conditions and 4.7 for value.

The setting

There are pylons across one side of the course, and houses close by around the clubhouse.

Billingham grew up around the chemical works. The site was picked in 1917 to make synthetic ammonia, and from 1926 it was run by ICI. The town went from about 4,500 people in 1917 to nearly 18,000 by 1931, and it’s about 34,000 now. The local football team, Billingham Synthonia, is even named after the synthetic ammonia.

The clubhouse

The food was nice in the clubhouse after, and the prices were good. We had a pint and a plate of chips out on the terrace, which looks down over the course.

On the club’s winter timetable the bar is open every day, and until 10pm or later Tuesday to Friday, though it can close early if it’s quiet. Catering is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays, so check before you count on a meal.

Value

A visitor round in summer 2026 is £35 midweek and £40 at the weekend, and it comes down if you book as a group. A four-ball midweek is £128, which is £32 each. With a member it’s £25 midweek and £30 at weekends, nine holes midweek is £20, and a buggy is £25.

For a course that’s 6,326 yards with a slope of 130 in summer, that’s good value. Societies of 12 or more can get 18 holes with tea or coffee and a bacon roll from £38 a head on weekdays, or £50 with a two-course meal. Those are the summer prices, so check the winter rates with the club.

The verdict

Really good course, friendly atmosphere, and nice food in the clubhouse after at good prices. It’s a tree-lined Frank Pennink parkland with a stream, ponds and a bit of history about it. If you want the full course, go in summer when the Imperial Course is in.

Design is scored on the winter layout we played. The Imperial Course off the whites is over a thousand yards longer than the Millennium off the blues, and harder by the numbers, so the summer course may well score higher.

The card

The Millennium Course from the blue tees: par 69, 5,282 yards, course rating 65.7, slope 114. Played on 21 March 2026 in a Texas scramble, so the score row is the team’s. Team handicap 4.

The scores

Billingham goes in on 7.8, just behind Wynyard and just ahead of Bellingham. The welcome, the clubhouse and the value carry it. Design is scored on the winter course, and it’s the score most likely to go up on the Imperial Course.

Practical information

Billingham Golf Club, Sandy Lane, Billingham, TS22 5NA. Telephone 01642 533816. Billingham is on the north side of the Tees, under three miles from both Stockton and Middlesbrough town centres.

Ask which course is in play when you book. The pro is Mike Ure, and there’s a driving range and putting greens. On the winter timetable the bar is open every day and catering runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and weekends.

Nearby: Wynyard is a short drive to the north-west, and Seaton Carew is on the coast just south of Hartlepool.

Billingham Golf Club, the Millennium Course from the blue tees. Reviewed after the Spring Any Combination Texas Scramble on 21 March 2026, played as a team of three, so all scores are team scores. No hospitality received. Photographs taken on the day. Card details from the club’s printed card; fees, hours and history from the club; Pennink from Wikipedia; summer holes from Northern Golfer (2021); ratings from GolfNow and GolfPass (October 2026).