Saunton Golf Club, East Course

The verdict

Saunton's East Course is the kind of links that golfers who think they have seen everything come away talking about. It runs through Braunton Burrows, one of the largest dune systems in the British Isles, a wild expanse of marram and sandhills on the North Devon coast that gives the holes a scale and seclusion few inland or seaside courses can match. First laid out in 1897, it was the great Edwardian architect Herbert Fowler, of Walton Heath fame, who reworked it in 1919 into the strategic test it remains.

At about 6,779 yards and par 71 it is not long by modern numbers, but the wind off Bideford Bay rarely rests, and the East asks for control of flight, nerve off tight tees and a deft touch around small, firm greens. It is regularly ranked among the best courses in England, and yet it sits far enough west to stay uncrowded and unhurried. For a traveller building a links trip with character rather than just famous names, Saunton is one of the most rewarding stops in the country.

The holes worth the trip

The East starts as it means to go on, the opening hole a stern par 4 that sets the tone for a round spent threading drives between the dunes. Fowler routed the course to use the natural folds of Braunton Burrows rather than fight them, so fairways tumble, stances are rarely flat and the marram covered sandhills frame almost every shot. Miss the short grass and the recovery is often sideways.

The greens are the defence: small, firm and cleverly contoured, they reward the player who flights the ball low and lands it short, links style, rather than throwing it in from the sky. With the wind switching through the round, a hole that played as a flick in the morning can demand two solid blows by the afternoon, and that variability is exactly what keeps better players coming back.

It is the cumulative test rather than one postcard hole that defines Saunton. There is no weak stretch, no place to relax, and the finish back toward the clubhouse asks for your best golf when the legs and the wind are both telling against you. Walk off with a score you are proud of here and you have earned it.

Where to stay nearby

The nearby villages of Braunton, Croyde and Saunton sit right by the course, with the dunes giving way to some of the best surf beaches in England, so a North Devon golf trip pairs naturally with the coast. Saunton Sands and the small hotels and inns around it put you minutes from the first tee.

For a fuller links week, North Devon rewards a slower pace: base near Saunton, play the East and West here, and add the historic Royal North Devon links a short drive away across the estuary at Westward Ho!, England's oldest seaside course.