Suningdale Golf Club (Old Course) - England

Sunningdale's Old Course is the grand dame of the great heathland courses built in the sand belt southwest of London at the turn of the last century. Twenty-five miles from London, the course occupies land that had once been part of the Benedictine nunnery of Broomhall, abolished by Henry VIII, and since 1524 the site has been owned by St. John's College, Cambridge. The course, designed in 1901 by Willie Park, Jr., and revised by Harry Colt, two of the greatest luminaries of British golf course architecture, is enchantingly beautiful. The fairways are lapped and crossed by pools of heather and each hole is encased by burly conifers. The Old Course has hosted the 1987 Walker Cup, the 1992 European Open (won by Nick Faldo), and three Women's British Opens in the past decade. The New Course, designed by Colt in 1922, is more open and a truly outstanding course in its own right. There is a picturesque clubhouse and the halfway house is famous for its sausage sandwiches.

Silloth on Solway Golf Club - England

Bernard Darwin wrote of Silloth on Solway Golf Club that "1 never fell more violently in love with a course at first sight." This sublime and remote links is located 20 miles west of Carlisle, and was founded by a group of Carlisle businessmen in 1892. The links, with its crisp Cumberland turf and wild, rushy mar ram grass, runs along Solway Firth. There are romantic views of the hills of the Scottish lowlands and Southerness Golf Club lying across the far shore, and the English Lake District to the south. The course will forever be associated with the exploits of Cecil Leitch, four-time winner of the British Ladies' Championship from 1914 to 1926, and her four golfing sisters, who grew up playing the course. The turf from Silloth has been used over the years for putting greens and bowling courts throughout England and for the lawn tennis courts at Wimbledon.