Walton Heath Golf Club (Old Course) - England

Walton Heath's Old Course is one of the earliest and certainly one of the finest of the heathland courses around London, located less than 20 miles from the city center. The course, site of the 1981 Ryder Cup Matches, is laid out over a vast and solitary expanse of heath and gorse, and is renowned for its crisp turf and purple mounds of heather. The club largely owes its inception to Henry Cosmo Bonsor, chairman of the South Eastern Railway Company, who also happened to be the brother-in-law of William Herbert Fowler, a scratch competitive golfer and keen student of golf course design. Given the commission to create the course, Fowler explored the site on horseback in 1902 and his design was completed by the spring of 1904. An inventive and daring architect, Fowler went on to design such notable courses as Saunton East and The Berkshire, as well as the New Course at Walton Heath that opened in 1907, and was expanded to 18 holes in 1913. The club was particularly popular with politicians and members of the press from the outset. David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill were not only political rivals, but played matches against each other at Walton Heath, where Lloyd George was a member from 1907-1945 and Churchill from 1910-1965. James Braid, a towering figure in the history of the game, was enlisted as the first professional, and the "Sage of Walton Heath" held the position for 45 years until his death in 1950.

Stoke Park Club - England

Stoke Park Club, formerly known as Stoke Poges Golf Club, is a first-rate parkland course designed by Harry Colt that abounds in historical, architectural, and cinematic interest. The Stoke Park estate is first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, with the village of Stoke Poges taking its name from the marriage of Amicia de Stoke to Sir Robert de Poges in 1291. Centuries later, John Penn, son of William Penn, spent a large share of the compensation he received from the new United States government for the family's 26 million acres in Pennsylvania to build the mansion, starting in 1789, that today serves as golf's grandest club­house and also houses a five-star hotel. The Penn mansion, designed by James Wyatt, architect to George III, influenced the design of the White House, while the monument built by Penn to Lord Coke, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stands in the practice range. In 1908, "Pa" Lane Jackson, founder of the Corinthian Sporting Club, purchased the estate and hired Colt to design the course. The most famous of movie golf scenes, the match between James Bond and Goldfinger, was filmed at Stoke Park, with the mansion serving as the backdrop. Sean Connery, a keen golfer, hit his own shots in the movie. Incidentally, when Bond drives off in his Aston Martin he is going down a driveway that is actually a dead end.