Harleyford Golf Club

Quality and cost I think this is a must play for anyone serious about golf

Harleyford is a hidden gem. On first look it appears to be a fairly easy and straightforward course, without any water hazards and not too many large bunkers.

But the reality is a hugely challenging course with doglegs, trees to navigate, decisions at every hole. Many courses simply require you to hit yourself longest club on every hole, but course strategy becomes much more important.

If you are hoping to get away with bump and runs around the green you may suffer as the majority of the greens are raised and require some skill with a lob wedge.

When you make it to the greens in regulation you will then find some tricky challenges on the fast and hard to read greens.

The course has a luxury feel, on a private estate, surround by beautiful unique wooden sculptures and nods to the clubs famous member Tyrrell Hatton who has his own parking space, spot on the driving range and keeps his rider cup buggy at the club and can be seen on the course when not in the states.

But one of the best things about the course is it's natural drainage means that tee boxes and greens are maintained all year round and when many of the nearby courses would be waterlogged you will find Harleyford in great condition to play

A proper golf course with challenging holes especially off the white tees. Scenic and quiet. Pace of play was good ... completed in less than 4 hours.

Chronologically, I started the day at the driving range, there were a variety of poor range balls and they were very much overpriced, if you pay for 25 balls, only 23 come out. I walked up to the driving range and it was effectively a field with very few targets (yardages on the post weren’t even accurate). The mats were rock solid and ‘stoney’ which I noticed caused damage to my irons. In addition, I couldn’t even hit driver because they don’t provide a rubber tee - you have to pay an extra £3 to borrow one. The chipping green was in poor condition, many divots taken out of the green and incredibly slow.

Proceeding onto the course, the fairways looked like the rough and the greens were painfully slow. One of the positives is that the design of the course is relatively pleasant, it’s a real shame that it’s not maintained by the green keepers. After a tedious front 9, the ‘newly renovated’ half way house contained two vending machines that didn’t take cash and the machine didn’t register my / my partner’s contactless cards. The back 9 was equally disappointing, poor condition and slow bobbly greens.

After the round, we went into the clubhouse to have a drink and a small meal. The menu was simply appalling, overpriced and lacked a variety of healthy options. For instance, we ordered a bowl of chips (£3) to share, they were completely undercooked - we had a couple each and left them. I ordered bangers and mash (£10), the sausages were clearly of poor quality and the mash was mediocre. My wife ordered a Caesar salad (£9) and she thought it was very much ‘average’.

To conclude, this was a dreadful experience, we had high expectations from their social media platform images as well as the gallery on the Harleyford website however this was completely unrepresentative of the reality of the course. I’m very disappointed by the range, the condition of the course, the greens, the clubhouse menu (variety and pricing).

Before paying for green fees or range tokens at this club, I’d strongly recommend having a look around the place - in order to know the lifeless reality of the club before spending money.

Not sure if it is club’s fault or GolfNow booking system but I was sold a Tee time of 7am when the Sunrise was 7-46am. The gold club staff were helpful but the system is faulty

Great day out course very good .Greens in very good condition.

Very impressive course - well kept, great layout and all round top clas facilities. Lavish!

Lots of good doglegs. Greens were in great nick and held up well in the rain. We are returning next month.

What a great day to be out on the course! There was scheduled course maintenance but we decided to play anyway - The Green keepers really know their stuff. Barely felt like it was being done at all!

I wish I had played better.. definitely came out last of my group but then I hadn't played here yet.
I think a few more rounds here and I'll be much happier with my score!

Stayed for lunch and a few beers afterwards - was fairly busy with what I think was a wake going on but the staff really didn't seem to be stressed about anything and were really attentive to us.

I'll be back soon Harleyford!

We played on a Saturday Morning in the freezing cold but the course was on main tees and greens, everywhere else was on Temps and Mats!
The fees are okay, not cheap but good value for money.
The staff are cracking, they couldn't do enough for us - reckon they must enjoy their work!
Post match beer was a treat, well worth the visit!