Play Competitive Golf in the North East of England

North East England runs one of the most distinctive and under-rated amateur open programmes in the country, with singles, pairs, mixed and team events played from the Scottish border down to the Tees valley between March and October. Northumberland offers championship-grade links shaped by James Braid, Willie Park Jr and Mackenzie & Ebert; County Durham contributes one of the ten oldest golf clubs in England and an Alister MacKenzie design with a unique 22-hole layout; and the area in between contains a quietly impressive mix of parkland, downland and modern championship courses. With genuine northern hospitality, sensible green fees and consistently strong local fields, the North East delivers serious competitive golf without the crowds.

The North East has a longer golfing history than its modern profile suggests. Seaton Carew was founded in 1874 — the tenth-oldest club in England, and the first ever established in the counties of Durham and Yorkshire. Goswick has welcomed visitors since 1890 and has been an R&A Open Championship Regional Qualifying venue for more than a decade. Durham City was inaugurated in 1887, making it one of the oldest inland clubs in the country. The terrain shifts dramatically as you travel north from the Tees: pure links and clifftop courses along the Northumberland coast, mature parkland in the Wear and Tyne valleys, and modern championship layouts around Newcastle. For amateurs entering opens, the combination of historic clubs, championship-standard conditioning and the area's quieter pace makes it one of the most genuinely rewarding regions in England.

Goswick Golf Club — founded in 1890 as the Berwick-upon-Tweed Golf Club on links land the Romans called Goswick ("Goose Farm") — is widely regarded as the finest course in Northumberland and one of the best links in England. The original Tom Dunn layout was extended to 18 holes in 1894, given its definitive shape by James Braid in 1930 (Braid charged £8 8s a day plus expenses and revised 13 of the holes), and refined further by Willie Park Jr and Frank Pennink, with Mackenzie & Ebert engaged from 2023 to upgrade the front nine. Goswick is one of the few pure fescue links courses anywhere in the world — fairways run firm and fast, greens roll true year-round — and the routing winds across natural dunes with panoramic views over the North Sea to Holy Island and Bamburgh Castle. One of just 15 R&A-selected Open Championship Regional Qualifying venues in Great Britain and Ireland, it has hosted qualifying eight times (most recently in 2024). The signature 12th — "Pilgrim's Way" — offers a short par 4 with views straight to Lindisfarne.

Seaton Carew Golf Club, founded in 1874 on the Hartlepool coast north of the Tees, is the tenth-oldest golf club in England — and the first ever established in the counties of Durham and Yorkshire, originally bearing the name "Durham and Yorkshire Golf Club." Its current championship pedigree comes from Dr Alister MacKenzie, who lengthened and reshaped the course from 1925, planting over 2,000 buckthorn bushes and producing a layout that is now one of the few championship links MacKenzie ever worked on in Britain. Uniquely in English golf, the property has 22 holes that can be combined into five different course layouts — the Old, Micklem, Brabazon, Bishop and New — with four extra holes added by Frank Pennink in the 1970s to protect against coastal erosion. Seaton Carew has hosted the Brabazon Trophy twice (1985, 2014), the Ladies' British Open Amateur Strokeplay (1974), the Jacques Léglise Trophy and most recently the 2024 English Amateur Championship in the club's 150th anniversary year. Walter Hagen played an exhibition here in 1937 and called it "a splendid course."

Close House, set in the Tyne Valley 15 miles west of Newcastle, is the North East's modern championship venue and the only place in the world with two Lee Westwood-branded courses. The 18th-century estate — bought by Sir Graham Wylie, co-founder of the Sage software company, in 2004 — opened the Scott Macpherson-designed Colt Course in May 2011, a 6,928-yard parkland layout deliberately styled after Harry Colt's "Old English" architectural principles, with the routing incorporating an ancient Roman fort, the Ice Lake and views to Hadrian's Wall. The course reached the GB&I Top 100 within months of opening and hosted the European Tour's British Masters in 2017 (Paul Dunne winning over Rory McIlroy in front of a record 68,000 spectators) and again in 2020 — the first European Tour event back after the initial COVID lockdown. Lee Westwood is the attached touring professional and knows every blade of grass. The accompanying Filly Course and full PGA Academy round out one of the best practice and competition facilities in northern England.

Magdalene Fields Golf Club is the most northerly course in England — the first, or last, depending on which way you're driving. Established in 1903 with the original layout designed by Willie Park Jr (then professional at Musselburgh and a two-time Open Champion), it sits five minutes' walk from the centre of Berwick-upon-Tweed, with the opening tee shot played within yards of the town's famous Elizabethan walls. The 6,602-yard par-72 course runs along the cliffs above the North Sea, with the signature par-3 8th played over a cove, views down the coast to Bamburgh and Lindisfarne, and a notorious blind drive at the 16th — known locally as "the Destroyer" — close to a fishing shelter that featured in an L.S. Lowry painting. Genuinely good value, genuinely scenic, and a course that punches well above its price tag.

Bishop Auckland Golf Club was founded in 1894 on land surrounding Auckland Castle, the historic seat of the Prince Bishops of Durham — territory used as a mustering point for Edward III's army before the 1347 Battle of Neville's Cross. Originally laid out by James Kay, the parkland course occupies a hillside with sweeping views across the Wear Valley to the castle, and has long been one of the strongest clubs in County Durham. The 7th hole is widely regarded as one of the best in the north of England. The club has a rich exhibition-match history: in August 1906 James Braid (then the reigning Open Champion) and Harry Vardon (four-time Open winner and 1900 US Open champion) played 36 holes here in front of paying spectators. With consistently strong local membership, well-organised opens, and one of the most historically significant settings of any inland course in the region, Bishop Auckland is far more than a hidden gem.

Durham City Golf Club, inaugurated in December 1887, is one of the oldest inland golf clubs in England. After two earlier homes within the city, it has been settled since November 1974 at Littleburn on the south-western edge of Durham, where the 6,349-yard par-71 parkland course laid out by club member Chris Stanton runs along the banks of the River Browney. The mature tree-lined fairways now give each hole a sense of seclusion that belies the club's age, and the course is in play year-round on full tees and greens. The clubhouse — once the Rogerson family Manor House, used by the East Surrey Regiment to hold German prisoners during WWII — adds genuine historical character. Durham City hosted the English Girls Championship in 2008, runs a busy open programme, and offers exceptional value within minutes of the UNESCO-listed cathedral and castle.

Few English regions can match the North East for sheer cultural and scenic depth. The Northumberland coast — designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — runs from Berwick-upon-Tweed and Holy Island past Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Warkworth castles to the mouth of the Tyne. Hadrian's Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, cuts across the inland country close to Close House. Durham itself is a UNESCO-listed cathedral city, with its 11th-century Norman cathedral and castle rising above the Wear, while Newcastle offers the Quayside, the Sage Gateshead, BALTIC and one of the most distinctive nightlife cultures in England. Inland, the Cheviot Hills, Kielder Forest and the North Pennines provide some of the wildest landscape in the country.

Whether you pair an opens trip with a coastal walk past Bamburgh Castle, a visit to Hadrian's Wall, a city break in Newcastle, or a quieter exploration of the Wear Valley and the Cheviots, golf in the North East offers something genuinely different — championship-grade challenge in a setting that the rest of England's golfing geography simply doesn't match.