A compact county with a strong Colt connection
Bath and North East Somerset doesn't have a huge number of clubs, but what's here is worth knowing well. Four courses cover the county, three of them parkland, spread between the honeyed hills around Bath and the northern edge of Bristol. It's a landscape of limestone and rolling countryside, and the courses tend to sit above the towns rather than in them, which gives several of them genuine views over the valleys below.
The standout is Bath Golf Club, laid out above the city with sweeping views over Bath and the surrounding countryside. It's a Harry Colt design, ranked second in Somerset, and was picked out as a Golf Monthly Hidden Gem in 2022. The drainage here is excellent, so it plays year-round rather than turning heavy through the winter months, which matters on a course built on a hillside.
Colt also had a hand at Lansdown Golf Club, three miles outside Bath, another parkland course with open countryside views. Lansdown carries GolfMark accreditation, a Sport England ClubMark Award, and SafeGolf club accreditation, and like Bath it drains well enough to rarely close. Having two Colt courses within a short drive of each other is a rare thing for a county this size, and it's a good excuse to play both in the same visit and compare how his design ideas sit on different ground.
Bristol's parkland pair
Over towards Bristol, Saltford Golf Club dates back to 1904 and sits in woodland with views stretching over both Bristol and the Bath countryside. The greens are fast and undulating, the bunkering is strategic rather than decorative, and the tree-lined fairways demand some thought off the tee. Like the Bath clubs, it rarely closes in winter, so it's a reliable option when the weather turns.
Stockwood Vale Golf Club, also in Bristol, makes the most of its rolling hills and natural limestone drainage, backed up by an underground drainage system. It's another course that keeps grass tees going year-round rather than switching to winter mats, and the course rating sits between 69.4 and 70.3 depending on tees, with a slope of 115 to 120 — a fair test without being punishing.
What ties it together
The recurring theme across all four clubs is drainage. Whether it's Bath's hillside setting, Lansdown's effective run-off, Saltford's winter resilience, or Stockwood Vale's natural limestone and underground system, this is a county where parkland golf doesn't grind to a halt every time it rains. For golfers used to courses closing at the first sign of a wet November, that's a genuine point in the county's favour.
Green fees start from £15, which makes it an accessible spot to sample a Colt design or two without committing to a big day out. Bath and North East Somerset won't take long to explore properly — four clubs across two towns is a weekend's work, not a season's — but the quality on offer, particularly the pairing of Bath and Lansdown, means it repays the visit.