Birmingham's golfing map is dominated by parkland, and the numbers back that up: eight of the county's fourteen clubs are classified as parkland courses, spread mainly between the city itself and Sutton Coldfield on its north-eastern edge. Green fees start from around £35, and the courses on offer range from century-old Colt designs to quick nine-hole rounds fitted into an afternoon.
A city shaped by Harry Colt
Three of Birmingham's oldest clubs share a designer. Moseley Golf Club, founded in 1892, is generally reckoned the oldest course in the Midlands and still carries Colt's fingerprints through its ponds and well-kept fairways. Harborne Golf Club followed a year later in 1893, also to a Colt design, and the club marks 131 years of history on its Birmingham site three miles from the city centre. Edgbaston Golf Club, founded in 1896, has the most layered story of the three: its original course was laid out at Warley Woods before moving to Tennal Hall in 1910, and the current course wasn't built until 1936, when Colt returned at the age of 78 to create what turned out to be his last design. It opened in 1937, with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain performing the honours, and the clubhouse is Edgbaston Hall itself, a building dating from 1717–1724 that sits beside an ornamental lake within a conservation area and nature reserve just 1.4 miles from the centre.
Not every Birmingham club is quite so venerable. Handsworth Golf Club, founded in 1895, has had three new holes added by Jonathan Gaunt in more recent years, and plays through tree-lined fairways with elevated tees and doglegs that reward accurate placement over length. For golfers short on time, Harborne Church Farm offers a nine-hole alternative with a tight layout and well-defended greens, built for a round of around two hours rather than a full afternoon.
Sutton Coldfield's tree-lined tests
Sutton Coldfield adds its own chapter to the parkland story. Walmley Golf Club was formed on 22 September 1902 as a nine-hole club and extended to eighteen holes in May 1908; over the decades it has been reshaped with extensive tree planting and had water features added in 1982, giving it a more mature, wooded character today. Moor Hall Golf Club, founded in 1932 to a Hawtree and Taylor layout, underwent a complete redevelopment in 2018 under McKenzie and Ebert, with every bunker relocated and run-off areas introduced around the greens. That project, reportedly costing half a million pounds, was completed in April 2020 and has left the club with a notably modern set of greens complexes sitting on an older parkland frame. Wishaw Golf Club, also in Sutton Coldfield, rounds out the area's eighteen-hole parkland options, with Boldmere Golf Club providing a further local choice.
Beyond the traditional round
Birmingham's golf scene isn't limited to full eighteen-hole parkland outings. Cocks Moors, Hatchford Brook and Pype Hayes give city golfers accessible places to play without travelling far from home, while Skratch Golf and Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf cater to a more casual, family-oriented crowd looking for something shorter and less serious. Taken together, the county offers a fairly complete spread: historic Colt courses with real pedigree in Birmingham itself, tree-lined Sutton Coldfield clubs with their own century-long histories, and a scattering of quicker, cheaper options for anyone who just wants to hit balls on a weekday evening. With fees starting from £35, none of it is out of reach for a club golfer planning a day trip into the West Midlands.