Cambridgeshire doesn't announce itself the way a coastal county does, but its 18 clubs cover more variety than the flat fenland reputation suggests. Parkland dominates, with nine of the county's courses falling into that category, but there's a genuine links at Newmarket, heathland at Comberton, and chalk downland just outside Cambridge itself. Golf here is spread from the fens around Wisbech and March down to the racehorse country of Newmarket, taking in Huntingdon, Ely, Peterborough and St Ives along the way.
The parkland core is where most club golfers will spend their time, and it ranges from woodland-heavy layouts to something closer to open countryside. Brampton Park, near Huntingdon, sits on 130 acres of established woodland with rivers and lakes threading through it. Elton Furze, at Peterborough, plays as two loops of nine through mature woodland with its own water courses. Lakeside Lodge, also near Huntingdon, leans on tree-lined fairways and tranquil lakes for a similarly enclosed feel, while Cambridge Country Club offers a rolling, brook-and-lake landscape that doubles as a wedding and corporate venue. At the fenland edges, Tydd St Giles near Wisbech is a newer parkland addition with a £2 million leisure facility attached, and March Golf Club, a nine-holer out in the fens, has built a reputation as one of the best short courses in the county with over 50 competitions run annually.
A Cotton Design and an Inland Links
Ely City Golf Club, on the outskirts of the cathedral city, was laid out by Henry Cotton and keeps a welcoming approach to golfers of all standards, which suits a course with real pedigree behind its modest setting. Newmarket's Links Golf Club is the more unusual case: despite the parkland classification, it plays on flat, free-draining ground next to the racecourses and was redesigned by Colonel S.V. Hotchkin, giving it what's often described as an inland links character, with fast running fairways and bunkering that rewards accuracy over length. Founded in 1902, it still hosts county and regional events. St Ives Golf Club is the county's genuine links, dating to 1923 and designed by Cameron Sinclair, with USGA-specification greens sown to velvet bent grass and sand-capped fairways that drain well whatever East Anglian weather throws at them.
Chalk Downs, the Meridian Line, and Some History
The Gog Magog Golf Club, three miles south-east of Cambridge, is the county's downland outlier: two 18-hole courses across 380 acres of chalk hills with panoramic views back over the city, and free-draining sub-soil that keeps it playable year-round. Its Wandlebury course has hosted Open Championship regional qualifying, which tells you something about the standard of golf it can test. Cambridge Meridian, a heathland course at Comberton designed by Peter Alliss and Clive Clark, has its own quirk in that the Meridian Line runs through the site, and a round there crosses it seven times — one of only ten courses in the world with that claim. For history, Ramsey Golf Club is hard to beat: its nine-hole course opened in 1965 with an exhibition match involving Ryder Cup players Dai Rees and Peter Allis, the full 18 followed in 1968, and Gary Player later shot a course record 65 there. The clubhouse, fittingly, is an old vicarage.
Elsewhere, Girton, near Cambridge, runs as a Community Amateur Sports Club with a strong junior and student membership base, and Heydon Grange near Royston offers two distinct 18-hole courses, Essex and Cambs, each with its own water hazards and greens open year-round. Kingsway Golf Centre in Cambridge is the accessible end of the spectrum, a pay-and-play nine-holer with a relaxed dress code, footgolf and adventure golf at its Royston site — useful if you just want to hit balls without the formality. With green fees starting from £15, Cambridgeshire golf doesn't need to be expensive, and the spread of courses across Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon, St Neots and the fen towns means there's rarely a long drive between a decent round and the next one.