A county built on parkland
With 55 clubs spread from the Thames estuary to the Suffolk border, Essex is parkland territory first and foremost. Forty-three of its courses fall into that category, with only five links layouts and a single heathland course to break the pattern. That means the county's golf is largely about mature trees, water hazards and well-shaped fairways rather than wind off the sea, though the exceptions are worth seeking out. What ties much of it together is the sheer weight of design pedigree: James Braid, Henry Cotton and Harry Colt all left their mark here, and their courses still anchor the county's reputation.
Colchester Golf Club is a good place to start any tour. Founded in 1907 and laid out by Braid a mile north of the town, it's been voted the number one course in North Essex, with around 70 bunkers and greens that locals rate among the best in the county. Braid also drew up Clacton-on-Sea Golf Club, which runs along the sea wall on 110 acres and is one of the few genuine links tests in Essex, and Boyce Hill in South Benfleet, opened in September 1925 with an exhibition match featuring Braid himself alongside J.H. Taylor. Boyce Hill sits above the Thames with views across the rolling hills to the river, and is known locally as the longest short course in the area.
Cotton's Essex legacy
Henry Cotton's fingerprints are almost as widespread. He designed Abridge Golf & Country Club at Stapleford Tawney in 1962, a 240-acre layout 15 miles north east of London with 36 bunkers and both nines returning to the clubhouse; it still hosts a South East Regional Open Qualifier. Cotton also produced Canons Brook in Harlow, opened with his own exhibition match, where a meandering brook supplies most of the trouble and the par 4 17th, known as Death or Glory, is the hole everyone remembers. A third Cotton design, Gosfield Lake near the Georgian manor house of Gosfield Hall, adds lakes and streams through rolling North Essex countryside, on land once visited by Elizabeth I.
Further east, Frinton Links at Frinton-on-Sea gives the county its most historically layered course: laid out by Willie Park Jr in 1904 and later refined by Harry Colt, it has one of England's oldest purpose-built clubhouses and belongs to the 1895 Club reciprocal network. Along the coast, Harwich & Dovercourt is a nine-holer with wartime relics still in play — tank traps beside the third fairway and a pillbox behind the seventh tee, a reminder of the club's long history since 1906.
Where to play through the week
Inland, the parkland options multiply. Chelmsford Golf Club, founded in 1893, is one of the oldest private members' clubs in the county and sits handily near the A12 and A414. Braintree, dating to 1891, is the third oldest club in Essex and moved to its current Stisted site in 1973, with the River Blackwater in view from several holes. Newer additions show how the county keeps building: Brentwood Golf Club opened in 1994 with tour-quality bunker sand and full drainage, Epping Golf Club planted over 17,000 trees after opening in 1995, and Crondon Park at Stock has gone further still with more than 20,000 trees and water in play on nine holes.
For shorter games or beginners, Bunsay Downs near Maldon offers a well-regarded Par 3 course alongside pay-and-play options, and green fees across the county start from as little as £10. Towns such as Basildon, Billericay, Chigwell and Burnham-on-Crouch all have a club within easy reach, and Burnham's course, overlooking the Crouch estuary, picks up a faintly links-like character despite being classified parkland — a small sign of how close the sea always is in this county, even where the golf looks inland.