England's oldest turf, five minutes from the tube
Merton packs an extraordinary amount of golfing history into a small patch of south-west London. There are only five clubs here, but between them they cover some of the oldest continuously played golf in the country. London Scottish Golf Club, founded in 1865 and redesigned by Tom Dunn in 1871, is recognised as the oldest 18-hole course in England and the third oldest club after Royal Blackheath and Royal North Devon. It shares Wimbledon Common with Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, also dating from 1865, whose original layout the two clubs once played together before Willie Park Jnr reworked the course in 1907 and Harry S Colt redesigned it again in 1924. Colt's changes still shape the golf there, and the club has kept up a steady programme of refinement since.
Wimbledon Common Golf Club, founded in 1908, adds a third dimension to this cluster. It's billed as the second oldest continuing golf course in England and Wales, with play on the site going back to 1865 as well, and its greens have picked up awards for condition and are kept playable through the year. Together these three clubs mean that anyone teeing off on Wimbledon Common is walking ground that has carried a golf club for well over 150 years.
Heath, gorse and the odd windmill
Four of the five courses in Merton are heathland, and that dominates the character of golf here. Expect gorse and heather threaded through birch and oak, open sightlines broken up by clumps of scrub, and turf that drains well and plays firm underfoot. London Scottish's course runs close to Wimbledon Windmill, and the mix of heath and woodland with mature trees gives it a distinctly wild feel for somewhere so close to central London. Royal Wimbledon's holes sit on former farmland adjoining the common, with the same gorse and heather but a slightly more sculpted feel thanks to the Colt redesign. The Club - Wimbledon rounds out the borough's heathland courses, giving golfers a fourth option within the same landscape.
The one parkland course, Mitcham Golf Club in Mitcham, offers a change of pace. Founded in 1891 and laid out originally by Tom Dunn of Tooting Bec before Tom Morris — a four-time Open Champion — put his stamp on the design, it plays over common land studded with oaks and hawthorn. The course sits on a gravel base that helps drainage, which shows in greens that have long had a reputation for quality. It's about 12 miles from central London, tucked in alongside tram tracks and a railway line, a reminder that this is very much a city course even as the trees close in around the fairways.
Getting out to play
Golf in Merton is concentrated in three towns — London itself, Mitcham, and Wimbledon — all easily reached from the centre of the capital, which makes this one of the more accessible pockets of proper heathland golf in England. Green fees start from around £40, reasonable given the pedigree of what's on offer. The common land setting of most of these courses means shared use with walkers and other common users, which is part of the character rather than a drawback, and it's worth remembering when you're lining up a shot near a footpath.
For a golfer used to modern parkland tracks, the heathland courses of Wimbledon Common offer something genuinely different: firmer ground, more variable lies from the gorse and heather, and a strong sense of playing on land that has barely changed in outline since Victorian times. Mitcham, meanwhile, gives a look at Tom Morris's work away from his more famous Scottish links, on ground he clearly understood well enough to leave a lasting design.