A city with more golfing pedigree than its size suggests
Newcastle upon Tyne packs a surprising amount of golfing interest into a small area. With six clubs clustered around the city and its northern suburbs, this isn't a county you'd plan a long golfing tour around, but the quality on offer, and the names attached to it, is well out of proportion to the numbers. Three of the six courses are parkland, there's one heathland test and one moorland layout, and between them they cover more than a century of golf history.
Gosforth is the epicentre of it all. City Of Newcastle Golf Club sits at Grange Farm near the Three Mile Bridge, and its story reads like a who's who of early course design: laid out originally by Harry Vardon in 1891, then substantially reworked by Alister MacKenzie in 1913, who redesigned twelve of the eighteen holes. The 14th is significant enough that MacKenzie used it as an example in his own book, Golf Architecture, and the club still hosts county and national events regularly, a fair indication of how the layout has stood the test of time.
Parkland variety, and two courses sharing racecourse land
Just up the road, Gosforth Golf Club dates from 1913 and is split into two halves by the Bridlepath, an unusual quirk that gives the round a slightly disjointed but interesting rhythm. Its 18th, a 434-yard par four, has a reputation as one of the toughest closing holes in the North East, and the club's honours board carries some serious names: English Amateur Champion Alan Thirlwell, seven-time Northumberland Champion Jimmy Hayes, and Jenny Lee Smith, winner of the first Women's British Open.
Within the grounds of Newcastle Racecourse at High Gosforth Park you'll find two very different propositions on shared land. High Gosforth Park Golf Club, founded in 1966, leans into practice and improvement, with a 28-bay driving range fitted with Toptracer technology and a junior academy running through the school holidays. Next door, The Northumberland Golf Club offers the county's heathland golf, designed by the formidable pairing of Harry Shapland Colt and James Braid. It's a proper test, with firm, fast greens and bunkering that punishes anything loose, and it has hosted Open Championship Qualifying Series golf as well as national and regional championships.
Moorland roots and honest value
For something different again, Newcastle United Golf Club plays over Nuns Moor and has done since 1892, when it started life as Newcastle United Workmen's Club. It's still a regular venue for Northumberland County Golf Union events, and its links to the football club have brought more than a few notable footballers round the course over the years. On the western edge of the city, Westerhope Golf Club is a municipal parkland course built on former farmland, designed by Sandy Herd, the 1902 Open Champion. The original nine holes opened on 21st June 1941, and the layout remains largely as Herd left it, giving Westerhope a genuine sense of continuity that's rare on a course of its type.
Green fees across the county start from as little as £10, which makes it easy to sample several of these courses without a big outlay. Given how close together everything sits, a visitor could reasonably play a MacKenzie-touched parkland course, a Colt and Braid heathland layout, and a century-old moorland round all within the same short break, without ever leaving the city boundary.