A coastline built for links golf
Norfolk's golf is shaped by its coast, and the county's four links courses sit among the best reasons to make the trip. Hunstanton Golf Club, at Old Hunstanton, is the standout: founded in 1899 and redeveloped under Martin Hawtree's guidance, it's the only west-facing links on the east coast of England, looking out over The Wash with excellent drainage that keeps it playable through the winter. It was ranked 29th in England in 2025. A few miles along, Royal West Norfolk at King's Lynn does things its own way entirely — Holcombe Ingleby laid it out in 1892 between the North Sea and saltmarsh, and to this day only two-balls are allowed on the course, a rule that tells you something about the pace and character of the place.
Further round the coast, Great Yarmouth & Caister, designed by Tom Dunn in 1882, hosted the Women's British Amateur in 1898 and is credited as the home of the Bogey; it also survived being bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1941. Gorleston, founded in 1906, holds a curiosity of its own as the UK's most easterly golf course, with a par 3 played from the country's most easterly tee. Between them, Royal Cromer and Sheringham cover the clifftop ground further north — Royal Cromer has sea views from virtually every hole and ranks among England's top 100 courses, while Sheringham, dating from 1920, hosted the English Women's Championship that same year and will stage the English Senior Women's Stroke Play in 2027.
Parkland inland, and a fair bit of history behind it
Parkland is the county's most common course type by a distance, and it's where some of Norfolk's more surprising design pedigree turns up. Eaton Golf Club, a mile from Norwich city centre, was laid out in 1910 by JH Taylor, four times Open Champion, and still plays through tree-lined fairways close to the urban edge. Kings Lynn Golf Club opened in 1923 to a James Braid design before relocating in 1975 to a new site shaped by Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas — their first course together, and still reckoned one of the finest inland tests in East Anglia. Braid also had a hand at Ryston Park near Downham Market, a nine-holer from 1933 with a lake crossing at the seventh, and at Bawburgh, where Alan Barnard and Bert Kelly's 1979 design grew to 18 holes in 1991 and remains a family-run club with Yare Valley views.
Barnham Broom, near Norwich, offers two contrasting courses in the Pennink and the Steel, while Middleton Hall at King's Lynn was rated among the UK and Ireland's top fifty value courses by Today's Golfer in 2017. Mattishall, a nine-holer near Dereham, has genuine oddities in its card — a 589-yard fifth and a 645-yard fourteenth, both among the longest holes anywhere in the country.
Heathland, nine-hole clubs and getting out on a budget
Norfolk's heathland golf is smaller in number but rich in story. Mundesley, a nine-hole course from 1901 near the north coast, was designed with input from six-times Open Champion Harry Vardon, who is said to have made his only career hole-in-one there in 1904. It's one of three heathland courses in the county, alongside a strong showing of nine-hole clubs generally — Fakenham, laid out in and around its racecourse since 1889, and Feltwell, built on a former RAF missile site near the Suffolk border, both belong to reciprocal nine-hole alliances that widen the choice for members without a large membership fee.
That value runs through the county: green fees start from around £12, and with 32 clubs spread across towns from Cromer to King's Lynn, a week in Norfolk can easily combine a round on The Wash links with a quieter inland fixture the next morning. Few English counties offer that range within such an easy drive.