North East Lincolnshire doesn't have the volume of some neighbouring counties, but what's here is worth knowing about. Five clubs cover Cleethorpes, Grimsby and Laceby, and between them they offer a proper contrast: one genuine coastal course and a pair of parkland layouts that couldn't be more different from each other despite sharing a category.
Cleethorpes Golf Club is the obvious starting point. Founded in 1894 and originally known as The Grimsby and Cleethorpes Golf Club, it was opened by Lord Yarborough and has been playing on the same stretch of coast ever since. What makes it interesting is that it doesn't sit neatly in one bracket: in dry spells it firms up and plays like a links, with the ball running and bounce coming into the equation, while wetter weather softens it back towards a parkland feel. Either way, the walking is easy, which suits golfers who want a full round without a workout attached.
Two parkland courses, two very different characters
Grimsby Golf Club dates from 1922 and carries a Harry Colt design, which shows in the way the holes move across the ground. Colt made use of elevated tees and rolling fairways rather than flattening the site out, so there's real variety in elevation from hole to hole — enough that club golfers who know the course well still talk about which tee shots demand the most thought.
Waltham Windmill, on the other side of Grimsby, is a newer proposition, opened in 1997 to a design by Clive Clark and Peter Alliss. Set across 125 acres of Lincolnshire countryside, it's built as two loops of nine holes and threads its way past nine ponds that come into play often enough to sharpen club selection. Tree-lined fairways give it a settled, mature look for a course still under thirty years old, and it's built to play all year round, which matters in a region where winter golf can otherwise be a lottery.
Laceby and the wider picture
Laceby Manor Resort rounds out the county's spread beyond Grimsby and Cleethorpes proper, giving golfers based towards Laceby somewhere closer to home, while Sim Pro Golf in Grimsby caters to a different kind of practice and improvement rather than a full round outdoors. Neither changes the essential shape of golf in North East Lincolnshire, but they're worth knowing about if you're planning a day around lessons or club fitting as well as a tee time.
Green fees start from around £25, which is reasonable for the quality on offer, particularly given the Colt pedigree at Grimsby and the coastal novelty at Cleethorpes. There isn't a huge number of clubs to choose from here, but that's arguably the point: you can play all three main courses within a short drive of each other and come away having experienced coastal, classic parkland, and modern parkland golf inside a single trip, without the layout ever repeating itself.
For anyone touring Yorkshire and the Humber for golf, North East Lincolnshire is easy to underestimate on numbers alone. It rewards a closer look — a Lord Yarborough-founded coastal course with genuine character, a Colt design that's held up well over a century, and a modern parkland layout built with enough water and tree cover to keep every round interesting.