A county shaped by royal connections
Windsor and Maidenhead packs a surprising amount of golfing history into a small stretch of the Thames Valley. Datchet Golf Club, founded in 1890 and laid out beside the river with views across to Windsor Castle, ranks among the oldest courses in the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire area. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope are said to have visited in 1950, and long before that the future King Edward VII played there as Prince of Wales, alongside members such as Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein. A few miles away, Royal Ascot Golf Club traces its own royal thread back to 1887, when it was established by Queen Victoria on Ascot Heath inside the racecourse itself. The club moved to its present site in Windsor Great Park, opening a new USGA-standard course there in August 2005, set among mature oak, ash, beech and larch. Sunningdale Heath adds a further royal footnote: founded in 1902 as Sunningdale Ladies' Golf Club on land carved from Windsor Forest, it counted the future Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother, as Captain in 1932.
Parkland underfoot, downland on the fringes
The county's courses lean heavily towards parkland golf, with four of the sampled clubs falling into that category and two built on chalk downland. Eton College Golf Club shows what tight, tree-lined parkland can demand of a golfer: designed by Frank Pennink in 1973 on school grounds bordering a railway line, it packs 26 bunkers and small greens into nine holes, with the Willowbrook stream crossing the par 3s. Winter Hill, on the other side of Maidenhead, gives a more open take on parkland, with an east-facing hillside above Cookham offering panoramic views of the river and, on a clear day, towards Ascot itself; good drainage keeps it playable through the winter months. Bird Hills, also in Maidenhead, occupies the former site of Hawthorn Hill racecourse, which staged the Brigade of Guards Steeplechase attended by the Prince of Wales in 1921 — old photographs from that era still hang in the clubhouse restaurant. For downland golf, Temple Artisans stands out: an 18-hole course on chalk downs above Marlow, designed by twice Open champion Willie Park Jr in 1910 on ground once held by the Knights Templar, with Henry Cotton serving as club professional from 1954.
Where to play, and for how little
Golf here spreads across five towns — Ascot, Maidenhead, Sunningdale, Windsor and Wokingham — each with its own character. Wokingham's Billingbear Park is a useful entry point for anyone wanting flexibility rather than membership: it's pay and play, with two courses, the Old and the New, sharing the same grounds. Green fees across the county start from as little as £12, which makes it possible to sample the mix of parkland and downland golf without committing to a single club. Sunningdale itself carries weight beyond its own club, with Sunningdale Artisans and Sunningdale Golf Club both based in Ascot, reinforcing the area's reputation as one of the more storied golfing addresses in the South East. Whether the appeal is Datchet's riverside history, Eton's demanding short holes, or Temple's downland views over the Thames Valley, the county rewards a bit of exploring rather than settling on one course alone.