Championship VenueLinks ClassicHidden Gem

St Enodoc Golf Club — Church Course

Rock, Cornwall · Designed by James Braid (1907) · Est. 1907

St Enodoc is one of the most charming and idiosyncratic links in Britain — a tumbling, exhilarating course laid out by James Braid in 1907 above the Camel estuary in north Cornwall, near the villages of Rock and Padstow. It runs over wild, rumpled duneland with the sea and the estuary on show, and it is pure fun: quirky, natural and utterly memorable.

Its most famous feature is the “Himalaya” bunker at the 6th — a colossal sandhill, one of the largest bunkers in golf, that the drive must carry. The 10th passes the tiny, half-buried church of St Enodoc, where the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman — who loved and wrote about this coast — is buried in the churchyard. The Church Course plays to a modest 6,500 yards, par 69, but the ground movement and the wind make every round an adventure.

It is a true championship links despite its playful character, and the setting — Daymer Bay, the estuary, the Cornish coast path — is as beautiful as golf gets in England.

Holes worth knowing

16th “Himalaya” (par-4) — the drive must carry a colossal sandhill, one of the biggest bunkers in golf; clear it and the hole opens up, catch it and you may need a ladder.
210th — the hole runs past the tiny half-buried church of St Enodoc, in whose churchyard the Poet Laureate John Betjeman is buried; golf and poetry in one glance.

Highlights

James Braid links above the Camel estuary
The giant “Himalaya” bunker at the 6th
The church where John Betjeman is buried (10th)
One of the most beautiful settings in English golf

Good to know

→Sir John Betjeman, who adored this coast, is buried at the little church the 10th passes — pause a moment for it; the Poet Laureate wrote of golf here.
→The "Himalaya" bunker at the 6th is the drive everyone remembers — take enough club to carry it, and enjoy the tumbling, blind, old-fashioned golf everywhere else.
→Rock and Padstow across the Camel estuary are Rick Stein country — his Seafood Restaurant and famous chippy are Padstow institutions — and a passenger ferry links the two villages.
→The Camel Trail cycle path (Padstow to Bodmin along a disused railway) is a lovely flat ride, and Daymer Bay and Polzeath beaches are on the doorstep.
→The gentler Holywell Course offers a relaxed second round; book ahead in summer, as this is one of the most sought-after tee times in the West Country.