A Cumbrian golf club has been ranked among the best in England.
Leading golf publication National Club Golfer rate Silloth on Solway Golf Club 23rd in the country.
The Cumbrian club earned the high ranking in NCG’s list of the top 100 English courses.
The links course is described as “one of the country’s most remote golfing outposts but also among its very best courses.”
Silloth features on an illustrious list which features many Open Championship and European Tour courses, with Royal St George’s rated England’s best, followed by Sunningdale, Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham & St Anne’s.
Silloth is one of two Cumbrian courses to make the top 100, with Seascale ranked 80th.
NCG ranked courses following visits between March and October last year, with its panellists scoring them in a number of categories: architecture and design, conditioning/presentation/greens, surroundings, challenge and playability, and ‘memorability’.
The publication say the journey to Silloth may be a long one for many but “every last mile was worth it”.
They also highlight the price of playing at the course, writing: “with a day’s golf costing as little as £50, it is hard to imagine anywhere else in Britain offering more for less money.”
The judges described Silloth as “utterly without pretention” and “one of the delightful and rare band of clubs where the locals seem not to realise just what a wonderful course it is their privilege to tackle on a weekly or even daily basis.”
They say the course is “tough yet manageable, provided you play within your limitations”, whilst it also comes with some “fabulous” views and “bold, natural” architectural features.
The NCG panel conclude: “From the sunken green at the opening hole to the long, thin plateau on the 4th, through very short par 3s and hog’s-back fairways. Not to mention the mogul field of a fairway at the 15th. What a place to play.”
Silloth is also 57th overall in Great Britain & Ireland. Its recognition by NCG is the latest accolade for the club, which was recently named the best value course in Britain and Ireland by Today's Golfer.
Seascale is ranked 80th in England (Image: John Story)
Seascale, meanwhile, is praised for its “entertaining and distinctive holes from the 3rd onwards,”, the west Cumbrian course said to be “a traditional links maintained to the highest standards”.
“Characterised by fast greens, Seascale can create a very tough test of links golf, particularly in windy conditions,” NCG add.
For more details visit National Club Golfer HERE.
