Bedlingtonshire Golf Club

Bedlington is a former coal-mining town in Northumberland, close to Ashington and the Northumberland coast, and its name lives on as the origin of the Bedlington Terrier breed. Bedlingtonshire Golf Club opened half a mile south of the town centre in 1972, on ground that took in a former opencast mining site. The course was designed by the Dutch architect Frank Pennink, who also laid out the Old Course at Vilamoura in Portugal and modified the courses at Goswick and Seaton Carew. Holes 13, 14 and 15, known collectively as 'the park', sit outside the old opencast area and form the most mature, established part of the course. The closing stretch is demanding on paper: the 16th is a 449-yard par 4, the 17th a 194-yard uphill par 3, and the 18th a 521-yard par 5 whose fairway slopes down toward a set of bunkers. Golfshake has ranked Bedlingtonshire third in its list of the North East's must-play courses and included it among its 30 best English courses to play in spring.