Blackmoor Golf Club

Blackmoor Golf Club lies near Bordon in the Hampshire heathland belt that runs along the county's eastern border with Surrey, an area of sandy, acidic soil that supports heather, gorse and Scots pine rather than the chalk downland found elsewhere in Hampshire. This stretch of country, taking in Bordon, Liphook and Hindhead, developed a cluster of heathland golf courses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawn by ground that drained well and needed little clearing to expose sandy fairways. Bordon itself grew around a large military garrison through the twentieth century, and the surrounding heath and forest, much of it under Ministry of Defence or Forestry England ownership, has kept large tracts of this landscape undeveloped. The South Downs rise a short distance to the south, but the immediate country around Bordon is lower and flatter, part of the Wealden basin rather than the chalk ridge itself. This heathland setting, shared with several courses along the Hampshire-Surrey border, gives the area a distinct golfing character built on sandy soil and native heather rather than parkland turf.