Ferndown Golf Club

Twenty-seven holes of heathland golf occupy this Dorset site north of Bournemouth, where the sandy soils of the Poole basin support the heather and pine that characterise courses across this corner of the county. Play has run here since 1913, across an Old Course and a second layout. Peter Alliss named it the course he liked above all others. Championship golf has come regularly to the property. Women have contested both their national open and a European championship here. The boys have held their British title on the ground, and the men their amateur strokeplay championship for the Brabazon Trophy. A Hennessy Cognac Cup was staged here too. Rolex places the club inside the top three per cent of courses worldwide, while Golf Monthly ranked it 88th across the UK and Ireland for 2024/2025. In its 2019/2020 guide to the hundred best English courses, Golf World put the Old Course first on playability alone. Ferndown itself grew through the twentieth century from heathland settlement into a substantial town on the edge of the Bournemouth conurbation. The club is found at 119 Golf Links Road, postcode BH22 8BU.