Manor of Groves Golf and Country Club

The club sits in Hertfordshire, close to the Essex border in the CM postal area more usually associated with Chelmsford and the towns around it, reflecting how the historic county boundary here cuts across what many now think of as a single stretch of commuter countryside north-east of London. This part of Hertfordshire is characterised by rolling arable farmland, small market towns and villages linked by old coaching routes running north from London towards Cambridge, with the M11 corridor bringing rapid commuter development to many nearby settlements since the 1970s. The course plays over eighteen holes to a par of 71 and measures 6,197 yards, a moderate length that keeps the round accessible without being short. Hertfordshire as a whole is one of the more wooded counties in eastern England, its clay soils supporting mixed farming and pockets of ancient woodland alongside newer housing estates spreading out from towns such as Bishop's Stortford and Harlow just across the county line. The club's position places it within this transitional landscape between London's outer commuter belt and the flatter country further north.