Royston Golf Club

Royston Golf Club dates its origins to 1869, when two students from Cambridge University laid out the first course on heathland near the town, close to where Hertfordshire meets the Cambridgeshire border. Golf itself is recorded in the Royston area as far back as the seventeenth century, with local historians linking the game here to the 1st Earl of Buckingham, though the present 18-hole course grew from that later Victorian layout. The ground drains naturally, a heathland trait that keeps the course playable through the wetter months and gives it something of a links feel despite lying well inland. At 6,042 yards, the course includes two par threes stretching beyond 220 yards alongside a number of shorter, driveable par fours, producing a round in which the holes vary considerably in character and length. The clubhouse offers a bar and a stocked pro shop alongside the course itself, and the club welcomes visiting golfers throughout the year thanks to the free-draining ground. Royston, a market town on the old Icknield Way, sits at a historic crossroads between Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and the golf club's setting reflects that border position, drawing players from all three counties to its heathland fairways.