The New is not the second course at Sunningdale; it is the other half of the argument. Harry Colt, who served as the club's secretary before becoming the most influential architect of his age, opened it in 1923 on higher, more open ground, and where the Old charms, the New examines. The trees stand further back, the heather runs wider, the wind gets more of a vote, and a long list of good judges quietly rate it the harder and purer test of the two. Sunningdale is one of a tiny handful of clubs in Britain with two courses in the national Top 100, and the 36 hole visitor day, Old in the morning, lunch, New in the afternoon, is the classic way to settle the family argument yourself. The halfway hut serves both loops, which means the sausage sandwich appears twice in one day, a scheduling feature no other great club can offer. The AIG Women's Open arrives in 2028, so play it before the grandstands do.

Across a mile of shared heath sits the course golfers whisper about. Harry Colt built Swinley Forest in 1909 for Lord Derby and, in the most quoted false modesty in golf architecture, called it his least bad course; a century of visitors has read that as best. There is no championship history here because the club has never wanted any: no card and pencil culture, par is whatever lunch decides, and the rhododendrons in May are as famous as the par 3s, which may be the best single set in England. Here is the practical secret this page exists to tell you: Swinley takes unaccompanied visitors. Not through an online portal, because there is none, and not at a published price, because the club does not print one. You write to the office, weekdays only, strictly by prior arrangement, and budget somewhere north of £220. Traditional dress, two balls and foursomes preferred, phones silent. It is the most rewarding email a travelling golfer can send.

Five minutes away, past the crossroads where three of the four corners belong to golf clubs, sits the second of the famous three Ws. West Hill was built in 1909 by Willie Park Jr with Jack White, the 1904 Open champion, and among Woking, Worplesdon and West Hill it is usually named the sternest: a par of 69 that plays every bit of it, with heather that punishes ambition, Scots pines that close the sky over wayward lines, and a stream that finds more scorecards than its size suggests. The club emerged in early 2026 from a two phase bunker and heathland restoration, so the course you play now is closer to Park's intent than it has been in decades, with the heather edges sharpened and the sand where he wanted it. A summer weekday costs £190 with a day rate at £270, which for a national Top 100 course ten minutes from its two more famous siblings makes the whole Woking cluster the best value day in the sand belt. Worplesdon, the third W, waits across the lane as the swap option.

The trip closes on the belt's eastern outpost, and its heavyweight. Walton Heath was Herbert Fowler's first and fiercest work, opened in 1904 on a high, exposed heath that plays more like a links than anything else inland: firm, fast, wind swept, with heather so thick the club could sell it as rough by the yard. James Braid, five times an Open champion, was the professional here from 1904 until 1950, and the shop still carries his shadow. The Old Course anchored the 1981 Ryder Cup, when the strongest American side ever assembled took the cup apart on these fairways, and the modern game keeps returning: the 2018 British Masters, the 2023 AIG Women's Open. Visitors are genuinely welcome, weekdays from 9:30 and weekends from noon, one rate covering both courses, and £400 buys 36 holes across the Old and Fowler's New on the same day. Finishing here on the way to Gatwick is the sand belt's version of a closing stretch played dead into the wind: exactly as it should be.