Lewes Golf Club Course Review

Lewes Golf Club Course Review

GF Round: from £32.50wd, from £37.50we (not Sat am)
Par 71, 6,078 yards
Slope 132
GM Verdict – A Sussex downland course with extensive views and the right mix of scoring chances and sterner tests.
Favourite Hole – The par-5 9th, which plays over a ridge before dropping down to the green, with part of the town forming the backdrop.

There are many great places to play golf on the Sussex Downs, and different locals will have different favourite courses. But successfully locating the unfeasibly narrow approach road and clawing your way painstakingly up to the clubhouse at Lewes is well worth the effort as the views out over the town and along the South Downs are magnificent. 

There's great variety among the best golf courses to be found in Sussex, with links, heathland, parkland, clifftop and downland all well-represented. Nearly all of the downland courses offer views to die for, but Lewes is hard to beat, and its proximity to the Harveys brewery in the town below may be an added lure for some.

The club is a friendly one and the course great fun to play, with room to open your shoulders at times and plenty of scoring chances. But when the wind blows, the course’s complexion changes completely and you’ll need to battle hard all the way to the final green to play anywhere near your handicap.

A trio of short par 4s early on certainly brings hopes of a bright start, and the 3rd in particular can be drivable. But they don’t always roll over tamely in the wind. And, of course, up here the wind has a big say, especially out on the wide ridge where the exposed 7th and 8th holes play after the second of two short uphill par 3s early on.

Highlights include the par-5 9th, where bigger hitters might just get over the ridge off the tee downwind to bring the green in range, and the long downhill par-3 12th. Among the sterner tests is the 18th, where the slope threatens to kick your ball into trouble on the right all the way to a testing two-tier green – not an easy finish for left-to-right merchants with the wind off the left!