Little Aston Golf Club Course Review

Little Aston Golf Club's beautiful Harry Vardon course is one of the finest in the West Midlands

Little Aston Golf Club - 18th hole and clubhouse
The 18th green and clubhouse at Little Aston
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

Little Aston Golf Club Course Review

GF £125 (N.B. members and guests only on Thurs and Sun)
Par 72, 6,717 yards
Slope 134
GM Verdict – A very pretty and extensively bunkered Harry Vardon parkland layout with a deservedly wide reputation.
Favourite Hole – The par-4 17th, with its green set perilously close to a lake on the left, may set the nerves jangling standing over your approach with a good score going.

Little Aston Golf Club - 1st and 17th holes

The 1st plays down to the same lake that really makes its presence felt later on the 17th

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

The West Midlands conurbation may be one of the mostly densely populated areas of the UK outside the capital, but it is still blessed with a strong line-up of very fine golf courses from long-established clubs to modern resort newcomers like The Belfry’s Brabazon Course of Ryder Cup fame, all battling it out for top honours in the region.

Little Aston Golf Club -13th hole

The 13th is the third and last of just three par 3s

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

One of the best golf courses in Staffordshire, and one that regularly resides close to the very pinnacle of any regional rankings, is Little Aston in Sutton Coldfield. This highly regarded club, now well into its second century, boasts a fine Harry Vardon parkland course laid out over the former estate grounds of Little Aston Hall, where a subsoil of sand and gravel brings good year-round playability. Recent significant investment in a state-of-the-art high-tech irrigation system means that things will only improve on that front in the years to come.

Little Aston Golf Club - 17th hole

The lake surrounding the 17th green will keep you on your toes towards the end

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

One of the feature holes is the 17th, a par 4 of modest length, where the green was deviously relocated right beside the lake on the left 15 years ago! The lake juts in halfway across the fairway about 20 yards out, and there is no margin for error down the left, with steep banks running down into the water. The par-5 12th poses a similar test on the approach, although mercifully the water doesn’t carry on round the back of the green as it does on 17.

Little Aston Golf Club - 12th hole

You'll have to factor the water into things if attacking the short par-5 12th in two

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

Elsewhere it is the extensive and highly visible bunkering that will keep you on your toes, with a number of well-placed and occasionally pretty large sand traps to negotiate and factor into your decision-making. This is particularly the case on the front nine where the bunker count exceeds 50, with no fewer than nine on the difficult par-4 6th.

Little Aston Golf Club - 6th hole

The front nine is extensively bunkered, nowhere more so than on the testing par-4 6th

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

With just three par 5s and three par 3s on the card, there’s a strong and extremely varied cast of par 4s, with the 10th perhaps the toughest test of all. This tight, tree-lined 432-yarder almost doglegs both ways thank to a fir tree that encroaches on the right about 140 yards out, while a diagonal trio of cross-bunkers about 75 yards from the green means that extra care must be exercised if you’re either struggling to reach in regulation, or out of position and forced to lay up.

Little Aston Golf Club - 10th hole

The long par-4 10th is the toughest on the course, demanding very precise positional play

(Image credit: Kevin Murray)

Little Aston is without doubt one of the stars of West Midlands golf, so it’s little surprise that it has regularly attracted prestigious events both amateur and professional over the years, including the English Amateur, Brabazon and British Boys Championships, the Dunlop Masters Professional Tournament and Open Championship Regional Qualifying for a number of years.

 

Jeremy Ellwood
Contributing Editor

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts. He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.

Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf

Jeremy is currently playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft

3 wood: Srixon ZX, EvenFlow Riptide 6.0 S 50g shaft

Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft

Irons 3- to 8-iron: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Irons 9-iron and PW: Honma TWorld TW747Vx, Nippon NS Pro regular shaft

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Putter: Kramski HPP 325

Ball: Any premium ball I can find in a charity shop or similar (or out on the course!)