Seascale Golf Club Course Review

Seascale Golf Club Course Review

GF Round: £45-£50; Day: £50-£55; Twilight: £30-£35
Par 71, 6,350 yards
Slope 129
GM Verdict – Forget Seascale’s proximity to Sellafield – this is a fine links serving up many interesting holes with great views out to sea and inland to the Cumbrian fells
Favourite Hole – The par-4 9th, where you fire your approach down from the upper plateau to a green flanked by a beck.

Many people enjoy lifelong love affairs with the Lake District in Cumbria. If you can put the words “cloud”, “wandered”, “lonely” and “daffodils” in the right literary sequence you’ll know how fond some of England’s finest 19th-century poets were of its crystal-clear lakes and brooding mountain scenery, Mr Wordsworth included.

Yet because Cumbria’s western flank is the Irish Sea, the range of golf on offer covers not only courses with enviably picturesque backdrops but also some excellent links, the most heralded of which – Silloth on Solway Golf Club – tops every list of the best golf courses in Cumbria.

While Silloth may hog Cumbria’s links plaudits, it doesn’t quite have it all its own way. Seascale, just an hour or so back down the coast, may lie next to the Sellafield nuclear power station, but you shouldn’t let that deter you, for this is a fine links that perhaps eases you in a little over the opening stretch before serving up many challenging holes.

It starts with a gentle uphill opener, but the 3rd then demands great care with an OOB field on the right to think about off the tee, or if you stray too far right when laying back or playing into the wind. The middle part of the outward half has real shades of Royal Porthcawl about it, with this nine then closing strongly via the long par-3 8th from an elevated tee in the dunes, and the superb 9th playing steeply down from a plateau fairway to a green flanked by a beck on the right.

The power station makes its slightly eerie presence felt on the tough 468-yard par-4 11th, but the 471-yard 16th just edges this hole in the tough par-4 stakes thanks to a steep ridge just short of the putting surface that obscures the green from view. Finally, look out for the colossal 18th green, which measures a full 67 yards from front to back. It’s possible to be several clubs out here but still on the putting surface! Seascale is proof that there’s a little more to Cumbrian links golf than highly regarded Silloth.