104 - The Rushcliffe Golf Club

Location: Nottingham, England

Rating: 7.7

Set in the hear of rural Leicestershire, Rushcliffe is a course I have played a couple of times and it is really fun and enjoyable round of golf. Weaving through and across rolling hills it isn't the easiest of challenges with your main obstacle being the abundance of trees and vast sloping fairways you encounter on many of the holes.

The first hole is no easy start with a dog-legging, right-to-left sloping fairway with OB on the left and a run off into thick rough on the right. Once you get past this challenge a few more similarly testing holes await before a short stretch on top of the hill offering a bit of respite. From there you get to the par 3 5th which offers a stunning backdrop with the green dropped well below.

You continue on the flatter, lower part of the course weaving through the thick lines of trees and subtle undulations and finish with a very testing 17th hole, par 5, dog-legging to the right with a huge right-to-left slope in the fairway and the 18th which is a straight up hill par 4 to finish. If you weren't tired by that point this hole will finish you off!

Rushcliffe is a lovely member's club, very welcoming to visitors and offers a very good twilight rate for those summer hours. The practice facilities are good, there's the usual putting/chipping greens and a driving range but this one is a bring your own balls operation.