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Some of the best (but not always best-known) British golf destinations.

One-hundred years plus of golf has been played on the high
western flank of wild Dartmoor National Park in southwestern England. 
Yelverton Golf Club is friendly, local, challenging, and a great golf value.
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Yelverton Golf Club
Golf Links Road, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 6BN ENGLAND
Tel: +44 (0)1822 852 824
Email: secretary@yelvertongc.co.uk
Web Site: www.yelvertongc.co.uk
 

          Golf in England is as varied as the scenery of Britain. Its convoluted coastline offers great links courses among the extensive sand dunes of the island’s perimeter. But England’s interior offers its own challenges: bog, moor, heath, hills, forest, lake land, even mountains. Golfers can find a number of hidden gems in inland locations throughout England. We nominate the Yelverton Golf Club course in Devon,

The 9th green at Yelverton Golf Club. The 9th is
a short (289 yards) Par-4 crossed laterally by a
creek that challenges short hitters off the tee.
                                                                                                        Yelverton GC Photo.

southwest England, for inclusion to the hidden gems list. Yelverton has everything—length, difficulty, variety—golfers look for in a challenging course, along with the pleasant attribute of a friendly, local course where members treat visitors as very welcome guests, and do not require that they empty their pockets to play.

The 13th hole ranks as most difficult at Yelverton Golf
Club. The 444-yard, Par-4 demands length, accuracy,
and, finally, touch on the fast green.
                                                                                                             Yelverton GC Photo.

HISTORY: Yelverton Golf Club first organized in 1904. Its original 9-hole course occupied land west of the A386, then—except for the clubhouse and first hole—relocated across the street as an eighteen-hole course. Designed by noted golf architect Herbert Fowler (his major credits include: Walton Heath Golf Club, Los Angeles CC South Course, Royal North Devon, Cruden Bay Scotland, Royal Aberdeen, and the British Open course Royal Lytham & St. Annes),

          Yelverton was built atop an old mining area on the western edge of Dartmoor’s high plateau, 600 feet above sea level but scarcely ten miles from the sea. The resulting course offers some lofty, panoramic views of the mysterious beauty of Dartmoor National Park.

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THE COURSE: Yelverton has continued to evolve over the nearly one hundred years since Fowler’s design was put in place. The course, at 6,351 yards, is not especially long, and, being moorland, the course has few trees and little sand. Still, the left-over mining depressions and ravines are hazards common to several holes, as are the hardy upland heather and gorse of Dartmoor. Fowler’s layout is an old-fashioned out-and-back design. A rambling creek affects much of the back nine, and manages to cross the eighth, ninth, and tenth fairways. Despite its pedigree, Yelverton remains a very local golf club, one that welcomes visitors warmly but does not court them openly.

With little water and few bunkers, the short Yelverton
course relies on its undulating terrain—including
depressions from the site's former history as a mine—
and exposure to the winds and rain sweeping
across Dartmoor as its natural challenges.

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Dartmoor National Park
preserves a rare, fragile natural environment. It also preserves
a number of traditional English
 villages, effectively preserving
a rare, fragile, rural way of life.

THE REGION: Yelverton is a village in the southwestern corner of Devon, about a dozen miles north of Plymouth, Devon’s principal city on the south coast of England. The village is on the thin strip of land wedged between the western limit of Dartmoor National Park and the River Tamar, the border between Devon and Cornwall. As such, Yelverton is well-situated as a base for touring Devon and Cornwall, and as an access point for Dartmoor. Within close range are several south coast resorts and classic fishing villages in both counties. Several attractive local inland towns and villages command the attention of visitors, too, among them the nearby market town of Tavistock, and wonderful, unspoiled villages like Buckland Monachorum, Lydford, Buckland in the Moor, and Widecombe in the Moor. Further afield, but easily reached as day excursions, are such points as Clovelly village on Devon’s north coast, and, in Cornwall, Tintagel (legendary site of King Arthur’s Camelot), East Looe and Polperro on Cornwall’s south coast, even St. Ives, St. Michael’s Mount, Penzance, and Land’s End, southwesternmost point of the British mainland. Together   

Devon and Cornwall comprise England’s West Country, a region with distinct culture,

history, cuisine, and lifestyle. Besides touring and golf, West Country activities include walking on any of many local and long-distance paths, including those in the Dartmoor National Park and along both coasts. Rarely is Britain more scenic than in England’s West Country, or more welcoming to visitors.

Few parts of England are as picturesque as the West Country, comprised of the counties of Devon and Cornwall. Shown is a thatched hamlet in south-central Devon.

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Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world? See our
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND, and WALES
Course Guides for more information.
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