Denham

Today’s quiz question: which is the only operational UK railway station named after a golf club?

That would be Denham Golf Club, where passengers disembark to play on one of the new entries in England’s top 100.

In 1912, just a year after opening, the club successfully petitioned the Great Western Railway to build the stop to ferry players out from London Marylebone—a journey that still takes barely 25 minutes today.

Thankfully, it has survived more than a century of cuts, meaning players can happily enjoy after-match refreshment knowing they literally have a carriage home.

The wealthiest players might fly, given that the local airfield sits right next to the course too.

My round felt jet-propelled for the first nine but ran out of fuel on the back.

Denham is a classic environment, centred around a traditional clubhouse converted from a 16th-century timber-framed farmhouse that echoes the likes of Swinley Forest and Royal Wimbledon.

Yet it is also making modern waves through heavy investment in a course originally designed by the old master, Harry Colt.

Tree removal has allowed more sunlight and airflow to reach the greens to improve turf health.

At the same time, original Colt bunker shapes have been refined and restored, while natural features like the old quarry on the 13th have been reclaimed from the encroaching forest.

Denham has no official tee times. Instead, specific times of day are reserved for two- and four-balls playing from the 1st and 10th tees respectively. We set off at 11:30 AM, which meant playing the back nine first.

Thus, our opener was the 10th—a par four featuring a blind tee shot flanked by trees before a steep descent towards the green.

The putting surfaces are quick, with sharp drop-offs around this part of the course.

Unsurprisingly for a Colt creation, bunkers are Denham’s primary defence; an array of them protects the 11th green. Fortunately, my ball eluded them and gave me a fair chance for my first birdie of the day.

Sadly, I spurned it.

Ditto on the 12th—a super par-three that feeds in from the left to a green falling off sharply down the right.

The 15th is another tough short hole, featuring a two-tier green modified from Colt’s original design when James Braid was brought in to refine the bunkering during the 1920s.

My game was holding up well and reached an even higher standard on the 16th and 17th. 

The 16th is a delightful short par-four offering a genuine scoring chance if you position your tee shot wisely.

I followed that up on the 17th—a long, curving par four whose fairway dips before rising to a green nestled between bunkers. A strong drive left a canny iron over the sand traps to eight feet, where I happily converted the birdie putt.

Plenty of folk were enjoying what appeared to be an impressive halfway hut, but we pushed straight on to our second nine. Perhaps I should have stopped for sustenance, as my game lost its edge shortly after.

I made the error of going right on the dogleg 2nd, finding a deep fairway bunker off the tee before exiting straight into a grassy chasm.

A line down the left would have left the green wide open. I was just hanging on to a decent score until poor club selection on the long par-three 5th left me in bunkers that greedily collect anything short or left.

Accuracy yields rich rewards at Denham, but the moment precision slips, scores become far harder to salvage.

I learned this on the dogleg par-four 6th, where I avoided the left-side ditch off the tee only to find sand with a pulled approach. My escape left a treacherous downhill putt on one of the trickiest greens on the property.

The only significant water hazard arrives on the par-three 8th, where a pond on the right penalises the wayward. Those who leak left face a delicate downhill chip with little hope of holding the surface.

Both the 9th and 18th holes return to the clubhouse, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch on the veranda added over the past decade.

It is a convivial space that reinforces the feeling that Denham is as much about community as it is about golf.

Great care clearly goes into the offering both on and off the course.