Lincolnshire

Jeremy Ellwood bases himself in Skegness for three nights to mix the seaside courses close to town with the inland layout at Blankney an hour or so to the west

- Jeremy Ellwood

Mentioning the town of Skegness will always elicit some sort of reaction, whether a wry smile about this good old-fashioned British seaside resort, a mention of Butlin’s or a reference to the famous early-20th-century ‘Skegness is so bracing’ GNR railway posters. But for golfers, just a few miles south of town lies the best seaside offering in the county. Seacroft plays over a sometimes slender, sometimes broad links strip down to Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve, though the North Sea is rarely visible.

The 1st is famed for its large greenside tree, while the 2nd hole’s narrow tiered green must be hard to find in any sort of crosswind. I was then humiliated by the steep drop-off right of the 3rd green that sits atop one of the dune ridges framing many holes here. Only a long accurate drive will open up the green tucked away to the right on the long 7th, while from the 8th tee there really doesn’t seem to be much fairway at all to aim at between the dune ridge on the left and the road down to Gibraltar Point on the right. Slicers must dread this hole in a left-to-right wind!

The run for home