West Byfleet

Many golfers will have heard of Surrey’s famous ‘Three Ws’ – Worplesdon, West Hill and Woking – which lie a mere stone’s throw apart and reside comfortably inside Golf Monthly’s UK&I Top 100.

- JEREMY ELLWOOD

But fewer will have heard of another heathland ‘W’ just five miles away that’s also worthy of your attention and which celebrated a centenary of sorts in 2022, 100 years after perhaps wisely changing its name from Bleakdown to West Byfleet.

The course’s connection with the Three Ws runs a little deeper too. Cuthbert Butchart, who designed it back in 1906, also laid out West Hill, where he was the first professional. The layout, with its often tree-lined and occasionally narrow fairways, is largely still true to Butchart’s design, although the improvements over recent winters overseen by Mackenzie and Ebert have sought to take it to a new level.