Ilkley Golf Club

About the club

Colin Montgomerie put Ilkley on the map, for this is where he got his start as a golfer. Situated in a lovely valley outside Leeds, the course offers some of the most stunning vistas out over the moors of Yorkshire to be found. An original nine was laid out in 1890, but the efforts of Alister MacKenzie and Harry S. Colt some decades later made the course into the gem that it is today. Much of the native landscape has been worked into the layout, including creeks, gullies and ancient rock walls. Only 5670 meters, the course is not at all long, and has not many par 5 holes, so the standard scratch score of 69 is a fair indicator; Montgomerie himself set the course record with a 64. The signature hole is probably the 206-yard 3rd, which plays to a quite narrow island in the middle of the River Wharfe.