West Sussex Golf Club

About the club

Located in the South Downs toward London, not far from Hove and Brighton, the contoured grounds of the West Sussex Golf Club blend seamless into its rural setting of scenic evergreen and birch woods atop sandy soil, as is typical of layouts in the first half of the twentieth century. Overlooking the course is the enigmatic circle of trees known as the Chanctonbury Ring that gives its name to a yearly competition here. The balance is nice, in that tight fairways lead to correspondingly tiny greens. The course presents a sequential pair of par 3s, namely the 5th and 6th, though the latter hole was only downgraded from a par 4 with the advent of modern golf balls and steel-shafted clubs. Measuring under 6000 meters off the tips, West Sussex is of modest length, and its challenges come from some blind shots, for which reason it rewards repeated play.