Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club

About the Company

ABOUT ROYAL ASHDOWN FOREST GOLF CLUB

Founded in 1888, Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club is a traditional members’ golf club set in the heart of the Ashdown Forest. One of the things that golf lovers most appreciate about playing here is that so little has changed over the club’s 130 year history. Heather, humps, hollows, pools and streams remain nature’s defence against shooting a low score. The stunning heathland layout of the Old Course is currently rated (2025) in the Golf World Top 100 Golf Courses in GB&I.

Royal Ashdown Forest offers not one but two superb golf courses that are both entirely natural. No earth has been moved, no ponds dug nor streams diverted. The courses have been fashioned around the contours of the land with the Old Course providing spectacular views over four counties and the West snaking its way through the mature, broadleaf woodland of the Ashdown Forest.

W.R. Lee designed the original layout of the Old Course.  Harry Hunter made changes in 1892 before he and Jack Rowe (Ashdown Professional for 55 years from 1892 to 1947) made further alterations in 1897. The last significant changes were made in 1922, again by Jack Rowe. The Club gained the Royal title in 1893 following a review of Queen Victoria’s troops, who were stationed on Ashdown Forest, by her cousin, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge and Commander in Chief of the British Army. The Club is one of the oldest and most distinctive in the UK. It has a rich history, and the likes of Abe Mitchell, Alf Padgham, AA Milne, Bernard Darwin, HRH Duke of Windsor, Harold Macmilllan and Bobby Locke have all graced our fairways.