Played by NCG: Aldeburgh

Dan Murphy

It has an atmosphere all of its own and a quick round is a good round

Where is Aldeburgh?

Just outside the seaside town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. It’s half an hour from Ipswich.

Reason for going

We have an annual match against some friends from Hertfordshire, so we try to pick a venue that is mutually (in)convenient for both parties.

What to expect

No fourballs. No par 5s. Fast-running fairways. Traditional golf. Aldeburgh is a delightfully friendly club and they do things their own way here. You can only play in twoballs so our suggestion is to adopt the ‘when in Rome’ maxim. Foursomes is brilliant fun, especially round a testing heathland course like this one.

My best bit

I love the testing long 4s. I don’t find them relentless, I just love the challenge of having to hit consecutive good shots. And there is real variety as well. My favourite is the 11th, where the uneven, rippled fairway means you are never quite sure where your shot has finished.

Watch out for

Dropping shots. It will happen, and once they are gone they really do take some earning back. There are no par 5s, no driveable par 4s and only one of the short holes is an obvious chance of a two. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just very exacting to its measly par of 68.

When I go back…

I’ll hit a drive worthy of the magnificent last hole which would not be out of place in front of the clubhouse at an Open Championship venue.

About the author

Dan Murphy

Dan is a lifelong golfer. He had the great fortune to grow up within 200 yards of the 5th fairway of his local 9-holer, Rawdon, in Leeds.

Dan attended his first Open Championship in 1988 at Royal Lytham. The first action he saw, peering through the crowds behind the 8th green, was Paul Broadhurst holing out from the fairway below for an eagle. Which seemed perfectly normal at the time.

Since then, he has attended a further 27 Opens. Tragically, he can recite a phenomenal number of arcane statistics about The Open – whether you ask him to or not.

Dan has a post-graduate diploma in print journalism and is an experienced writer and editor. He is also a director of NCG’s parent company.

Dan specialises in the golf courses of the British Isles and heads up NCG Top 100s course rankings. He is not unacquainted with links golf and is closing in on a lifetime tally of 700 courses played.

In a former life, Dan was NCG’s equipment editor. Currently in his bag are: Ping G440 Max driver, Ping G440 Thriver, Ping G440 4-wood, Ping iDi 3-iron, Ping Blueprint-S irons, Ping S259 wedges and a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ketsch Onset putter.

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