Essendon Country Club (Old Course)

Overview: Essendon’s Old Course is a Fred Hawtree parkland layout on the club’s large Hertfordshire estate. The course is listed at par 72 and 6,334 yards from the white tees, giving it a full-length but approachable profile for a visitor round. Mature trees, open fairways and the natural shape of the property provide the visual structure, while the course’s age gives the holes a more established rhythm than the newer layout at the club. It is the routing to choose when the architectural history of Essendon matters as much as the score.

History: The Old Course opened in 1976 and was designed by Fred Hawtree. It became the foundation of Essendon’s modern golf operation before the New Course was constructed in 1992. The club now operates both as part of a country-club estate covering around 450 acres. The current Old Course page supports the designer, opening year, par and white-tee yardage, so those facts are kept separate from the less certain specifications of the New Course.

Did You Know? Essendon gives visiting golfers two distinct 18-hole options on one property. The Old Course is the Hawtree design and the historical anchor, while the New Course supplies a later companion. That makes the club particularly useful for a short golf trip from London or Hertfordshire: two rounds can be played without repeating the same architectural language.