Nelson Golf Club

Nelson Golf Club sits on Marsden Heights above Brierfield, on the northern edge of Nelson in Pendle. It is high ground – between roughly 700 and 900 feet – and the views run out over Nelson, Burnley and the Pendle countryside. Brierfield station on the East Lancashire line is close by, and the M65 runs through the town.

The club was founded in 1902 on nine holes at Kibble Bank and moved to its present site in 1917, where Alister MacKenzie laid out the course. He routed it as two loops of nine, both beginning and ending beside the clubhouse, and did it in a way that avoids any wearisome climbing despite the elevation. It is a par 70 of 6,006 yards, moorland in character, and its defence is a set of small greens rather than length.

Free-draining upland ground means it is reliably good underfoot year-round, which is not something every Lancashire course can claim. The club offers a free first year of membership and free coaching to juniors new to the game, and runs its own Junior Open.