The Inspiration Club Golf Course Review

The Inspiration is a new club within sight of central London that welcomes visitors to enjoy a new experience - an 18 hole urban links course.

It opened in June 2024 after quickly selling out its £1,850 membership packages to local people wanting to enjoy a different style of play on their doorstep. Family owned by the Bridgedown Group which has The Shire, the West London Golf Centre and the emerging Legacy Club in north London. It opened on June 3, and tee bookings are now available.

First Impressions

As you drive along the busy A40, the major truck road connecting central London with the M25 just five miles away, it is hard to imagine there is a golf course here, in the middle of an urban sprawl opposite RAF Northolt.

Being a brand new course I found the signage a little inadequate at its opening, and the course itself was not easily visible from the road.

There isn’t a clubhouse yet, so turn up ready for golf. Plans are in the pipeline for the usual facilities, but the owners are keen to get people on the course now so they can see what has been created. If you need a warm up you have to go across the road to the West London Golf Centre, under the same ownership.

The car park is spacious and there is a small, temporary pro shop in an adjacent cabin.

The Course

This is a quirky hybrid blend of styles that has involved some of the best people in the business to get it right. Tonnes of earth have been moved on this former farmland to produce a course like no other. Standing on the first tee with the bustle and hustle of London life going on all around is a strange experience, yet despite the noise from traffic and low flying aircraft it is easy to immerse yourself in your game. Preparing to enjoy the thrill of the challenge ahead has to be one of the best ways to unwind in the capital.

The club has four teeing options, giving lengths from 5,440 to 6,610 yards with slopes ranging from 115 to 127.

It is an unusual design, incorporating links style features - notably rolling, bumpy fairways, fierce revetted bunkers, with touches of parkland characteristics with large, rolling bent grass greens. A few young trees have been planted but by and large are virtually absent.

Players get the links-like feel from the off. The first fairway, full of humps and hollows is generous enough but the fairway bunkers are truely menacing. It’s an easy par 5 however, if you hit it straight, avoiding the traps and rough on either side.

Being new, the rough throughout is somewhat challenging, You can end up in a young gorse bush or some long, newly planted fescue, or be caught on a spot of bare ground where the grass is yet to fully establish itself. Even now it’s easy to lose a ball or two if you are off line.

It doesn’t take long to realise what a good course this is. Challenging and fun in equal measure, the quality of the tee boxes, fairways and greens are noticed immediately. The revetted bunkers, created by EcoBunker, are immaculate and there can be no complaints about the sand texture.

Greens are huge and undulating - the 17th green is more than 60 yards front to back - and cut deliberately a little slow to make them playable for all, a feature the better players might find irksome.

The par 3s are strong, notably the 3rd hole which plays 175 yards from the tips, toughened by three pot bunkers placed a little short of the green straight in the line of the dancefloor.

Elevated tees and greens feature throughout adding to the challenge and also providing great views. Wembley Stadium is visible from the 18th tee on a clear day.  

There is little water to worry about, the most notable being a brook that runs diagonally across the approach to the par four 15th where a good drive is essential to avoid a lay up still leaving a good distance to the green.

There are a handful of doglegs, the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 14th, and 16th where club selection off the tee is important, and one notable risk and reward drivable par four - the 10th - just 260 yards off the black tees, yet to a green protected by five bunkers.

Most fairways are generous but there are exceptions, notably the short 14th and the final hole where OB on the right can spoil a good card.

Verdict

Ten years in the making, but well worth the wait, this course is fun and exhilarating to play in the most surreal location. It’s not a traditional links of course, but it it does give a flavour of the real thing in an unusual location. Quality and course presentation throughout is first rate and while it is still bedding in it is remains a joy to play. The introductory green fees of £70-£90 are extremely good value and the owner’s ambition of maintaining affordability in a era when green fees generally are going through the roof is commendable.

For more information, please visit https://theinspirationclub.co.uk/.