Gary Archer

Me, Phil Boyd and Alan Chlopas have splashed out on a day ticket - and at 8:00am we head out onto the links where we are joined by Michael from Athens Georgia - a very good 8 handicap golfer who had caddied around Augusta as a youngster.

The course has a great feel to it, with the Mountains of Mourne towering in the background. It is a par 71 / 6675 yards off the yellows but very fast running when you have the wind with you. When playing into the wind it is a different story though - some of the par 4s are unreachable except for seriously long hitters. Carries off the tee are not too severe but you need at least a fairly good strike or it is goodbye ball.

Every hole is different and looks great, on perfect links terrain, with the conditioning you'd expect, since this is rated the world number 1 links course. If you can stay out of trouble, as I did on the front 9, it is fair and scoreable.

However, the punishment is severe when you find trouble, as I did on the back 9 - rough is penal and bunkers are deadly - if you go in either it is very tough to make up the hole's long distance, then get to the green and score anything.

Bunkers are beautiful, very deep and ringed with purple heather. When you find one, either off the tee or around the green, you need a very lofted shot to get out - you won't be advancing the ball more than 10 or 20 yards!

The setup coming into greens is by far the best I've ever played. Pretty much all bunkers are short left and right, to punish weak and offline shots. Straight low running links golf shots are rewarded - though you may still have to bump an 8 or 9 iron up to a dome shaped green. Putting surfaces roll very true - just don't putt off them down a big slope - like we did once or twice!

We grab a nice lunch in the very cosy clubhouse - as with all the great Irish courses we've played, the atmosphere is very down to earth and welcoming to visiting golfers. At 2:00pm we head out for the second round and are joined by Wade from Texas - a rich guy in his 60s. Phil asks him if he's a 'Trump Man' and it turns out that he knows the Bush family - a different social level to our usual golf partners (no offence guys!).

In the second round I am hitting a mix of good strikes and ragged pulls left, so I blob a lot of holes and score a poor 17 points - but my playing partners are not doing much better! Still, I have a smile on my face - it has been a great day and the weather gods have been kind, with none of the rain predicted.

We sit in the clubhouse with a Guinness afterwards. We watch a Japanese group with a bunch of caddies play the 18th. We find it highly amusing when one player chips back and forward across the green 3 times, then underhits 2 putts up a big slope, with the ball returning to his feet - at least there are some players worse than us!

Ballybunion is the most atmospheric course we've played, and other courses have better sea views (Ardglass up the road is also wonderful), but in terms of pure golf this is the best and hardest course we've played - we shall return and gain revenge - 40 points next time!

This one had been on our wishlist for a while - a heathland course located on the South Downs where the land is great and there are many fine courses. It's rated number 1 in Sussex and very posh - they only allow visitors to play in 2 balls - and don't usually allow riff raff like us!

However, my playing partner showed excellent initiative, blagging a tee time by explaining that we are not members of a club at the moment: we are based in Frankfurt on business and are former members of the London Club - what a great liar that Phil Boyd is!

We arrived at 8:30am and paid £70 for a winter day ticket, which was excellent value. It is a very pretty place indeed with a gorgeous clubhouse, friendly staff and superb practice facilities. Also it was perfect weather - around 10 degrees and sunny.

The course was as manicured as any I have ever played - in perfect condition despite the time of year and recent rain. The turf was a pleasure to play irons or chip from. We played off winter tees - par 68 and 5600 yards - but the course runs fast and plays shorter than its distance.

Not as difficult as I expected but then we both played tidy golf - there is plenty of trouble if you are wayward, with some deep bunkers and lots of heather. Anyway, the good thing about playing as a 2 ball was that we comfortably played 36 holes on December 29th.

I thought the par 3s were very pretty holes, but if I had any criticism it would be the lack of great 'shot making' holes for better players - such as the 2nd or 6th at Crowborough. However, it is a joy to play and I'd recommend it to any golfer who enjoys fast running golf - if you can get a tee time!

Played the twilight rate for £45 on a sunny Friday afternoon. On arrival you notice that the facilities are basic but who cares about that - the land has a great feel to it and some proper links golf in the wind beckons.

The par 71 course is a beast off the whites at 6500 yards (at least for me). There is a gentle 300 yard opener but tees then become demanding with good strikes needed to clear trouble, and penal rough.

Every hole is different and the course has a bit of everything, with very deep bunkers and fast fiendish greens that are hard to read - you even need to be careful about the 18 inch putts.

Par 3s are particularly tough and play long into the wind - I had to hit woods on all of them. Perhaps the one thing that is missing is that fairways are flat rather than undulating.

The signature holes are probably the par 4 16th (uphill 469 yards) and the par 3 17th (playing about 210 yards into the wind). On these holes you get sea views and play towards the pretty red water tower that is the course's most famous landmark.

Apart from a disaster in the bunker on the 17th I played well to shoot 99 - I could do far worse around here if it was one of those days when I wasn't striking it properly.

I would say Littlestone and Royal Cinque Ports are the two best English golf courses I've played so far. The latter is more manicured and has better fairways, but this one has more varied scenery.

If you're having a golf break in the area, make sure you include Littlestone in your schedule.

We played this course on a Saturday afternoon as part of the 2014 SES links golf-fest to the Scottish Highlands. We'd played Golspie in the morning and 36 at Royal Dornoch the day before, so we were starting to get warmed up.

Brora is probably the most northerly top class course on the British mainland, way up in the Scottish Highlands, 60 miles north of Inverness. It has been described as the most natural links in the world and that sounds about right to me.

You can see and hear the sea everywhere and views are truly spectacular, as is required for the very best golf in my opinion. It is always very windy here and the highlands air has a great feel to it. It is completely unmanufactured, with untamed land, wildly sloping fairways and sheep / cows that roam the course in places.

In our game every hole on the front 9 was into the wind and played very long. Even the big hitters were using woods and long irons on most par 4 approach shots. However, there is no better feeling in golf than hitting long irons into the wind on this kind of terrain.

The course is in excellent condition, though rugged rather than manicured. Some good strikes off the tee are needed to clear the rough and reach fairways, which are then quite wide. As for all courses in the region there are strong par 3s protected by deep bunkers. Greens roll very true but have subtle breaks that I found difficult to read.

The course has great traditions, being founded in 1891 and designed by James Braid. There's a nice clubhouse where you can get lunch and look at the sea, or at golfing exhibits about the club's history.

Visitors are made to feel very welcome at Brora, and there is none of the self importance you experience at some courses. Green fees are around £50 which I thought was excellent value for such beauty.

Having played it once it has become my all time favourite golf course. If you're ever in the region and you're a golfer, you absolutely have to play this one.

The score card indicates a par 68 at just under 5300 yards. Some golfers' initial reaction will be that this is a bit short.

However, when you get out there this is quite a tough track and a wee bit different. If you're not keeping it straight you'll be in dense trees with the ball sitting down in rough, and you can easily waste lots of shots.

Well worth a visit I'd say, and if you're playing solid you can post a good score. Clubhouse is very nice also. The SES shall return ...

I wasn't expecting this course to be as good as it was. It's long, there's trouble everywhere and holes 5 - 15 are pretty relentless with narrow tree lined fairways.

One of the toughest courses I've ever played. But this is proper golf where the focus is on avoiding the high numbers and plotting your way round with irons rather than hitting greens in regulation.

Fairways were nice to play off and greens were very subtle, difficult to read, with lot of slopes near pins.

I played fairly well, shooting 99, which could have been better if I'd holed some putts. My stableford score of 30 was 4th out of 20 players. If my wheels were off, which they too often are, this would be a miserable place to play golf.

Being the sadist that I am, SES members can look forward to returning here the next time I'm organizer.