A friendly club with a classic, no-nonsense links course. There are no sea views, the dunes are rather flat and quirks are largely absent. It is not necessarily a world-class driving course, the fairways are relatively flat and straightforward to negotiate. But it has all the essentials of a true links: wide open, strategic fairways, superb sandy turf, gruesome bunkering and true-rolling, undulated greens of the highest order. After all, it is an Open Championship qualifying course and will test any golfer's readiness for the Royals further up the Kentish coast.

Littlestone is a good example for how golf courses were designed in earlier times. A hole would be the sum of whatever terrain there was naturally plus the man-made bunkers and green complexes. Even though numerous changes were made to the course, such as a bunkering spree by James Braid around 1905, the original routing is essentially intact and eminently walkable. It's a great venue for a fun day out on the links, playing the game like it has always been played. Of course, when the wind gets up it can suddenly transform into a severe test and the thick rough will be in play more frequently.