Exeter Golf and Country Club

Exeter Golf and Country Club is a private members’ club at Countess Wear, on the south-eastern edge of Exeter in Devon, beside the road to Topsham. Its 18-hole parkland course was laid out by James Braid and opened in 1929 around Wear Park, a Georgian house that serves as the clubhouse. The club itself is older: it was founded in 1895 on a nine-hole course at Pennsylvania, on the northern side of the city, and moved to Countess Wear when it outgrew that site. The postal address is Countess Wear, Exeter EX2 7AE, and the website is exetergcc.co.uk.

The course is short by modern standards and par 69 for men from the white and yellow tees. The club’s own tee-times page gives 6,023 yards from the whites; a scorecard site lists 5,973. It has been reshaped several times: by Braid himself after the Second World War, by Donald Steel in 1993, and by Mackenzie & Ebert in 2015 and 2016, when new housing on the boundary forced several holes to be turned round. The club now calls the layout its 2026 course and credits it to “Braid & Mackenzie”. Golf is only part of the business: the same estate holds a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, tennis and squash courts, a restaurant and function rooms.

Two points to settle at the outset. This is not the Exeter Country Club in Rhode Island, which shares the name on several American directories and booking sites. And the course has changed often enough that reviews and scorecards from different years describe holes in different order; we flag the differences below.

From Pennsylvania to Countess Wear

According to the club’s history page and the local history site Exeter Memories, the club was formed at a meeting in April 1895 and laid out its first nine holes on Stoke Wood Farm, in the Pennsylvania district on the hills north of the city, with views that the club lists as reaching Exmouth, Woodbury, Sidmouth, Dartmoor and Crediton. Exeter Memories dates the opening of the links to 2 November 1895 and the opening of the first clubhouse to 11 April 1896, when the club beat Seaton in its first match; Wikipedia gives the same first match and says 40 members were elected at the first annual meeting in October 1895, on top of the founders. The club’s history page puts the founding membership at 96.

By the 1920s the membership had outgrown nine holes on a hilltop. A short history of the club by Robert Walker, which the club publishes on its website in a version typed up in 2023 by that year’s ladies’ captain, says a new site was sought from 1925 and that several committee members saw the Wear House estate as the right ground. The club’s history page says the estate was bought in 1927. Exeter Memories records that a company, Exeter Golf and Country Club Ltd, was registered on 13 February 1928 to buy it. The new course opened on 30 March 1929 according to Exeter Memories, and the club’s history page also gives 1929, calling it the city’s first 18-hole course; Wikipedia instead says the club formally moved to Countess Wear in October 1928. Walker adds that the club changed its name to Exeter Golf and Country Club when it moved.

The house is much older than the golf. The club’s history page traces the manor of Weare Park back to the Buckenton family in the reign of Henry III and credits John Holland, Duke of Exeter, with the first building on the site of the present house in the fifteenth century. In 1804 the estate was bought by Sir John Duckworth, the admiral whom Walker remembers for forcing the passage of the Dardanelles in 1807; the club says Duckworth gave the house much of its present form, and that his body was brought back there before his funeral at Topsham in 1817. Captain George Henry James Duckworth-King sold the estate in 1919. The club calls the house Georgian, and Top 100 Golf Courses dates it to the early nineteenth century. When the golf club arrived, the house became the clubhouse, with tennis courts beside it; Exeter Memories mentions three tennis courts and twenty bedrooms.

War, Braid’s second course and later changes

The Second World War cost the club a large part of its ground. The club’s history page says a United States Navy supply depot occupied part of the course from 1943, the largest facility of its kind in the south of England, and that the house took in wounded American servicemen. Exeter Memories dates the arrival of the US Navy to September 1943, as part of the build-up to D-Day, and says about 50 acres of the course became a work site of huts, warehouses and roads while nine holes stayed open; it also records a visit by the boxer Joe Louis in 1944. After the war the house and part of the land came back to the club, but the Ministry of Defence kept a large area as a naval store, which the club says is now a housing development.

The course therefore had to be rebuilt on different boundaries. Walker writes that James Braid was engaged in early 1947 to lay out five new holes on a bight of 22 acres to the north-east, under the supervision of J. R. Stutt Ltd, the firm that Exeter Memories says had also built the 1929 course. Walker’s hole-by-hole description of that post-war course is worth reading for its detail: the 4th was then the “Endowed” hole, where interest on an investment was paid out to the first member to hole in one in competition, last claimed in 1936 for eight pounds, and a bunker by the 12th green had begun life as a bomb crater. His card adds up to a little over 6,000 yards, which matches Exeter Memories’ description of the replacement course.

The club’s history page dates Braid’s post-war redesign to 1955. That cannot be right as it stands: Braid died in 1950, and Walker’s account, written while the work was fresh, places it in 1947. We follow Walker.

Later changes came from nature as much as from architects. The club’s history page and Exeter Memories both record that Dutch elm disease took many trees in the 1970s, and the club says storms killed some twenty more in 1990. In 1993 Donald Steel was brought in to update the course for modern equipment and for the loss of trees, according to both sources.

The most recent major work was driven by housing. In April 2015 Golf Course Architecture reported that the club had finalised plans with Tom Mackenzie of Mackenzie & Ebert, including a longer tee on the then 16th, a new green and pond on the 18th and a new 8th hole, with work over about six months for the 2016 season and the course kept open as 18 holes throughout. National Club Golfer, in an article we could see only as a search summary, reported that the housebuilder Charles Church, part of Persimmon, funded the redesign after two years of negotiation over the safety of residents of Great Woodcote Park, the new estate next to the course, where advisers had judged the houses too close to the boundary. The club’s history page says the resulting “Twenty Sixteen” course reworked the 9th, 10th, 17th and 18th. Top 100 Golf Courses says four holes were reversed, new tees and greens built and the sequence of the round altered.

The club’s current hole guide confirms part of that: today’s 9th was the 17th played in reverse, today’s 10th was the 16th played in reverse, today’s 17th replaced the original 9th, and the new 18th is described as nearly 60 yards longer than the old one. The same guide says the par-3 16th has returned to regular play after more than a decade in use only in winter, and the club’s course page presents the whole layout as its 2026 course, redesigned for playability. We found no announcement or press report describing what, if anything, was built for 2026, beyond the club’s own pages.

What it asks of you

The figures first. The club’s tee-times page gives par 69 and 6,023 yards from the white tees. The hole-by-hole guide on the club’s website gives one yardage per hole; those figures add up to 5,938 yards, or 6,011 if the 7th is played from the new back tee the guide mentions. Golfing Record, a scorecard site, lists 5,973 yards from the whites, 5,685 from the yellows and 5,645 from the reds, with stroke indexes for each tee. The outward nine is par 35 and the inward nine par 34 on the club’s guide, with five par 3s and two par 5s on the men’s card. The round is built on a mix of long and short par 4s rather than on length overall.

The opening is gentle. The 1st, 322 yards, is a slight dogleg from right to left, and the club suggests a tee shot of 220 to 240 yards to the right side rather than a driver. The 2nd, 387 yards on the club’s guide, has a fairway bunker on the left and trees on the right, and a green that slopes severely at the front; the club says it plays harder than its stroke index suggests. The 3rd, 517 yards, is the first par 5, with trees down the left, two fairway bunkers on the right, a gully short of the green and cross bunkers about 60 yards out: long hitters may get there in two, everybody else lays up short of the gully. Golfing Record lists it at 493 yards from the whites.

The 5th is the hardest hole on the men’s card, stroke index 1: 435 yards uphill all the way, with fairway bunkers either side of the landing area, a cross bunker about 80 yards short of the green and an undulating putting surface. The club notes that it is a par 5 for women. The 6th is a downhill par 3 of 197 yards to a narrow green; the 7th, 389 yards from the regular tees and 462 from the new back tee, has a blind drive with the Belvedere tower on the Haldon hills on the horizon. The club calls the 8th, 412 yards, the toughest par 4 on the front nine; about 100 yards from its tee, rows of trees mark the old drive to the house. The 9th, 402 yards, asks for a drive to the right, away from conifers, beside water, to a long narrow green.

The back nine opens with the 10th, a par 3 of 182 yards slightly downhill over water to a large bowl of a green. The 11th, 358 yards, is a tight drive with out of bounds all the way down the right. The 12th, 145 yards, is the shortest hole, a small green ringed with bunkers and often played in a crosswind. Then come two short par 4s that Top 100 Golf Courses and the club both single out as birdie chances: the 13th, 291 yards, with a narrow entrance to the green, and the 14th, 283 yards, which the club calls by far the easiest par 4 on the course and which long hitters may drive.

The finish is where the course earns its keep. The 15th, 464 yards, is a 90-degree dogleg from right to left round an oak on the corner; the club says many players treat it as a par 5, and it is stroke index 2 on Golfing Record. Walker, writing soon after the post-war rebuild, already called the 15th one of the best holes in the West of England. The 16th is a 146-yard par 3 with a false front and renovated bunkers; the 17th, 292 yards, a short par 4 to a green that slopes steeply from left to right. The 18th, a par 5 of 556 yards, has three large bunkers off the tee, water and a bunker on the right, and a contoured green beside a pond and fountain, with the house and its terrace alongside.

The general picture from the club’s guide and Top 100 Golf Courses is consistent: mature trees line the fairways, about sixty bunkers are placed to punish loose shots, and greens are undulating and often well defended. Accuracy matters more than distance. The ground has some movement, with uphill approaches on several holes, and from the higher ground there are views to the Haldon hills.

What golfers say

We read reviews on Top 100 Golf Courses, 18Birdies, Hole19 and, through search summaries, GolfPass. The numbers are mostly favourable: 18Birdies shows an average of 4.8 out of 5 from 21 ratings, with 4.2 for course condition and 3.8 for value; Hole19 shows about 4.5 out of 5 from 76 reviews; Top 100 Golf Courses gives 3.5 from four reader reviews written between 2011 and 2022. Most ratings on the apps come without written comment, so the themes below rest on a fairly small number of written reviews.

On the positive side, the most frequent theme is condition. Reviewers on Top 100 Golf Courses and GolfPass describe the course as well kept from tee to green, with tees and greens in excellent order, and the greens come in for praise as quick, true and tricky to read. Several reviewers enjoy the traditional parkland character and the Braid holes, the mature trees, and the house and terrace at the finish. The 2016 changes are generally judged to have been made sensitively: one Top 100 reviewer who came specifically to see them found them hard to spot, and another found the houses unobtrusive. Golfers on 18Birdies also mention a friendly club and a quick pace of play.

On the negative side, the commonest complaint is the site. Several reviewers describe a confined course with housing on most sides, and one 2022 review on Top 100 Golf Courses found the new houses intrusive from the 8th onwards. A 2019 review on GolfPass, as shown in search results, felt the stretch from the 11th to the 15th was enclosed, with a risk of stray balls. Others find the fairways tight and narrowed by trees, the course short, and the variety limited, with only two par 5s and several par 3s of similar character. The value score on 18Birdies is the lowest of its categories. Some older reviews mention temporary greens and tees during works, which may no longer apply.

Facilities and how to play it

This is a members’ club, but visitors are welcome at selected times, subject to tee-time availability, and membership is not required to play, according to the club’s course page. The same page says, referring to the club’s FAQ, that golfers should have a handicap; the FAQ page we read did not repeat that, so check when booking. The club’s visiting golfers page publishes seasonal rates for visitors, members’ guests, twilight golf after 4pm, county card holders and buggies, with visitor rates applying from 8am to 4pm, and offers packages for societies, including golf and spa days. Tee times are booked online through the club’s booking system or through the pro shop on 01392 874139. The club runs a separate course status line on 01392 876413.

Buggies and electric trolleys are available subject to availability, according to the club’s course page, and walking is allowed. A dress code applies and is published on the club’s site. The club’s FAQ says men’s golf membership was full when we read it, with ladies’ golf membership still available.

Practice facilities on site are a putting green and a short game area. The driving range, run as the Exeter Golf Academy, is at a separate location reached from Topsham Road by the turning to the InFocus school: eight covered, heated bays with TopTracer, a teaching studio with Trackman and a fitting bay, with lessons from PGA professionals by appointment. The club also has a restaurant in the house, members’ bars, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, a gym and racket courts, so non-golfers in a group have something to do.

Getting there and when to go

The club is at Countess Wear on the south-eastern side of Exeter, on Topsham Road; Walker put it two miles south-east of the city, and the club describes it as a few minutes from the city centre. The club’s website lists free parking. Walker noted in his day that buses stopped by the club entrance; we have not checked current bus routes along Topsham Road, so look them up before relying on one.

The club’s tee-times page lists the season as year round. The club’s course status line and its online daily status page are the places to check conditions before setting out, particularly in winter. Members’ competitions and society days fill the tee sheet at times, which is another reason to book ahead.

Green fees

The club publishes seasonal visitor rates, including twilight and county card rates: see the club’s visiting golfers page for current prices.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location and outline of the course; Wikidata for the identifier; the club’s website for the name, address, telephone numbers, par and white-tee length, the history of the house and the club, the hole-by-hole guide, visitor arrangements, buggies, the dress code, the FAQ and the driving range; Robert Walker’s history of the club, published on the club’s website, for the move from Pennsylvania, the post-war holes by Braid and J. R. Stutt and the old hole descriptions; Exeter Memories for the 1895 and 1929 opening dates, the 1928 company, the war years and Donald Steel; the English Wikipedia article for the first annual meeting and the October 1928 date; Golf Course Architecture for the 2015 plans by Mackenzie & Ebert; a search summary of a National Club Golfer article for the housing and the funding by Charles Church; Top 100 Golf Courses for its course description, the 2016 changes and the reader reviews; Golfing Record for the scorecard by tee; and 18Birdies, Hole19 and GolfPass for ratings and opinions.

Where sources disagree, we say so. The move to Countess Wear is dated October 1928 by Wikipedia and 1929 by the club, Walker and Exeter Memories, which gives 30 March 1929 for the opening; the search for a new site started in 1925 according to Walker, and the estate was bought in 1927 according to the club. The club’s history page dates Braid’s post-war redesign to 1955, five years after his death; Walker gives early 1947, and we follow him. Length from the white tees is 6,023 yards on the club’s tee-times page and on Top 100 Golf Courses, which also gives 6,018 in another place, as does GolfPass in a search summary; Golfing Record gives 5,973; the club’s hole guide adds up to 5,938, or 6,011 with the new back tee on the 7th; 18Birdies shows 5,767 yards with a course rating of 68.9 and slope of 118, which we could not match to a tee. Hole lengths also differ between the club’s guide and Golfing Record, for instance on the 3rd, 6th and 4th. For the red tees, Golfing Record gives par 69 against a standard scratch score of 72, while a GolfPass search summary gives par 72; the club’s guide says only that the 5th is a par 5 for women. The club’s home page mentions a new par-3 11th, but its hole guide describes the 11th as a par 4 of 358 yards; we could not resolve this. Hole19 shows both 4.5 and 4.6 as its rating. GolfPass and Today’s Golfer refused our requests, the National Club Golfer article returned an error, and we found no official scorecard, course rating or slope published by the club or England Golf.

The opinion section summarises reviews read in October 2026. We report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations from reviewers. Nobody from Panxis has played or visited this course, and this page is no substitute for a round.

The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our British directory:

• Enmore Park Golf Club — 34 mi
• Burnham & Berrow Golf Club — 44 mi
• Glamorganshire Golf Club — 51 mi
• Cardiff Golf Club — 59 mi