Goring and Streatley Golf Club

The club was founded in 1895 on the chalk downland above Streatley, where the Thames cuts through the Chilterns at the Goring Gap and the Ridgeway crosses the river. Harry Colt laid out the course.

The site is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the golf makes proper use of it: the ground rises steeply from the village and the higher holes look out over the river, the gap and the old track along the ridge. It is one of the more spectacular settings for an English inland course, and one of the least visited relative to its quality.

What it asks of you

Par 71 over 6,355 yards on downland, which is a different game from parkland. Thin turf over chalk, firm and fast almost all year, and hardly a flat stance on the property.

The climb out of the valley is real and the wind on the top is unimpeded. Shots run further than the yardage suggests and stop less than the eye expects, so the sensible play is often the low one that uses a slope rather than the high one that ignores it. The greens are quick and subtle, and they are the feature reviewers rate highest.

Downhill drives from elevated tees are the part of the round visitors remember, and the reason a scorecard here rarely matches the way the round felt.

What players say about it

Visitors and societies play by arrangement, and the review record is healthy. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• The greens are the most praised feature: quick, pure and consistently well maintained.
• The views over the Thames Valley, the Goring Gap and the Ridgeway are mentioned in almost every account, and several reviewers rate the setting above the golf.
• The elevation change is treated as the course’s character rather than a defect, particularly the downhill drives.
• Food and service in the clubhouse come up repeatedly, which is not usual for a club of this size.
• Several accounts make the same point in different words: the course deserves more recognition than it gets.

What comes up against

• It is hilly, and that is the single most common reservation. Walking it is hard work, and reviewers who are not fit say so.
• Firm chalk downland means the ball runs a long way off line, and players who prefer a course that holds a shot find it unfair.
• Wind on the exposed higher holes makes club selection a guess.
• The course is not long, and better players find it more scenic than testing on a calm day.

Getting there and when to go

Streatley is on the A417 where it crosses the Thames, around twenty minutes from Reading and fifty minutes from Heathrow, with Goring and Streatley station on the line from London Paddington a short walk from the village.

The chalk drains and the course stays open and firm through the winter, which is its practical advantage over the clay courses of the Thames Valley. Late spring and early autumn give the best of the views and the turf. Visitor booking is by arrangement.

Green fees

Rates and visitor tee times are handled by the club and vary by day and season. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture coverage for the club and the design, and the club’s own site for access and booking. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.