The Richmond Golf Club

The Richmond Golf Club was founded in February 1891 at a meeting in the Greyhound Hotel. It leased a course at Old Deer Park briefly, then moved to Sudbrook Park in Petersham, beside Richmond Park, where it has been ever since. Tom Dunn laid out the eighteen holes less than seven weeks after the first ball was struck on the original layout.

It is a par 70 of about 6,091 yards. The clubhouse is Sudbrook House, built around 1725 by James Gibbs for the second Duke of Argyll and listed Grade I.

What it asks of you

Peter Thomson and Tim Lobb remodelled the course between 2010 and 2012, adding 56 bunkers and reworking greens, tees and the tree cover. The work took Golf Inc’s Renovation of the Year for 2012, and it is the reason a course of 6,091 yards still holds a decent player’s attention.

Fifty-six new bunkers on a short parkland course is a deliberate answer to a specific problem: without them the driver is free, and with them it is a decision. The tree work matters as much and shows less. Removing the wrong trees opens a hole; removing the right ones restores the line the architect intended.

The park itself does part of the job. Sudbrook Park is old ground with old planting, and holes here are framed rather than defined.

What players say about it

This is a private club with visitor access, in a part of London well covered by the golf press. The points below summarise what recurs. These are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we name and quote no one.

What comes up in its favor

• Sudbrook House is named in nearly every account as one of the finest clubhouses in British golf.
• The Thomson and Lobb bunkering is credited with making the course a real test again.
• Being this close to central London on ground this quiet is repeatedly called remarkable.
• Conditioning is consistently well reported.
• The Tom Dunn routing has survived, which few 1891 London courses can say.

What comes up against

• At 6,091 yards it is short, and low handicaps say so.
• Access is restricted, with visitor times arranged in advance.
• South-west London parkland is heavy after rain.
• Some reviewers find the tree cover still too dense on a few holes.

Getting there and when to go

The club is at Sudbrook Park in Petersham, ten minutes from Richmond station and about half an hour from central London.

The season is year-round, though the ground is best from May to September. Visitor times are arranged in advance.

Green fees

Visitor conditions are set by the club. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, the club’s published history and encyclopaedic entries for the 1891 founding, the move to Sudbrook Park and Tom Dunn’s layout, the Historic England listing for Sudbrook House, and course records and press coverage for par, yardage and the Thomson and Lobb remodelling. The opinion section summarises public reviews read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations.

We have not played 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. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.