Beau Desert Golf Club

Hidden among the canopy of Staffordshire's Cannock Forest, this Herbert Fowler classic stands proudly alongside his other English master-pieces - Saunton, Walton Heath and The Berkshire to name but a few.

 The beauty of Beau Desert is hard to capture in words and is perhaps best summed up by Tom Cox, an aspiring young amateur player in his day and now occasional columnist for the ‘Financial Times…’

My performance in the Beau Desert Stag – a 36-hole amateur event, still held at the course – had been a disappointment not just because it was the last straw (during a year when I’d thrown everything into golf and seen my game deteriorate as a result), but because I’d fantasised about the tournament like no other. The course had everything I loved: tight, sandy fairways, pine trees, gorse, heather, and fast, big, undulating greens.

So now, when I pull into the car park, my head spins. I become a sweaty teenager again, with factory-second polo shirts and a hairstyle that looks like it’s been poured out of a Mr Whippy machine. A sign warns me not to change my shoes in the car park. Normally, I’d ignore it, but I feel strangely obedient here.

I have more or less the same physique now as I had at 17, but I expected Beau Desert to seem smaller than I remembered. It is, however, just as majestic: its epic feel belies its comparatively short 6,500-yard length. The grassy, heathery chasm in front of the first tee still induces the same terror as it did in my youth, and the course’s own Amen Corner – a selection of par threes and short par fours around the halfway point, located deep in the forest – is as devilish and picturesque as I remember it.

As host to numerous Open Regional Qualifying events, County Championships and events like the Carris Trophy, Beau provides a stern, yet fair examination of everyone's game. It is a course to test yourself against: and one where you can still be assured of a warm welcome from everyone at the Club. 

Full details of how to arrange a visit to Beau Desert are included within the web site and we hope to meet you soon…..

* Tom Cox is the author of two popular golf books, Nice Jumper and Bring me the head of Sergio Garcia.