Is This 42-Hole West Sussex Facility England's Grandest Golfing Estate?

Many people will know of the Goodwood estate in West Sussex but will likely associate it with either horse racing or motorsport rather than golf. All are important, along with a number of other pursuits, but while in some ways the scale of the golf operation – despite now boasting 42 holes following the opening of the short six-hole Copse course last spring – pales in significance compared to horse racing and motorsport, in other ways it is of equal importance.

“Golf At Goodwood isn’t necessarily the first thing people think of about the Goodwood estate,” admits general manager, Gary Beves, “but it plays a huge part in the estate and, of course, it’s one of the few parts that is in operation 365 days of the year. As a result, the members are hugely important to us and the wider estate.”

This sentiment is echoed by the Duke of Richmond, whose family owns the 12,000-acre estate, when we chat in a drawing room at Goodwood House, which forms the centrepiece to much of what goes on when 200,000 people descend on the estate for three days every July for the hugely popular Festival of Speed (including me and my kids a couple of years ago).

“I’m pleased to say golf plays an increasingly important part,” he confirms. “Obviously, the big horse racing and motor events are our biggest things but we’re focused on golf and the guys do a good job. I’m very proud of what they have achieved and we’re investing in it so it’s an important part of what we do.”

The golf course at Goodwood became at least a small part of my life when I attended college in Chichester from 1988 to 1991 and the golfers on my Sports Science degree were treated to one round a term up there. Golf has actually been played at Goodwood since 1914 on what is now known as the Downs course designed by James Braid.

“It was built by the 7th Duke’s children,” the current Duke tells me. “They were having quite a difficult time, actually, and were very young. The girl was in her teens and they suddenly all got mad about golf so built this course. And that is so true of Goodwood. The 3rd Duke got mad about racing his horses, so he raced his friends and that all started up there. My grandfather was mad about his car racing. For me, a lot of it has been that we have got these fantastically authentic sports and been here a long, long time, and it’s about making it relevant to a modern world.”

That last phrase hints at change and that has certainly been the case for Golf At Goodwood (note lack of the word ‘Club’) in various ways, coincidentally, pretty much from my time at college onwards. Both Goodwood Hotel and the new Park course opened while I was there, the latter the handiwork of Donald Steel on flatter terrain lower down. I even worked in the hotel kitchens for a few weeks until I could cope with the temperamental chef no more.

Then, just under 20 years ago, came an even bigger transformation, Not only did the Downs course undergo a reconfiguration of its early and late holes courtesy of Howard Swan, but the existing ‘golf club’ ceased to exist, with the Duke shaking things up with a credit-based membership model that was largely unheard of within these shores at the time. It was then that Golf At Goodwood was born, so was the Duke averse to the word ‘club’?

“Good question,” he replies. “No, not really. We’re keen on clubs at Goodwood – the Goodwood Road Racing Club, for example. A golf club is a particular thing and I guess we were trying to disrupt that a bit. So, you are a member at Golf At Goodwood but you’re not a member of Goodwood Golf Club. I guess it was a way of saying,’ Hey, we are doing this a bit differently.’”

“It was hugely different,” Beves nods. “I think the Duke was very keen to create an innovative and forward-thinking golfing experience. It was a challenging period when they closed for the renovation to turn it into the championship course that it is today and it met with a lot of resistance. A lot of people actually left, then subsequently came back once they realised it wasn’t as bad as they had feared! At the time, the credit model was not something that was hugely known but it’s gone on to become, we believe, one of the most successful membership models in Europe.”

“It wasn’t going to work as a sleepy golf course,” the Duke continues. “It was a matter of thinking about how we were going to do it in a different way, an exciting way that’s a kind of Goodwood way. So, from a business point of view, we looked at that alternative model. We like doing things differently and we wanted to rock the establishment a bit and try to set golf up in a slightly different way. There was lots of resistance - members wanted to play every day, I guess.

"But we were trying to set it up very much with a younger membership in mind who probably couldn’t play very often, so we were going for a lot of members who probably don’t play that often. I think that was a risk but we hoped there would be enough interest. What actually became clear pretty quickly was that a clever part of the model was that it was a very high standard but at a very good price, so it was very good value.”

Golfers are now more familiar with credit- or points-based memberships than they were 20 years ago - the idea that you pay a much-reduced membership fee then effectively pay as you play from there, with rounds costing a varying number of credits or points according to demand, with quieter days of the week or times of the day requiring fewer credits. It’s a concept that appears to work for many golfers, so it’s a shame that a number of clubs have chosen to do away with flexible memberships in the post-Covid glory days - a little too hastily to my mind. But that won’t happen at Goodwood as credit-based membership is the only option.

“We have just under 3,000 members and have actively lowered that since Covid because we were particularly busy throughout Covid when even the most infrequent golfer wanted to use their membership,” Beves tells me. “But the model is successful because it’s based on the infrequent golfer.” Its enduring popularity is borne out by the number of rounds played increasing to 90,000 a year across both courses post-Covid compared to 70,000/75,000 before.

Prior to the restructure, Goodwood Park was a separate entity with its own club and membership playing over the Park layout, but now both courses come under the Golf At Goodwood umbrella. The Park may be regarded as the second course, but Beves tells me that while there are members who rarely play it, there are others who only play it, perhaps because the Downs, with its handful of quite steep climbs, is too much for them. In terms of conditioning, both fare extremely well, with the greens on the Park course some of the best I played in 2024 when I joined Beves for a summer round.

Before we touch finally on the latest golfing development at Goodwood – The Copse course and short-game practice area – Beves tells me something that perhaps explains the constant drive to innovate and improve. “We have four values on the estate that drive all the decision-making we take,” he explains. “Sheer love of life, obsession for perfection, derring-do and the real thing, so authenticity. But derring-do is something that the family and the Duke are very keen to instil in us. We're not afraid to try and push the envelope.”

All of which may explain the decision to invest a huge sum of money in a short but beautiful six-hole course called The Copse, which opened on May 16, 2024. I was fortunate to be invited to the official opening and then be the first guest to play it the following morning, and it is an absolute delight to both gaze at and play.

Along with the accompanying short-game practice area, it offers golfers everything they need to turn three into two more often from 100 yards and in. Under the architectural guidance of golf academy specialist, James Edwards, it took 14 months to build and grow in and the whole facility offers a 400m² putting green, an 800m² short-game area and six exquisite par 3s ranging from 50 to 80 yards. It ranks among the best such facilities I’ve visited.

After all the progress of the last 35 years, surely it’s time for the folk at Goodwood to push back, put their feet up and just go with the flow for a while? Far from it – it’s just not in their nature as Beves has already alluded to in the four values that drive everything. Next up is a project with European Golf Design to further improve the Park course, particularly the bunkering, plus plans for a new ‘pavilion’ building down at the driving range and short-game facility – where the Park course also starts – which will effectively serve as a clubhouse down there. When it comes to Golf At Goodwood, standing still is definitely not an option!