Delightful Devon is heaven for golfers

IF YOU think Devon is too far away for a golfing break, think again. Your trip will be magnificently rewarded and you will probably save the extra expense of getting there on green fees.

Where else could you play two of the top 70 courses in the British Isles for £70 then move on to the best value-for-money day's package I have heard of at an unknown hidden gem?

For the former you need to head west out of Barnstaple to the wild links of Saunton, where the two courses are ranked 29th and 69th in Golf World magazine's top 100 in the British Isles.

For the latter you head south to the utterly delightful Teign Valley Golf Club, a few miles south-west of Exeter near the village of Christow.

Here, in the most homely of clubhouses, which reflects the warmth of the welcome, you can enjoy coffee and bacon buttie, 27 holes with sandwiches for lunch and a two-course meal afterwards and still have change from £30.

That alone makes it worth a place in the Guinness Book of Records, although it's already in there for the longest hole-in-one at a dog-leg par five, measuring 496 yards.

Devon is prime golfing country, which is why millionaires like Peter de Savary and Nigel Mansell have become involved, although de Savary's development at Bovey Castle on the eastern edge of Dartmoor may be a little too exclusive for the average tripper.

Mansell's Woodbury Park also offers a luxury hotel and leisure centre with all the trimmings, but if good old-fashioned links golf is more your bag of niblicks you should make a pilgrimage to the North Devon coast.

There are stretches of land either side of the mouths of the Taw and Torridge rivers which are god-given golfing terrain. Yet they have spawned very different courses at Saunton and Westward Ho.

As the crow flies they are only three or four miles apart, but they are actually separated by a 20-mile road journey via the Barnstaple bottleneck.

At Saunton you look out over a wonderful sea of humps, hollows and thickets enclosing well-defined fairways wandering to greens usually tucked away so as to provide enticing targets.

At Westward Ho, where the course is known as Royal North Devon, the view from the ancient clubhouse is much more open, with sheep grazing the common land to add to the immediate impression that this club is a glorious throwback to its 1864 origins.

The nearest thing to this you will find in the North-East is at Newbiggin-on-Sea, but Royal North Devon is much more appealing and a look through the telescope on the clubhouse verandah reveals that the flat expanse beyond the burn which guards the 18th green gives way to duneland down by the sea.

An extract from an ancient eulogy by Bernard Darwin, framed on the wall of the bar, suggests that the 16th is the best short hole in the world.

We have different standards these days, of course, when great short holes invariably involve water and trees, and having read Darwin's description before I went out I found the 143-yard 16th disappointingly bland, with only the bunkering lending it any character.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I preferred the 136-yard fifth, uphill into an armchair green with another short climb to follow to the sixth tee. From this glorious vantage point you can survey the coast, but you will quickly be distracted by the fairway below, which is the nearest thing you'll see to a moonscape on a golf course.

The fact that this is the stroke one hole at 408 yards probably reflects that you're never going to have a flat lie.

But there are plenty of flat lies to be had at the start and end of the round on a course which offers surprising variety, including some daunting bunkers with railway-sleepered sides.

This is the oldest seaside course in England and part of the clubhouse is a museum. It truly is steeped in history and in some respects you can imagine that it has never changed, which is one of its great charms.

The green fee is £34, which again isn't bad for a club which clings on in the top 100.

The fees at Saunton are £50 a round or £70 for the day if you have the stamina to tackle both courses.

Although there's the odd dune to climb, the courses are not too tough on the legs at 6,427 yards for the East and 6,138 for the West off the white tees.

The West is set more in the dunes close to the sea, while the East relies on humps, hollows, bushes and rushes for the undeniable character and challenge which has seen it touted as an Open Championship venue.

Despite an elevated tee, the first offers a daunting start down a 470-yard par four. But fear not - there are several birdie chances on drive-and-flick holes down breeze and only two par fives.

These include the new second, a magnificent hole swinging left to a beautifully-sited green for which permission was obtained only after long consultation with English Nature.

There are a number of dog-legs but generally you can see where you are going apart from off the eighth tee, where a marker post in the sandhills gives you the line.

There are only three par threes, ranging from the fifth, a 120-yarder known as Tiddler, to the 200-yard 17th, which for many will be reachable with a long iron off the elevated tee.

It helps to form an excellent finish, falling between two superb par fours, with 16 curving left and 18 right.

Provided you miss the bunkers, it's a lovely shot up a valley into the 387-yard 18th with the very attractive single-storey clubhouse behind.

If Saunton's wrangle with English Nature has been time-consuming, it pales alongside Teign Valley's dealings with the Dartmoor National Park.

As five of the holes are across the B3193 in the valley bottom, it took ten years once a bridge had been ruled out to gain permission for a tunnel just big enough to squeeze a buggy through.

This delayed the opening until 1995 and there have been other matters requiring lengthy consultation, but the result is a lovely course and clubhouse fitting perfectly into their landscape.

The two nines have been reversed this year, partly to avoid starting on a par three but also to give the course a tougher finish, with the back nine being considerably harder.

This includes the valley bottom holes across the road, starting with the 396-yard stroke one 11th, where the green is protected by a pond.

These five holes are flat, but far from featureless, and provide a good contrast with the 13 holes on higher ground, of which the last three provide a testing finish.

The 390-yard 16th needs two good blows as there's a huge hollow in front of the green, the 17th is a 195-yard par three known as Twin Oaks, and at the 413-yard last, which turns slightly right, the drive must be down the left to avoid bunkers and trees and provide the best line in.

Club manager Sue Pearman, who has been passionately involved from the outset, gives the impression that she cares deeply about providing both a warm welcome and an inspiring challenge for visitors. She has succeeded admirably.

Sue feels the second will become known as the feature hole because of its new tee, which is not recommended for anyone suffering from vertigo.

But if the view from there is stunning, it's equally as good looking back down the sixth, known as Bunting Vale.

The eighth (formerly the 17th) is the Guinness Book of Records hole. Following a drive to a sharp left turn the second shot is steeply downhill, so it's not impossible to see how the ace was achieved with a big drive over the corner.

A new back tee makes it unlikely to be repeated, but it brought a little bit of fame for a club which richly deserves it.

On the grounds that to praise everything is to praise nothing, I should warn you that new golfing developments in the Exeter area are are not all of this quality.

Unless you have one leg considerably shorter than the other and are a fan of quirky design, Fingle Glen cannot be recommended.

But there are 48 courses to choose from in the county, and to help make your choice a booklet called Golf in Devon has been produced giving details of all of them.