Firestyle Magazine Issue 4 - Summer 2016 | Page 16

SPORT Cream of South Devon’s Courses Create Glo r ious Gol f T ou r The cream of South Devon’s golf courses have combined to create one of England’s most glorious and scenically stunning golf trails thanks to the photogenic south Devon coastline that is characterised by charming coves and estuaries and elevated cliff tops that offer panoramic seascapes. This mouth-watering collection of Thurlestone, Teignmouth, East Devon and Bovey Castle have all been designed by some of golf’s most revered course architects around the time of the ‘Golden Age’ of golf course design and will be known as the South Devon Golf Tour (www. southdevongolftour.co.uk). Located in an Area of Outstanding Beauty, Thurlestone is a magical mix of links turf and cliff-top terrain and much of its location atop a promontory give it its breath-taking panoramas over the legendary Thurlestone Rock to the East and the picturesque Avon Estuary and Burgh Island in the West. Often compared to Pebble Peach, this Harry Colt design is by no means as severe thanks to its wide open fairways unless of course the coastal winds start to blow. Teignmouth, created by the famed Alister MacKenzie, also owes a great deal to its magnificent situation. Laid out on the high moor of Little Haldon over 800 feet above sea level, the outward nine looks over the town of Teignmouth and the estuary of the River Teign whilst the contrasting back nine looks east over the Exe estuary towards Portland Bill, a well-known headland on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. The course today remains remarkably 16 similar to MacKenzie’s original 1924 desig