Walton Heath's Old Course has featured in the World's Top 100 rankings every year since their inception in 1938. The course designer, Herbert Fowler, liked to test the extent of the golfer's repertoire of shots, and the Old Course has many demands, but its greater length and generally smaller greens mean that more "Scottish shots" are likely to be needed in this Surrey haven. This is where links golf meets inland golf—there is no salty whiff of sea air, but the course plays and feels like a seaside links, with a profusion of heather striping the edge of the fairways that is an absolute delight to look at in the summer but a real challenge to play out of. Bernard Darwin wrote of Walton Heath, "there is no more charming place on a fine sunshiny day .... none where the sky seems bigger." In 1981 Walton Heath played host to the Ryder Cup, the first Ryder Cup on European soil in which the USA faced a European team rather than GB&I.
<cite index="4-5">A par 72 championship course that stretches to 7406 yards from the back tees, though a more accommodating 6786 yards off the daily tees.</cite>
<cite index="3-6">Shares the same open heathland setting as the Old and is a fine Championship course in its own right.</cite>