Guests at the Francis family’s Elizabethan fortified mansion have complimentary use of the course at St Mary’s Golf Club. The nine-hole, 18-tee course is a mix of traditional links and gently rolling moorland sprigged with heather and gorse, affording fabulous sea views.

Hedda Hopper dreamt of creating an English Le Touquet when she engaged Clough Williams-Ellis to build this house on Romney Marsh between the English Channel and Littlestone Golf Club. The dream was in vain, but the two courses – the Championship Links and The Warren – are wonderfully atmospheric.

Mark Bridgen’s village pub has teamed up with some great clubs to offer golf packages, with transport provided. Choose Faversham, Canterbury, Princes in Sandwich Bay, or maybe Royal St George’s, Sandwich, 15 minutes' drive away. It hosts the US Open in July.

James Thomson’s sumptuous hotel at the foot of Arthur’s Seat is right by Prestonfield’s James Braid-designed golf course and Royal Holyrood Park. Tee times are available to guests – or the concierge can arrange them at such iconic Scottish courses as Gleneagles, Turnberry and St Andrew’s.

Residents at Glyn and Jacqueline Roberts’s restaurant-with-rooms receive a 10% discount on green fees at Royal St David’s Golf Club, one of the world’s finest traditional links courses. For variety-seekers there are 18 courses within one hour’s drive.

A 100-yard shot from Holywood Golf Club, and offering discounted green fees, Conor and Bernie McClelland’s characterful B&B celebrates a local golfing hero in the Rory McIlroy Room. Its bathroom has grass-effect tiles, a shower grab bar fashioned from one of your man’s golf clubs, engraved with ‘Rors’.

Green fees are included in room rates at Martin Barlow’s resort hotel with golf shop and its own course, bounded by the Helford river. The original 1920s design by James Braid envisaged 18 holes. With the sale of some land it was reduced, but this is possibly Cornwall’s best nine-hole, 18-tee golf course.

Guests at Fred and Joanna Madden’s glorious country house have complimentary use of Clones Golf Course, within the demesne. The 1920s nine-hole course was expanded to 18 in 2001, with a further two holes added in 2005, making this a rare 20-hole course. Drinks and good craic are on offer in ’the 21st hole’.

Built in 1901 by Sir Edwin Lutyens as a golfing retreat for sporting celebrity Alfred Lyttelton, the Weaver family’s country house gazes out to the Firth of Forth across Muirfield course. Golfing parties of up to 40 can have exclusive use, and take drinks on the lawn overlooking the 18th green.

Most guests choose a room with a glorious sea view at this upmarket, family-run hotel in landscaped gardens above a sandy beach. However, golf fanatics may prefer a room overlooking La Moye golf course, with its hills, pot bunkers, gorse and ocean breezes.

Built by Clough Williams Ellis for Hollywood actress and gossip-monger Hedda Hopper, this lovely hotel stands between the Strait of Dover and Littlestone golf course, a gem, with challenging Rye coursedown the road. Hopper dreamed of creating an English Le Touquet but this is so much more romantic.

Golfers are spoilt for choice, with no fewer than 30 golf course, in driving distance of this 18th-century former sporting lodge. It’s just a mile to Thornhill, set in heathland and parkland in the Nith Valley, and Royal Troon an hour to the north.

A historic, luxurious hotel with theatrical interiors, Prestonfield stands in parkland under Arthur’s Seat, beside picturesque Duddingston course with a meandering burn running through. It’s handy, too, for James Braid’s Prestonfield course – and all just minutes from the shops and city bustle.

Just above the historic castle, this restaurant-with-rooms is run with a personal touch by the chef/proprietor and his wife. Guests receive a discount on green fees as world-renowned Royal St David’s Golf Club, host to the Ryder Cup in 2010, and there are 18 courses within an hour’s drive.

A warm welcome awaits at this antique-filled Georgian mansion in parkland on the edge of town. It is right by County Longford Golf Club, founded in 1894 and one of Ireland’s oldest. A Guide inspector judged everything well above par.

There’s Michelin-starred cooking at this 18th-century coaching inn turned restaurant-with-rooms. Home-baked croissants set guests up for a round at 125-year-old Hunstanton golf course, amid the dunes and link grasses, overlooking The Wash.

In long-time family ownership, this seaside holiday hotel and spa offers golf breaks, tuition packages, buggy hire. Their 18-hole course is designed for beginners and more experienced golfers. Trevose Golf Club is nearby, and lovely St Enodoc a short drive away.

A fine Queen Anne-style Lutyens mansion with gardens inspired by Gertrude Jekyll, in a gem of a medieval town, this Guide newcomer is close to Royal St George’s Golf Club (host to the US Open in 2020), and handy for Deal’s Royal Cinque Ports course.