Most renovations bring about a new look, but Middlesbrough Golf Club will still have a familiar feel to it once its renovation programme is completed. The 18-hole layout was originally designed by celebrated golf course architect James Braid and now the club is looking to bring some of the Scot's iconic design traits and styling back to the fore.

The chequered flag is well recognised as the end of the race, and it certainly has a significance at Woodbury Park Golf Hotel, for towards the end of 2007, the complex was sold by famous owner and former World Formula One Champion Nigel Mansell, to new owners, Robin and Sue Hawkins.

There are certain counties in the United Kingdom that endear themselves to any visitor, and that is also true for the golfing fraternity. Regular readers of these musings will already have identified that one such is the County of Dorset. The variety of landscapes and in particular the coastal areas, ensure that there is something for everyone here.

The headline is not a statement for masochistic delight, though at times in the round, the thought could be excused. There must me a very strong attraction, when an auctioneer from Shropshire, a book collector and an engineer from Somerset, and a journalist from Hampshire drive to meet in Gloucestershire. The reward was a delightful day playing the course at Painswick.

When I first came to Hampshire over twenty years ago, I had two names in my list of must play golf courses, my appetite whetted by the descriptions given by colleagues who live in the area. As I drive up the M3 my glance to the right reminds of that first visit. Taking a day off, after solving some of the difficulties of re-locating, I headed to Hockley Golf Club, and introduced myself to Terry Lane, the club professional at the time, who told me he had been at the club for ever.

There was a rapid expansion in the game of golf in the twenty years before the First World War. The newly formed clubs would invite the golfing celebrities of the day to design and to open the course when completed. The common denominator for these stars was to have won the Open Championship. Willie Park Jnr had done so on two occasions, his father before him had won four times, so golf flowed in the family line.

The headline is not a statement for masochistic delight, though at times in the round, the thought could be excused. There must me a very strong attraction, when an auctioneer from Shropshire, a book collector and an engineer from Somerset, and a journalist from Hampshire drive to meet in Gloucestershire. The reward was a delightful day playing the course at Painswick.