Located in the north of England, the links at Seaton Carew were originally laid out in 1874 but substantially revised in the 1920s by Dr Alister MacKenzie. This is a low-set links arranged over what feels, at times, like a sporting field surrounded by smoking chimneys. The opening six holes are staggered to the outside of each other but mostly playing in the same direction. Each is reasonably wide, and rather dull with little natural contour or ground movement, the 6^th and 8^th are the standouts on the front nine chiefly because of interesting green complexes.

The back side is a little better and the sandy turf more exciting for golf, the 10^th is a fine cross-dune par three that is one of the rare holes here to effectively use the modest dune ridge that runs through the site. Elsewhere on the run home the sandy structure is on the outside of fairways that are tight, bouncy and punishing on stray balls.

Despite the design pedigree of Dr MacKenzie, there is little to recommend at Seaton Carew beyond the fact that, like most links, it’s an exposed, windy layout that will give you a good idea of how well you are hitting the ball.