Guildford Golf & Country Club, A Beguiling Layout
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2026-09-29
(Part 1 of 4 of Surrey, B.C. Courses)
By Gord Montgomery, Senior Writer, Inside Golf
To a camel, Hump Day or Wednesday has to be the best day of the week. But for golfers in Surrey, B.C., any day of the week is the best because golf here in the Lower Mainland is that good.
And the Guildford Golf & Country Club is no exception. This layout, which plays to less than 6,500 yards from the tips, is anything but a walk in the park, even though it is a parkland-style layout. You see, there’s water here. Water there. Water everywhere, it seems.
Rick Baron, the pro shop manager, began his spiel about this track by noting the course is located in the central part of Surrey and is value-oriented. Then, speaking to the characteristics of this par-72 course in general and the stream that flows through far more than half the holes, he said, “It’s a pretty challenging layout. Personally, I find in every round that I play, I hit pretty much every club in my bag. The creek is a unique feature which the average golfer can either try and go over, or lay up.”
And that’s the number one issue here for the uninitiated: not knowing for sure the distance to the front of, or the clearing of, that stream, which can add some big crooked numbers to your scorecard if you’re careless with your shots. Thus, if you can hook up with someone who knows where best to go and how far to carry a particular shot, it’s a bonus.
(Photo By Gord Montgomery, Senior Writer, Inside Golf)
“We have big greens here,” Baron continued, “And you may hit a lot of greens in regulation but with the larger greens and the undulations we have, you’ll find you’ll probably 3-putt a little bit more!”
While Guildford has a country club tag in its name, Baron noted they don’t “have a large number” of members, so tee time bookings for the public, either online or on the phone, aren’t difficult to obtain. “It’s very accessible to the public. Probably 90% of our rounds are public.”
So other than keeping it out of that stream that meanders here, there, and almost everywhere, and limiting those dreaded 3-jacks, what does one need to do in order to score well?
“Those would probably be the main things,” the pro said in closing. “Just be aware of the creek that goes through. It is quite a wide creek, so the carry is further than you think. And the interesting part is, as the course softens or firms up, playing toward the creek can be all carry, and it will just stop or roll into the creek. It’s kind of a unique feature. The rest of it, for the most part, is kind of what you see is what you get,” and at the Guildford Golf & Country Club, what you can get, dependent on the turf conditions, is a lot of head-scratching about shots that don’t necessarily end up where you hoped, whether on the fairway or on the green.