I should have loved to add Abersoch, which was a gorgeous 9-hole Harry Vardon links, but they built 9 further holes in meadowland and ruined it. However, the old routing is intact, so you could play those and return to the pub earlier than the other players. There are pictures of the original copurse on
http://www.abersochgolf.co.uk/Here are details of Datchet, which I mentioned in an earlier post:
http://www.datchetgolfclub.co.uk/A fun little course is Grange Fell in the southern Lakes. It's a trust-the-golfer place, with a slot in the clubhouse wall into which you put your green fee. The views are stunning and there are several fun holes. This is not the same thing as MacKenzie's Grange-over-Sands.
I'm told The Dunnerholme on the south west coast of the Lake District is a 10-hole genuine links, but I have no link to it and it's fuzzy on Google Earth.
In the Peak District Bakewell is charming
http://www.bakewellgolfclub.co.uk/Glossop is a hilly (don't try it with a hangover!) 11-holer on the road up to the Snake Pass.
http://www.glossopgolfclub.fsnet.co.uk/ I know nothing of Chulmleigh in Devon but, according to its website it is a short 18-holer in summer and a longer 9-holer in winter. Sounds fun.
http://www.chulmleighgolf.co.uk/Woodford in East London is an old Tom Dunn 9-holer on which an article of red clothing must be worn.
http://woodfordgolf.co.uk/I seem to recall being told that Alton in Hampshire was a decent 9-holer, but I have no personal knowledge. It's attributed to James Braid.
If the one picture on Eltham Warren's website
http://www.elthamwarrengolfclub.co.uk/ is representative, then it, too, has charm. Braid, again.
There's a 9-holer, Hythe Imperial, attached to a hotel and said to be a links. Don't know it.
http://www.marstonhotels.com/leisure/golf/hythe-imperial.shtmlLeeds Castle is well reputed - designed by Neil Coles. It's worth a look at the website:
http://www.leeds-castle.com/goto.phpThere are a few pretty rugged 9-holers in the Pennines - Bacup, Colne, Ghyll (
http://www.ghyllgc.co.uk/), Tunshill (which you see as you climb the M62 out of Rochdale towards Huddersfield - it looks a corker - moorland, rocky outcrops and mountain streams)
http://www.tunshillgolfclub.co.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx and Whittaker.
Any half decent account of 9-hole courses should include Charnwood Forest (James Braid).
http://www.charnwoodforestgc.co.uk/For those staistically odd courses you would have to include Werneth Low which is currently 11 holes, having been extended from 9 in about 1994. It's up in the foothills of the Peak District and good fun.
Strawberry Hill at Twickenham I remeber as a fun 9-holer, but that's a memory from the 70s before I had been educated by the Goodales and Muldoons of this world.
I don't know if the course at RAF North Luffenham still exists, but it was said to be the best of those on British air bases. I did playy the one at RAF Waddington near Lincoln but I think the base is now closed. That, too, was 9-holes.
I don't know Stafford Castle, but it was founded in 1906 and runs to 6,383 yards, which is hefty for a 9-hole course in this country. I don't remember who it was, but one of the members was Amateur Champion or some such about 20 years ago. Not much help, I'm afraid!
Southwold (Braid) is well spoken of. Curiously, I noticed in today's Telegraph that the course has been vandalised over recent years by locals who wish to get the course moved off common land - it dates from 1884.
Hampstead - Tom Dunn - is a lovely 9-hole track in an affluent part of London. They used to be pretty difficult about visitors, but I played in a couple of matches there and we were made exceptionally welcome. (Drink driving was less rigorously observed in those days).
Back to some proper work....