For James Boon's sake I will now offer the opinion of a Frenchman!
My wife is English, she grew up in the village next to Lytham St. Annes and her family moved to Cornwall when she was a teenager. We honeymooned in Scotland; at the time the price was reasonable. We stayed and played the great resorts: Glenaeagles, TOC, Dornoch and Turnberry; TOC was a mere 25 pounds back then. As someone whose only connection to what was available over there was Golf Digest and Golf Magazine; I knew about the famous courses, mostly because they advertised and Scotland did a good job of promoting what was available. I sent away to the Scottish Tourism Board and got maps and brochures detailing where to go play and stay. When we visited her parents in Cornwall at the tail end of the trip though we played the Nicklaus course at St. Mellions with St. Enodoc and Perranporth just a short drive away! We just didn't have the resources of golfclubatlas or the Confidential Guide to point us in the right direction in those days.
I spent 6 months in Southhampton in 1989 while my wife was selling her house there. Although we diid play Stoneham, we confined our golf to the municipal course there for the most part. Although I suspected Hayling Island was something special we never did get a chance to play there. Little did I know that within spitting distance were the 4 very good courses in Bournemouth: Parkstone, Broadstone, Ferndown and The Isle of Purbeck. We did spend a month each touring Ireland and Scotland, playing the best they had to offer; prices were still reasonable back then. I don't even recall seeing a Perry Tour bus! But where to play there was quite obvious and playing the best was an attainable goal.
It would appear that the English are quite happy with the relative obscurity of their courses; but they still roll out the welcome mat for anybody who takes the time to write a polite letter. The Pro will not have to put on a mask when taking your green fees. The only drawbacks are that you will be relagated to playing weekdays only; all the better to play the tourist and soak in the numerous cultural offerings on the weekends. You will also probably have to play alone; during our 3 week trip several years ago we played 12 rounds and were never paired with a local in any of them. Sounds like a very good problem to have though.
Pete
The book you needed in the 1980s was the GREAT AA guide. It was
the guide to have in the 1970s and 1980s with a top 50 course review section by different journalists, plus it highlighted the best courses in each area with green text and it hardly ever missed the mark. I know Tom Doak used it as his bible during his first trip over. Of course it's superseded now and missed a few gems but I still reach for it regularly.
Re English Courses:
For some players, I guess the only drawback of the average classic (1900-WW2) English course is that they're short in comparison with their classic American cousins. They're nearly always far short of 7000 yds, typically 6500 yds or less from the back tees and hardly ever have a par 5 above 550yds.... so if one of your check boxes is a "true" par 5 then you'll have a bit of a let down.
Also, if you're a big fan of wild American greens in the Maxwell, Mackenzie and Ross style, you won't find much of that ilk in England. I sometimes wonder if Mackenzie's super wild Sitwell Park greens frightened everyone off! I get the impression from Darwin's writing that there was a bit of a backlash (started by him?) against wild greens in England. Whereas America embraced the wild(er) green.
But it doesn't matter, the courses stand up to any.