The most underrated room at any golf club isn't the bar, the grill, or the locker room. It's the porch. That's where the round actually ends: the holes get replayed, the money changes hands, somebody orders one more. As an American living in London, where people tend to gather in the back garden, the park, or their local boozer, I don't come across many porches. So when I find a good one, it hits home.
Case in point: Walton Heath, in Surrey. Its recently refurbished porch invites you to settle in right away. A modern canopy sits against the Edwardian clubhouse, looking out over the club's little 18-hole putting green and a backdrop that could easily be airdropped into the Chelsea Flower Show. With both of its courses across Dorking Road, the porch gives the place a home base.
Take a load off with your favourite lager or maybe a Kümmel, a caraway-flavoured liqueur known among members as the "putting mixture." Winston Churchill was one of four prime ministers to have been members, though I can't speak to his order. A good porch has its uses before the round, too. I'd already had lunch and was waiting for my playing partners, so I opted for a surprisingly good affogato before hoofing it in 95°F/35°C heat. Extra points for a porch menu that sneaks in something like this.
Inside, the clubhouse is full of reminders of the golf played here. Photographs of the 1981 Ryder Cup and the 2023 Women's Open line the halls. The club's first captain, appointed in 1935, was the Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VIII a year later. Outside, the modern sitting area feels comfortably at home against all that history.
If I'm being nitpicky, not being right off the 9th or 18th to watch players come in costs the porch a point or two. But that's also what makes it work: a shaded haven off on its own, away from double bogeys, with room for laughs among friends.
A post-round beer is easily one of the top two beers a person can have, rivaled only by the beach beer. After golf, surrounded by good mates, recalling the holes played, with a proper place to sit—that's a big reason we play this game and travel all these miles.
Clubhouse porches that nail the details offer something beyond a few tables and umbrellas. A house drink, an unexpected item on the menu, a view worth sticking around for. The feeling of sinking into just the right chair is hard to beat.
A few other English porches come to mind. Swinley Forest, even if the bar closes alarmingly early. Royal Cinque Ports, with its second-floor roof terrace overlooking the course and the English Channel, and a lager called Cinqueable. St. Enodoc in Cornwall, with a memorable back porch and steps up to the roof for a better look at its back nine.
But Walton Heath is the one I keep coming back to. Members tell me there are plans for a new clubhouse across the road, out on the heath. If it happens, I'm sure they'll honour the lore of the place just fine. I only hope they bring the porch with them.
