Exclusive Collection and The Experience Golf Launch Luxury Stay-and-Play Packages across Southern England

• Exclusive Collection and The Experience Golf have partnered to sell bespoke luxury golf breaks in England, using Royal Berkshire and Pennyhill Park as bases for the Surrey and Berkshire heathland.
• Courses in the offer include Sunningdale, The Berkshire, Walton Heath, Swinley Forest, St George’s Hill, plus heathland golf’s famous W’s 
• Packages run through the April to October season and bundle tee times, accommodation, transfers and hospitality under one operator.

The Experience Golf, the St Andrews-based tour operator that has arranged luxury golf trips for more than 30 years, has teamed up with Exclusive Collection to build stay-and-play packages around two of the group’s country house hotels, Royal Berkshire near Ascot and Pennyhill Park in Bagshot. A golfer books once, with everything from the tee sheet at Sunningdale to the robe hanging in the bathroom handled before arrival.

I was invited to sample the offer over a short break, playing The Berkshire and staying at both hotels. What follows is a report on how the partnership works in practice, and on whether the organisation matches the price point.

The Partnership Proposition

The Experience Golf built its reputation on Scotland. As the original Authorised Provider appointed by the St Andrews Links Trust, it can guarantee Old Course tee times without clients entering the daily ballot, and it will act as an Official Tour Operator for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. The Exclusive Collection deal extends that model south of the border, into the densest cluster of elite inland golf in England.

The partnership names Sunningdale, The Berkshire, Walton Heath, Swinley Forest, St George’s Hill, Woking and Hankley Common as core venues, and the companies also work with Camberley Heath, West Hill, Worplesdon, New Zealand, West Sussex and Royal Ashdown Forest. Trips can be short heathland breaks or longer itineraries pegged to The Open, the Ryder Cup, Royal Ascot or Silverstone.

Everything is bespoke. Signature packages can include accommodation, green fees, transfers between hotel and course, breakfast, refreshments served on the course, dinners for the group, souvenirs and daily prizes, with an Experience Golf team member on hand during the stay. The Exclusive Collection hotels supply the spas and restaurants that keep non-golfing partners happy, reinforcing the point made in our look at the courses golfers now build entire trips around: the destination is part of the product.

Director of Commercial Strategy and Golf – Lyvera Group, Richard Payne commented

‘Our philosophy at The Experience Golf and across the Lyvera Group is to enhance traditional golf trips to provide the ultimate golf experience, including access to iconic sports events with stays in hotels that become part of the trip rather than just a bed to sleep in.

This partnership with the Exclusive Collection delivers on all of these fronts and provides our customers with hassle free access to luxury golf and sports stays.’

Royal Berkshire: A Country House Start

The trip began with a welcome breakfast at Royal Berkshire, an 18th-century red-brick house set in 15 acres of lawns and mature trees a few minutes from Ascot. Exclusive Collection markets it as a home from home, and the description holds. The house is residential in scale, with a terrace, the Polo Bar for afternoon tea and Fork as the main restaurant. Off-course entertainment stretches to frisbee golf on the lawn and ice creams served from a horsebox, giving families travelling with a golfer plenty to do.

Breakfast was timed around the tee time rather than the other way round. That sounds like a small thing until you have spent a golf trip negotiating with a hotel kitchen that opens at eight when your fourball is due on the first at 8.40. Here the itinerary had already been set by The Experience Golf, the hotel knew it, and we ate, collected clubs and left without a single phone call.

The Berkshire: Fowler’s Red and Blue

The centrepiece of the golf was 18 holes at The Berkshire, founded in 1928 and home to two Herbert Fowler heathland courses that share the same Scots pine, heather and sandy ground as neighbouring Sunningdale and Swinley Forest.

The Red Course sits on higher ground and has the more dramatic elevation changes. Its routing is one of the oddities of English golf: six par 3s, six par 4s and six par 5s. From the white tees it measures 6,452 yards, par 72, and the club describes its collection of short holes as among the best and most intimidating in the country. The par 5s are the compensation, most of them reachable enough to offer birdie chances, though the 562-yard 17th is the exception. Two ditches cross the line of the second shot, two deep bunkers guard the green and a tier through the middle of the putting surface punishes anyone who finishes on the wrong level.

The Blue Course, 6,366 yards and par 71 from the whites, opens with a 217-yard par 3 across a sea of heather to a green perched on a mound. Trouble waits short right for the weak slice and long left for the hook, a theme Fowler repeats throughout using the natural fall of the land rather than heavy shaping. The front nine gives you two par 5s and three short par 4s to score on, and you need them, because the back nine closes with five stern par 4s. The 452-yard dogleg 16th, with a bunker cut into the corner and a green sloping hard from back to front and left to right, is the pick. Members will tell you the Blue is the harder of the two to score on, whatever the top-100 lists say.

Condition in September was excellent, with firm, fast heathland turf and greens that rewarded a properly struck iron. The hosting is where the partnership earned its keep. We arrived at the first tee to find balls, tees and everything else a golfer might need already laid on, the starter expecting us, and no bag drop or pro shop queue to negotiate. The Experience Golf team had done the administration in advance, and the round felt like a members’ day rather than a visitor booking.

Pennyhill Park: Spa, Rugby and a Michelin Star

The second night moved to Pennyhill Park, a 19th-century ivy-clad house in 120 acres of Surrey parkland with 124 individually designed bedrooms and a 45,000-square-foot spa offering more than 20 experiences. The England rugby team uses it as a training base, and the guest list runs to footballers and other well-known names who come to play The Berkshire, Sunningdale and the surrounding courses. Having stayed in the GoodwoodSuite, it can only be described as pure luxury, from the robes waiting on the bed to bathrooms that would embarrass most spa hotels.

 

The atmosphere is closer to a country-house spa than a golf resort. There are no buggies or societies spilling out of a clubhouse bar, just outdoor pools, treatment cabanas, and two beautifully designed outdoor jacuzzis. With three restaurants on site, there is plenty to choose from, each offering it’s own unique style and setting. Hillfield handles farm-to-fork dining with produce from the estate and the Surrey Hills, Themis serves Mediterranean-inspired dishes inside the spa, and Latymer, in the oldest part of the house, holds a Michelin star and five AA Rosettes for Head Chef Steve Smith’s Discovery tasting menu. Dinner at Latymer will cater for anyone who takes the dining side of a golf break as seriously as the course rating.

Elliot Brown, Group Client and Partnerships Manager at Exclusive Collection is extremely excited about the new partnership, commenting:

“Pennyhill Park and Royal Berkshire are positioned in the heart of England’s heathland golf region, an emerging destination for ambitious golfers, and we take great pride in providing a home for those seeking an authentic golfing escape surrounded by some of the world’s finest courses.

Our commitment to exceptional golf hospitality is already demonstrated at The Manor House, our renowned Cotswold golf estate, and this partnership with The Experience Golf further reinforces Exclusive Collection’s dedication to creating elevated itineraries for discerning golfers; curating bucket-list golf adventures that combine world-class golf with the exceptional hospitality for which Exclusive Collection is known.”

Booking and Pricing

All of The Experience Golf’s UK trips operate between April and October, and prices depend on courses, dates and room category. Itineraries can be built through the Experience Builder or by speaking to the company’s team directly. Tee times at the private clubs remain subject to availability, which is precisely why using a specialist operator with existing relationships matters.

Itineraries can be built through the Experience Builder or by speaking to the company’s team directly.

GolfToday Verdict: For golfers who can afford Sunningdale green fees but have no appetite for the admin of securing them, this partnership turns the Surrey Sandbelt into something closer to a St Andrews-style guaranteed trip, and the two hotels give it a level of comfort no clubhouse dormy house can match. With a further 8 hotels across the group offering comparable golf vacations, it really is a fantastic opportunity to let someone else do all the heavy lifting and enjoy a hassle free luxury golf break. 

Full a full list of Exclusive Collection hotels visit www.exclusive.co.uk/our-collection/