Swinley Forest

The Redan 4th, played from a tee visible in the left centre of the picture, climbs the hill, before the par five 5th - the only three-shotter on the course - heads back down, doglegging to the right

The par three 13th is a slight drop shot, with the par four 14th then heading away towards the left

The 450-yard 15th climbs a steep rise as it approaches the false fronted green, with no shortage of hazards to consider when planning your route to the green, whether in two shots or three

The 17th calls for a thrilling mid iron shot to a pulpit green where short is the only place to miss

Course name: Swinley Forest
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Golf in purest form

They say if you walk off the 18th green and want to head straight back to the 1st tee, you've just played a very good course. So what does it say that I walked from the 36th hole of the day thinking that if I headed back to the 1st tee I might get manage another two or three holes before darkness fell?

Swinley Forest is simply a special place in golf. If religions have cathedrals, mosques and synagogues to celebrate their traditions and faith, golf has courses and clubs like Swinley Forest. If the Old Course at St Andrews is the St Peter's Basilica of golf, then Swinley Forest is Sainte-Chapelle: smaller, less well-known, but no less spiritual.

Harry Colt's course might not look daunting at 6019 yards (5504m) with a par of 68, but a brilliant set of par threes (probably the best I have ever played), a mixture of par fours measuring between 285 and 455 yards (the shortest and longest played back-to-back at the 11th and 12th) and some wonderful greens combine to thrill and test the golfer in equal measure.

Among the course's many strengths is the fact that the similar holes are spaced perfectly: long par fours at the 6th, 9th, 12th and 15th; par fours with a downhill tee shot and uphill approach at the 1st, 9th and 18th; holes along flat ground at the 3rd, 6th, 11th, 14th and 16th; par threes at the 4th, 8th, 10th, 13th and 17th.

Ample heather provides a penalty for missed fairways, and while many holes are isolated in their own corridor through the towering pines, the trees rarely interfere with play. Yet despite the fact the course is carved through a forest, there are many wide open vistas to be enjoyed from high the high points on the site.

The bunkering is also a masterstroke, from those short of the 7th and 10th greens that cause distance gauging issues to the fairway bunker at the 1st that obscures your view of the green and on to the severity of those on many of the par threes.

As well as the fantastic and at times downright cruel sand bunkers, Colt's beloved grass bunkers are also well used here - as at Canterbury and Royal Wimbledon - ranging from narrow, snaking channels to large "bathtubs". The course also draws on some unconventional hazards in the form of narrow heather-clad ridges set perpendicular to the line of play at the 7th, 9th and 15th.

While a glance at the scorecard shows some similar distances on certain holes (the 2nd, 14th and 18th all measure within two yards of each other and the 6th, 9th and 16th have less than 20 yards separating them), Colt's routing of the course up, down and across the rolling slopes ensures each has its own character and challenge.

The 12th and 15th holes - at 455 and 450 yards (uphill) - are two of the best half-par holes you will ever play, with two of the trickiest sloping greens on the course.

The variety of the par fours is a real strength of Swinley Forest, but it's the one-shotters that steal much of the glory: the Redan 4th with its left side defended by caverns of sand, the 8th - played to a green set beside a fearsome 15-foot slope that somehow tempts you to flirt with it, the 205-yard 10th over a valley of heather to a hogback green boasting some vicious pin positions, the drop-shot 13th defended in front by sand to catch the golfer who underclubs and - perhaps best of them all - the wonderful 170-yard 17th, with its pulpit green and deep bunkers.

They combine to call for a range of shotmaking skills, with greens that can be approached wisely by a golfer happy to play short or wide of the green in the right place and try for an up-and-down par.

I commented as we were ushered from the clubhouse at closing time: "I'm like a kid at his friend's birthday party, who doesn't want to go home, even though it's over!" You can have your modern 7000-yard par 72 "championship" courses: Swinley Forest is golf as it was meant to be played.