The Golf Course in Chingford was originally established as nine holes in the 19thC. The Royal Epping Forest Golf Club (REFGC) opened in 1888 located initially at the Forest Hotel. The Club’s first professional, William Dunn Jr, expanded the course to 22-holes, extending from Hawk Wood to Warren Wood and across Rangers Road.

In 1901, the City of London Corporation took responsibility for the course and public play was regulated for the first time by them with the use of annual season tickets.

In 1914 the club relocated to their current premises as tenants. This site was purchased in 1926 and extended in 1934. The course is laid out over Henry VIII's and Elizabeth I's hunting grounds and the shadows of medieval farming can be seen, in the form of undulations, on many of the fairways. During WW2 the course housed anti-aircraft installations and a Prisoner of War camp - these too can also be seen as faint ghosts on the ground.

In the late 1950s all holes east of Bury Road were transferred to the west side and the course remodelled to pretty much as you see it today.