BATH, England—Every city in the United Kingdom has a castle, or so it seems, which led postmaster and entrepreneur Ralph Allen to built one overlooking the city of Bath in about 1762.

Sham Castle, as its name suggests, is nothing but a façade, but it enhanced the view from the city below and Allen’s house nearby. Bath had been occupied by the Romans centuries before, so perhaps it also provided a false sense of security.

Made from the impressive creamy colored Bath Stone found in the quarries outside of the city, Sham Castle is located near the front gate of venerable Bath Golf Club, which follows a distorted figure-8 on a plateau of ground once owned by Allen’s family.

Unlike the castle, the golf course—which utilizes Sham Castle as its design logo—is the real thing, founded in 1880 when there were only 17 golf clubs in existence throughout England.

“You would have thought that in 120 years we may have found a better way of doing it,” wrote Mike Wood, captain of Bath Golf Club in 2000 when John Rhodes, who was captain in 1990 and 1994, wrote the history of the club.

“I can assure you, however, that the more things change the more they stay the same. Which is comforting, in a way, as it probably guarantees that the Club will survive for at least another 120 years pretty much the same way.”

We know that the first meeting of what was first called Kingsdown Golf Club was held Feb. 28, 1880, at the Swan Inn in nearby Kingsdown because the minutes of that gathering exist to this day—as does the pub itself more than 300 years after it was built.

Although Kingsdown Golf Club also remains in existence, club members from Bath splintered from the original group and moved the club in 1881.

Harry Shapland Colt, perhaps the greatest British golf course designer and the architect of the famed West Course at Wentworth, Muirfield and Sunningdale to name a few, came to the Southwest of England and put his fingerprints on Bath Golf Club around 1900.

The course remains nearly unchanged.

“It’s such a good design it hasn’t been altered much,” said Peter Hancox, who has been the head pro at Bath since 1987.

Joe Louis, the heavyweight champion who served in the United State Army during World War II and put on boxing exhibitions for the troops in the European Theater, played at Bath Golf Club in 1945 as the war was winding down.

Louis, an accomplished golfer who defied the PGA Tour’s Caucasians-only clause when he played in the 1952 Los Angeles Open, put on a golf exhibition that day in Bath.

“The first hole (an uphill 302-yard par four these days to an elevated green) was about 340 yards back then, before we built the new clubhouse,” Hancox said. “He amazed the members when he drove the first green.

“Considering the equipment they used in those days, it was a remarkable shot since it’s all carry to the green because of the hill.”

The course measures a modest 6,442 yards from the back tees over rolling terrain and plays to a par of 71 in a parkland setting with spectacular view of Bath Eastern and the surrounding countryside 600 feet below.

With only two par fives on the course, the course is loaded with strong par fours in the tradition of UK courses, and they don’t have to be 450 yards to challenge your game.

“It’s typical of golf courses from that early era,” Hancox said. “There are not a lot of tricks, but it strong test and par is a good score. The greens are small and can be difficult to hit and challenging to putt.

“The prevailing wind comes from the west and the course was designed with that in mind.”

After a fairly benign start, the golfer is confronted with the No. 1 handicap hole, the par-four fifth—which measures 466 yards and requires an accurate tee shot because of poplar and fir trees down the left side and thorn trees on the right.

That’s followed immediately by the longest hole on the course, the only par five on the front nine, which stretches to 530 yards into the wind.

“No. 5 is a typical English par four,” Hancox said. “It demands a long tee shot and then a long second shot to a small green. It’s just a bloody tough hole.

“The drive on No. 6 is difficult because there is out of bounds on the left. The second shot is not easy because the hole doglegs to the left and there are more trees and sand near the green.

“The holes from Nos. 3 to 6 might be the best stretch on the course.”

Another impressive back-to-back comes on the 392-yard 12th hole and the 469-yard 13th, two more of those challenging par fours.

It’s not unusual for the golfer to have trouble reaching the first of them in two shots because it plays into the wind and then being able to reach the longer second one because it plays downwind.

“These are the most difficult holes on the back side,” Hancox said. “You have to avoid the trees or it will cost you a shot. It’s difficult enough to make par if you hit the ball straight on those holes.

“The back nine has a lot of character to it.”

That is evident on the 158-yard 14th hole, which plays across a quarry to a green protected by three traps in the front, with a grove of trees serving as a backdrop.

But perhaps the most intriguing hole is No. 17, a par four that measures only 305 yards on the card. There is out of bounds on the right behind a wall that dates to Roman times and a series of mounds in front of the elevated green are thought to be an ancient burial ground.

“It’s a good hole and presents several options,” Hancox said. “You can hit driver and shape it around the corner to get close to the green, but you have the out of bounds and the mounds to deal with.

“You can drive it to the left side of the fairway and come in from that side or you can lay back to have a full shot into the green. There are no bunkers on the hole, but it still gives you a lot to think about.”

The great Henry Cotton, who won three British Opens and probably would have won a few more Claret Jugs had the championship not been discontinued during World War II, defeated R.A. Whitcombe, 4 and 3, in an exhibition benefiting the Red Cross at Bath in 1940.

There are 15 other courses within 30 minutes drive of Bath, not counting the pitch-and-putt course in Royal Victoria Park in the elegant city. Arguably the best is the challenging Manor Course Golf Club at Castle Combe, designed by Peter Aliss, the TV commentator and former Ryder Cup player, along with Clive Clark.

Lansdown Golf Club, a picturesque course with elevated views of the countryside, is located two miles from Bath, adjacent to Bath Racecourse. Five miles away is Bath’s sister club, Kingsdown Golf Club in Corsham.

Cumberwell Golf Club offers 27 holes of championship golf in Bradford-on-Avon and Bowood Golf and Country Club, which winds through the Great Park near Calne, was designed by Dave Thomas—architect of Britain’s most popular Ryder Cup venue, the Belfry in Sutton Coldfield.

But there’s much more to do in Bath, a cosmopolitan city that has a feel of San Francisco with its hills, chic clothing boutiques, trendy cafes, the Palladian Bridge in Prior Park and Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon.

Bath is home to one of the great rugby teams in the world and the Theater Royal, which offers a full season of theatrical productions, and the city was the setting for several books by famed novelist Jane Austen—whose home in the city is now a museum.

Take a tour of the Roman baths, which were built in the first century B.C. and are considered the best-preserved religious spa from the ancient world.

Among the hotel accommodations in Bath are the Old Malt House, Oldfields Hotel, the Old Priory, Villa Magdala Hotel, the Bath House Hotel, Dukes’ Hotel and the Hilton Bath City. Just outside the city are Lucknam Park Mansion, Limpey Stoke Hotel and the Cliffe Hotel.

And then there is the Royal Crescent, a three-block monolith of stone from the nearby quarries outside that is considered perhaps the greatest example of Georgian architecture in the world.

At the center of this impressive edifice is the Royal Crescent Hotel, which is included among Great Hotels of the world along with its sister property, Cliveden House in Taplow—the former Astor estate near London.

All 45 luxurious guest rooms have been restored to their original splendor and great care was taken to recreate authentic period details. The exquisite carpets, furnishings, color schemes and fabrics are all as they would have been in the eighteenth century.

The suites are named after personalities either directly connected to the Royal Crescent or to the history of Bath, including Ralph Allen, William Beckford, the Duke of York, Sir Percy Blakeney, Jane Austen and Sir Thomas Gainsborough.

Award-winning Pimpernel’s restaurant is located in the Dower House, overlooking the leafy and secluded gardens, and the contemporary British menu of Chef Steven Blake draws on influences from the Mediterranean and the Far East.

You can sip tea in the conservatory, browse in the library, stroll the gardens or have a massage and facial in the Bath House, which offers guests a full-service spa.

Construction of the Royal Crescent was begun in 1767 by John Wood the Younger and took eight years to complete. Its great elliptical curve measures almost 50 feet in height and is 500 feet long.

When the famous literary hostess, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, came to live at No.16 Royal Crescent in 1780 she observed: “The beautiful situation of the Crescent cannot be understood by any comparison with anything in any town whatsoever.”

Then and now, the residences on the Royal Crescent have been considered among the most prestigious in Bath.

When Ralph Allen built Sham Castle, perhaps he had not heard that a man’s home is his castle.