Hidden Gem

Woking Golf Club

Woking, Surrey · Designed by Tom Dunn (1893); Stuart Paton & John Low · Est. 1893

Woking is the oldest of the great Surrey heaths and, in the history of golf design, one of the most important courses in the world. Laid out by Tom Dunn in 1893 on Hook Heath, it became the home of a quiet revolution: two members, John Low and Stuart Paton, spent decades refining it and, around 1901, added two bunkers in the middle of the fairway on the 4th hole — an idea so radical it effectively founded the theory of strategic golf-course design that Colt, Fowler and MacKenzie would carry around the world.

The course itself is a modest 6,340 yards, par 70, running over springy heathland turf between heather and pine, with the London–Woking railway line forming an ever-present boundary down several holes. It is understated and pure — no water features, no theatrics, just angles, heather and the strategic questions Low and Paton posed more than a century ago.

Visitors are welcome on most weekdays. For anyone interested in why golf courses are designed the way they are, Woking is a pilgrimage.

Holes worth knowing

14th (par-4) — the most important hole in the history of design: Low and Paton's two central fairway bunkers turned a plain hole into a strategic puzzle and changed golf architecture forever.
2The railway holes — the London line runs tight down the right of several holes, a constant out-of-bounds that frames the strategy exactly as the Victorians intended.

Highlights

The oldest of the Surrey heaths (1893)
Birthplace of strategic golf-course design
The famous Low & Paton bunkers on the 4th
Pure, understated heathland by the railway line

Good to know

→The 4th hole is a genuine landmark of golf history — the central bunkers Low and Paton added here around 1901 founded the strategic school of design.
→John Low's book and Stuart Paton's lifelong stewardship made Woking a laboratory of design ideas — play it thinking about angles, not just targets.
→Visitors play mainly Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; book through the office, and mind the railway boundary down the right.
→It is the senior member of the "Three W's" — Woking, West Hill and Worplesdon sit within a couple of miles of each other and make a perfect day of heathland golf.
→The town of Woking has good rail links to London (35 minutes to Waterloo), so a car-light heathland trip based here is very doable.