Photo: Wikimedia CommonsWoodhall Spa — The Hotchkin
Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire · Designed by Harry Vardon (1905); redesigned by Col. S.V. Hotchkin (1920s); restored by Tom Doak (2019) · Est. 1905
The Hotchkin at Woodhall Spa is widely regarded as the finest inland course in the British Isles, and one of the greatest heathland tests anywhere. Golf began here in 1890; the course opened in 1905, originally laid out by Harry Vardon and then transformed in the 1920s by the club's owner, Colonel Stafford Vere Hotchkin, whose name it bears. In 1995 the English Golf Union bought the club, moved its headquarters here, and made it the National Golf Centre — the home of English golf.
Deep in the sandy heathland of Lincolnshire, amid vast swathes of heather, gorse, silver birch and pine, the Hotchkin is defended above all by its bunkers: revetted, cathedral-deep and utterly penal, they are the most fearsome of any inland course in Britain — sometimes there is no option but to pitch out sideways. It plays to a stern 7,024 yards, par 73.
A sympathetic restoration by the architect Tom Doak, completed in 2019, recovered many of the original design features that had softened over the decades. Visitors are welcome, and the excellent Bracken course alongside makes a natural second round.
Holes worth knowing
- 1The bunkering throughout — Woodhall's revetted sand pits are so deep that escape often means pitching out sideways; nowhere inland punishes a wayward shot so severely.
- 25th (par-4) — a heather-and-sand test that captures the Hotchkin in miniature: a demanding drive, a cavernous bunker to avoid, and a green set in the heath.
Highlights
- Widely rated the finest inland course in Britain
- The deepest, most penal bunkers in inland golf
- The National Golf Centre — home of English golf
- Tom Doak restoration completed 2019
Good to know
- →This is the home of English golf — England Golf's headquarters and the National Golf Centre are on site, with superb practice facilities.
- →The bunkers are the whole story: they are cathedral-deep, so escape often means pitching out sideways — course management and discipline beat aggression here.
- →The Bracken course alongside is a fine, more forgiving second round; in the village, the Petwood Hotel — the wartime officers' mess of the Dambusters' 617 Squadron — is a characterful base with gardens.
- →Lincoln, half an hour away, has a magnificent medieval cathedral and castle above a cobbled old quarter, and the Lincolnshire Wolds are quiet, pretty walking country.
- →It is remote — deep in Lincolnshire — but every serious golf traveller should make the pilgrimage; book ahead, as it is a popular day out.
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