The Duchess is the shortest and prettiest of the three courses at Woburn Golf Club. Major competitions, accolades and honours are heaped on the Duke's and Marquess courses, but the Duchess is lovely in its own right...




Woburn Golf Club (Duchess)
The Duchess is the shortest and prettiest of the three courses at Woburn Golf Club. Major competitions, accolades and honours are heaped on the Duke's and Marquess courses, but the Duchess is lovely in its own right...




4
The afternoon of our 36 hole day at Woburn took us to The Duchess and completed the set of three very different courses at the superb Woburn Golf Club.
The Duchess winds it’s way through a forest of tall pines and never leaves them. It’s undulation and routing makes for a more interesting round than The Dukes and in my opinion, a much prettier course.
There are arguably no standout holes, there are just a number of very good ones. The 1st in particular being an excellent opening hole. It plays longer than its 435 yards, as the approach shot is played over a large drop and you need to carry it all the way to the green.
The course is tight and claustrophobic in places and to score well here, finding fairways would be rule number one. Whilst you can find your ball in the thick pines, rescue shots into greens are few and far between, so there is a lot of medicine to be taken.
Like The Dukes, the middle holes border on repetitive, with many similar holes, but due to the positions of the greens and the routing it does manage to keep intrigue and shaping shots into greens are often required.
I really enjoyed the finishing stretch from 15-18. With their severe undulations and shaping, picking the right spot to land your tee shot is integral and makes for a tricky finish that requires concentration right up to the final putt.
Having played all three courses now, I’d easily have Marquess as the best (it’s a cracking course) but I would have Duchess and Dukes MUCH closer in the rankings. The Dukes has the better opening stretch, but Duchess is much more fun to play. But they all complement each other superbly and the members here are very lucky to have 3 lovely courses to choose from. Woburn is a cracking club and if you’re looking for a 54 hole golf trip, an overnight stop here should be definitely be considered.
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Chris Wanless
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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Overall rating
4.5
Overall rating
4.5