I’ve heard of the 1970s being referred to as the dark ages of golf course architecture, yet from this barren spell came one of England’s most iconic golf clubs, Woburn. The Duke’s was originally the championship layout and has hosted many prestigious events, but has since been overtaken by the Marquess as the premier layout, which is a position I’d also subscribe to. I feel that the Marquess is the better course of the two (I haven’t played the Duchess), but I considered that this might not be the case when I was playing holes 2 through 6 which is a spell of seriously good parkland fodder. The longer holes at the 2nd, 4th and 5th are all beautiful right to left dogleg holes where the land lends itself to some wonderful golfing terrain. The very pretty 4th hole through the valley concludes with a mischievous two-tiered green whilst the par five 5th hole skirts around a deep basin. These were what I deemed to be the two best holes on the course.

I’m not a huge fan of drop-shot par three holes, but the 3rd hole at the Duke’s is unforgettable, albeit the green is a little too severely tilted. Another memorable par three comes shortly afterwards at the 6th where a large abyss needs to be cleared, although both par three holes described would benefit from some vegetation clearance.

Nevertheless, by the time I stood on the 7th tee, I was very impressed. From that point onwards however, I didn’t feel that the rest of the course delivered upon the early-round promise. I’m sure there are some constraints in the land that led to its routing but with several holes going back-and-forth along the same line, the middle section of the course left me wanting more. Later in the round, the course does start to skip along quite pleasantly again as I felt that some of those famous Woburn treelined visuals returned to the course, but still without anything truly memorable and unique that competed with those outstanding opening holes.

Overall, the Duke’s is a quite solid course and worth a visit, but it wasn’t one that quite lived up to its weighty reputation as far as I was concerned.