Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin) - Lincolnshire - England

When driving off the beaten track through the flat plains of Lincolnshire, you do start to wonder how this vast area of farmland could be home to one of the country’s best courses, but when arriving at Woodhall Spa, you find yourself amongst a green golfing oasis. Playing the Hotchkin is a pleasure; stretches of heather line the perimeters of the fairways creating an excellent challenge for the visiting golfer with superb routing throughout.

Naturally, no review of Woodhall Spa would be complete without mentioning the bunkers. The cavernous bunkers offer the highlight of the round and probably represent the best bunkering I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in the UK. This is best highlighted by the short 5th hole where ten-foot deep bunkers create an island green, one of which I had the displeasure of entering leading my playing partner to think I’d gone missing for a few seconds. On the longer holes, keeping the ball on the fairway comes at a premium, and when combined with some 180+ yard carries to hit the fairway, shorter hitters will struggle to score.

Whilst a memorable day’s golf will be enjoyed by most at Woodhall Spa, it does fall just short of golfing perfection. The green undulations and contours are a little on the subtle side for my tastes and when compared to other fine heathland courses such as Woking, are a slight let down.

I do also admit to having a bias for courses that offer an element of rise and fall, of which The Hotchkin offers none, but despite this it’s still undoubtedly a very fine course. The course improvement work by Tom Doak and his team will considerably enhance the layout. The back 9 needs additional tree clearance and heather regeneration, but going by the newly created area of wasteland found on the right of the dogleg 7th hole, the course is only going to improve its already glowing reputation. By 2022, I expect the course will well deserve its status as one of the absolute best courses in the UK, but it’s not quite hitting these heights for me in its current state. A solid 5-ball rating.

Played the Hotchkin course on an overcast, relatively calm April day. Course conditioning was excellent and the staff was friendly and helpful. The Hotchkin fully earned its status as a classic, must-play layout. The degree of difficulty was significant, but not to the point of discouraging an occasional bold shot. Fairways are the "right" width in terms of requiring some precision off the tee (often carrying 100-150 yards of gorse), but not overly punitive. Fairway and greenside bunkering is plentiful, but again reasonable. Greens were in great shape, holding well-struck irons and providing straightforward "reads". Petwood Hotel is a great option in this town.

This course has always been highly rated internationally, but it took me 3 plays to appreciate its many subtle features. Yes, the greens are fast, the bunkers frightening, but you can plot a way around this course and it doesn't involve excessive use of the driver. Like Silloth and Dornoch, its off the beaten track but worth the journey all the same. The course has a number of outstanding short par 4's, which although short require accurate placement of tee and approach. This is best shown by the 15th., played slightly uphill...you need to avoid the bunker right and then play a wedge to an elevated green surrounded by bunkers. The hole funnels in slightly and the bunker short of the green makes you think its a shorter shot than you think...play to the yardages here, and you won't go wrong. The 10th also requires an accurate tee shot to avoid heather and bunkers,and the sloping green needs to receive an accurate approach wedge shot. These short par 4's can offer a birdie or wreck your card, and what few courses offer is a challenge on every hole...Woodhall Spa offers this better than just about any other UK course

Set near Sherwood Forest off the beaten path, Woodhall Spa might be the most underrated course ranked by golf magazines. The idyllic setting in the woods is quintessential England. People walking their dogs through the property, the smell of wood burning fireplaces nearby, a gentle mist in the air. Woodhall Spa has only three par three holes but taken together they may represent the best collection of par threes on any course in the world and the bunkers are peerless, as deep as you will see on any golf course. This is bunkering of the penal variety. There’s a bit of magic in the air at Woodhall that is difficult to define. The routing is world-class as is the artfulness of the design. The antithesis of a lot of courses built today, this is golf of the throwback variety. Bring it on.

John Sabino is the author of How to Play the World’s Most Exclusive Golf Clubs

Recently played here and thoroughly enjoyed it (both courses) the Hotchkin is a lovely challenging course with deep bunkers and is defiantly one of the best inland courses in the UK.Although I enjoyed the course and will be returning it did not feel "special" as a lot of the similar top rated inland course feel when you play them.

Tucked away in the quaint little resort village after which it is named, the Woodall Spa Golf Club is laid out amongst a forest of mature pines and birch that give it a wonderful sense of isolation from the outside world. In fact its location is probably somewhat to its own detriment. Despite being home to England’s National Golf Centre, with no major roads taking you there, finding Woodhall Spa can be a bit of a mission in it’s self. However for those that are willing to make the journey to Lincolnshire in search of good golfing grounds, your efforts will be well rewarded with a round on this beautiful inland layout.

Woodhall Spa has 36 holes: the Hotchkin Course and the Bracken Course, with the former being the older and superior layout of the two, and the focus of this review. The Hotchkin Course is a fine test of one’s golfing ability, largely due to the very deep, and extremely large bunkers found scattered throughout the layout. These enormous bunkers can be found flanking the edges of fairways – often lurking amongst beautiful patches of heather and long grass – as well as fronting or surrounding many of the green complexes.

The bunkers are obviously the headlining act in the course’s defence. It is the visually striking yet penal roughs, and large greens - which can make three-putting a real possibility – that both play solid supporting roles. Additionally, forced carries over heather off many tees - some being upwards of 200 yards from the back markers - would no doubt intimidate the average golfer and definitely add to the difficulty of the layout.

All of this boils down to the fact that in order to score well at Woodhall Spa, one must drive the ball well, and do so all day.

In singling out some of the course’s finer holes - depending on your taste - there is plenty to choose from.

The par threes are particularly challenging, and as a set of one-shot holes, are some of the most unforgiving I have encountered. Even from the back markers the 5th and 12th play at 148 and 176 yards respectively, meaning that many golfers will only require a short to mid iron. However missing the green on either of these two holes is likely to result in an extremely difficult recovery shot from one of the very deep greenside bunkers that surround the respective putting surfaces. Playing at 209 yards from the tips, the 8th is the by far the longest, and rounds out the trio of fine one shot holes. The tee shot is slightly uphill, and must carry a lone cross bunker in the fairway, sited some thirty yards short of the green. Three more bunkers flank either side of the large green to the front – two on the left and one on the right – ready to swallow up anything that strays too far off a decent line.

But there is far more to this course than simply some challenging short holes. The biggest strength of the Hotchkin Course for me would have to be the fact that it possesses a number of great holes spread over a variety of lengths.

Of the great par fours, the pick for me is the 338 yard 10th, where your drive must skirt two fairway bunkers with the first being sited on the left, the second a little further up on the right. This hole dog-legs from left to right, and it is a drive that splits the two fairway bunkers while still slightly favouring the left-hand side that is best rewarded by a short approach into the open-fronted green. The safe route is to play out to right and short of the second fairway bunker, though from here you must approach the green at an angle that shortens the depth of the green considerably, whilst also avoiding a pair of bunkers sited short right and two more long and left. To keep the approach interesting the green falls away from you, ensuring your approach requires deft judgement in length to get the ball close for a birdie putt.

If I had one slight bit of criticism of the Hotchkin Course it would be the greens, which despite being on the larger side of average, are not very strongly contoured. In a perfect world they might possess some stronger slopes to make them more interesting. However, given the significant challenges that one faces in reaching these surfaces in regulation, I gladly accept their mild contouring as being a fair trade-off that likely keeps the course from being too punishing for the average golfer (myself included). In fact it’s reasonable to suggest that the gently sloping putting surfaces would be a warmly welcomed respite by most who play here. Their size still makes three-putting a real possibility anyway, so let’s not split hairs.

The Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa is a fine layout that has well and truly earned its reputation for possessing strategic challenge, beauty, and deep, intimidating bunkers. If you’re not driving well, I’d recommend you steer clear until such time as you are. For everyone else, golf here in the summer is absolute bliss…

This review is an edited extract from my Blog titled: An Architect Abroad. The full review can be found by clicking here along with photographs taken of the course. Please also note that my rating of the course here has been done specifically against the other courses which I visited on that trip, many of which rank very highly in the top 100 listed on this website for the United Kingdom. For that reason some ratings of courses may be lower than that given by other reviewers.

Truly superlative! The quality of the design, the condition of the course and the wonderful yet penal bunkers make this a world class venue. I haven't played Sunningdale but have played Loch Lomond, Notts, Wentworth, Ganton and many more, and would rate this the best inland UK course I have experienced. Yes it can be difficult to get to, and all serious golfers should make the pilgrimage. For one of the world's top 100, and well deserved, the green fees are a snip.

Played the Hotchkin course in early October 2014. They were very helpful, we play on the Sunday Salvor program but it rained heavily and they let us play on Thursday. The course was in excellent shape required good driving to avoid the gorse on some holes. I have played Sunningdale and Ganton and think this is the best inland course and great value for the money. Would like to come back and play the other 18 hole course.

Although a nice course its ridiculous to put the Hotchin in the top 100 courses in the world. There are some very good holes and they have made the best of the very flat Lincolnshire land but I always come off the course thinking I have played a lot better courses.

Woodhall Spa Hotchkin is outstanding,make the effort to go,even if it's in the middle of nowhere,(sorry it just feels that way)I have to admit I played it over 20 years ago,no GPS or range finder gadgets back then.And the club didn't allow yardage books,you were expected to know how far you drove the ball and take it from there.. The good old days,ha. Try and make it an overnite trip if need be,it's a must play course,that doesn't break the bank balance