Going for Golf

Woodhall Spa

A colleague of mine once shamefully referred to Lincolnshire as something of a “golfing backwater”. While curious, it was a bizarre, unfortunate and unfair label for a county blessed with a wide range of quality courses as big as befits the second largest land mass on our fair isle.

For it has so much more to offer than merely being the birthplace of the redoubtable Baroness Thatcher, the place where it all began for poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and home to the legendary Dambusters during World War II.

As I said, it has golf too, quality golf at that. It has variety. And lots of it. Parkland pleasure awaits at the likes of Blankney, Sleaford, Louth and Boston; Elsham to the north is a wooded wonder; Belton Woods to the south has developed into a prestige resort course; and the coastal gems of North Shore, Seacroft and Sandilands offer the mighty challenge that only links golf presents.

But the grandest of them all – the jewel in the crown, if you will – is Woodhall Spa, home of the English Golf Union no less and a second home to some of the country’s finest young golfing talent. And it’s the place the EGU calls home, and the sporting heartbeat for the country’s up-and-coming young golfing lions, for good reason. Not only does Woodhall Spa boast one of the best inland golf courses in the world, according to the respected top echelons of the golfing press around the globe – and a second set of 18 holes which provide a fine example of a typical English parkland course in its own right – but it boasts training facilities which are second to none.

Created on 3.7 acres in 1995 and funded by the EGU, the ever-evolving and extensive training facilities at Woodhall Spa have helped shape the progress of leading tour professionals such as Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Nick Dougherty. So meeting the intense training and practice needs of the big names of tomorrow is essential – and the EGU and Woodhall Spa are easily up to the challenge. An 18-bay floodlit driving range complete with a bank of devilishly placed trees to hone shot shaping; one large, flat practice putting green and eight target greens to perfect the short game; and even a practice pot bunker which would seem to be more at home in East Lothian than eastern England, bear testament to that.

And such is the dedication and attention to detail of the team at the EGU and its 19 greenkeepers who maintain the facilities that different grades of sand are even used in the practice bunkers to ready the young golfers for any eventuality. But the Woodhall Spa experience is not all about the Westwoods, Donalds and Roses of this world – far from it, despite being overseen by director of operations Richard Latham, who at 50 proudly maintains a handicap of +1 and who once briefly led the Open at Royal St George’s. It’s a Mecca for individual club golfers, for societies, and even for the RAF’s scratch team.

And it’s the reputation of the famous Hotchkin course in particular which draws them in. And rightly so, the heathland cracker which dates back to 1905 having recently been named top course in the UK by none other than Golf World magazine to add to myriad other accolades bestowed upon it over the years. A regular in ‘Top 10’ course lists, The Hotchkin is a real class act – yet it couldn’t be more different from its much younger brother the Bracken Course, which wasn’t created until 1998, despite sharing the same plot of land.

The holes on the Hotchkin, which was opened in grand style at the beginning of the last century with a match involving four former Open champions which appropriately set the tone, are fraught with danger from tee to green, with large expanses of clingy heather, cavernous bunkers and tight, tree-lined fairways making it a daunting proposition for the faint-hearted from start to finish. Flattish, innocuous-looking greens provide the obvious relief on a seemingly relentless course.

Curiously, for the Bracken the opposite is largely said to be true, with bigger landing areas off the tee supposedly allowing a bit more room for error; approach shots are meant to be a touch easier, and the greens more challenging. The latter is certainly true, but anyone expecting an easy ride on the Bracken is in for a rude awakening, particularly as the round progresses. Water, trees, well-placed bunkers and tough greens will see to that. But perhaps the real draw for golfers to Woodhall Spa is the fact that the courses are so different.

Package deals, usually involving one or two nights in one of four hotels in or around the charming town of Woodhall Spa, offer quality accommodation and the chance to experience both golf courses. The Woodhall Spa Hotel and The Petwood are both based in the town, the Admiral Rodney Hotel is in the nearby town of Horncastle, and the Brackenborough Arms Hotel is up on the scenic Lincolnshire Wolds in Louth.

One thing’s for sure, whether you decide to play an individual round on The Hotchkin, 18 holes on The Bracken, or stay for a night or two and take in both courses, you’ll be mightily glad you did! A golfing backwater? I think not.