Woodhall Spa Golf Club is a private

golf club A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Wood (golf), Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; iron (golf), irons, the most versatile class ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, that is located to the north of

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. The club was founded in 1891. In 1995 the club was purchased by the

English Golf Union England Golf is the governing body for male and female amateur golf in England. It represents over 1,900 golf clubs with over 740,000 members and is affiliated to The R&A, the joint global governing body of golf. It was formed in 2012 as a merg ...

, who have since relocated their headquarters onto the site, which is now known as The National Golf Centre. Woodhall Spa has two

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

s. The original course, now known as ‘The Hotchkin’, which opened in 1905 and was originally laid out by

Harry Vardon Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the ...

before being redesigned by

Stafford Vere Hotchkin Colonel Stafford Vere Hotchkin (1876 – 8 August 1953) was an English landowner, soldier, High Sheriff of Rutland and briefly a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament. He was the only son of Thomas John Stafford Hotchkin of ...

in the 1920s, and ‘The Bracken’, designed by

Donald Steel Donald Maclennan Arklay Steel (born 23 August 1937 in Hillingdon, Middlesex) is a former golfer and is a noted golf course designer, as well as being a writer and journalist. Educated at Fettes College and Christ's College, Cambridge, he has des ...

which opened in 1998. The club has hosted many prestigious amateur championships including the

English Amateur The English Amateur is the national amateur match play golf championship of England. It has been played annually since 1925 (except for war years) and is organised by England Golf. The English Men's Amateur Championship is contested through t ...

and the

Brabazon Trophy The English Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy is the national amateur stroke play golf championship in England (although entry is open to overseas golfers). It has been played annually since 1947 and is organised ...

on several occasions.

History

Golf started at

in 1890 when a nine-hole course opened for play. The club was founded in the following year. In 1902 landowner and member,

, offered an expanse of land off Horncastle Road for the building of an 18-hole golf course. The course remains on this site today.

was employed to design the course. The official opening took place on 30 June 1905 and included an exhibition match between Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor.

Harry Colt Henry Shapland "Harry" Colt (4 August 1869 – 21 November 1951) was a golf course architect born in Highgate, England. He worked predominantly with Charles Alison, John Morrison, and Alister MacKenzie, in 1928 forming Colt, Alison & Morrison ...

redesigned the course between 1911 and 1914. In 1919, following a distinguished military career during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Colonel Stafford Vere Hotchkin MC returned and took over the running of the club. He was an accomplished golf course architect in his own right and remodelled many of the holes during the 1920s adding seventeen new greens. Only one of the original greens was retained (the 6th) but this was approached from a different direction. The course as it stands today remains largely his original design. Following his death in 1953 his son

Neil Hotchkin Neil Stafford Hotchkin (4 February 1914 – 6 February 2004) was an English first-class cricketer active 1934–48 who played for Cambridge University and Middlesex. He was born and died in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, where his family had develo ...

continued to run the course as a close-knit private members club where professionals had to be invited to play. He was a faithful supporter of amateur golf and served as President of the

in 1972. He resided at Womersley House, a large detached property off Horncastle Road adjacent to the third tee. Neil Hotchkin wished to protect and secure the future of the club as a home for amateur golf. In 1995 he sold the club and course to the English Golf Union. The EGU built a second 18-hole course (‘The Bracken’) which opened for play in 1998. The original course was then renamed ‘The Hotchkin’.

The Hotchkin Course

The course is set in

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

with sandy subsoil, extensive swathes of heather and mixed foliage including birch and pine. It is generally regarded as one of the finest inland golf courses in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. The Hotchkin is renowned for its well placed deep bunkers. The bunkers surrounding the greens at the fourth and twelfth holes are especially cavernous.

Awards and Acclaim

The Hotchkin course is often included in rankings of the best golf courses in the world. ''

Golf Magazine ''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the world' ...

'' and ''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...

'' both rank the Hotchkin course as one of the top 100 courses in the world. ''

'' ranked the Hotchkin course as 61st best in the world in its rankings for 2021-22.

Tony Jacklin Anthony Jacklin CBE (born 7 July 1944) is a retired English golfer. He was the most successful British player of his generation, winning two major championships, the 1969 Open Championship and the 1970 U.S. Open. He was also Ryder Cup captain ...

's formative years were spent in Lincolnshire and although he often played the Hotchkin course, both as an amateur and professional golfer, he never managed to score better than 70. Jacklin once told his friend

Tom Weiskopf Thomas Daniel Weiskopf (November 9, 1942 – August 20, 2022) was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s. He won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982, inclu ...

that at the outset of his golfing career he had three specific ambitions: "To win the

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

, to win the US Open and to break 70 at Woodhall Spa". Jacklin then said "Two out of three ain't bad!" Weiskopf went on to become a highly regarded golf course designer and later admitted he always tried to incorporate aspects of the Hotchkin course into his own designs. "Tony Jacklin took me there once and I fell in love with the place. Now when I'm designing a course I try to remember something subtle from Woodhall, the fold of the land, the bunkering – even the fact that you can always see the top of the flagstick. There’s a bit of Woodhall Spa in every course I build". In 1972 the golfing correspondent David Davies reflected: "Give several golfers seven days to live and the opportunity to play, for the last time, seven difficult golf courses in that week, and it is fairly safe to say that Woodhall Spa would be on the list of ones who have played it. It is one of those courses that captivates instantly, and, better, improves with acquaintance. It is a course of great beauty and one of the finest tests of the game in the British Isles". It is a favourite course of Mark James, who won the

Championship when it was held at the club in 1974.

References

External links

* Golf clubs and courses in Lincolnshire Sports venues completed in 1891 Golf clubs and courses designed by Harry Vardon 1891 establishments in England {{England-golfcourse-stub