Woburn (Duchess')

The Duchess’ course starts off in scintillating fashion with a couple of absorbing holes and has a much better and compelling routing than the Duke’s. The course is also slightly more undulating as well as being shorter in length.

Many also say it’s much tighter but, whilst it possibly is a little bit, I didn’t think this was too noticeable. That said it’s still a course where you must keep your ball in play! The greens are certainly smaller too and, with the exception of a couple, much flatter.

The par four opener has a particularly narrow fairway that starts to gradually tumble down approximately 150 yards short of the green before rising back up steeply to the ‘dance floor’ at the same level as most of the fairway. The par three second has the most wonderful green setting, deeply seated amongst tall pines, with a narrow and twisting putting surface protected by three bunkers.

The remainder of the course, also a par 72, doesn’t quite live up to this early billing but there are many more fine holes to come, especially amongst the closing stretch. Indeed I was very impressed with the final third of the course which has a lovely mix of holes and requires both length and finesse. The 11th and 12th also work nicely together and whilst not stand-out holes play very well.

The Duchess’ may live in the shadow of its more famous siblings, and is often regarded as the little sister of the group, but please don’t think this isn’t good quality golf for one minute.

As somebody who loves their links golf, and usually tends to shy away from heavily watered courses with pristine carpets for fairways, Woburn is the polar opposite of my preferred type of golf and isn’t somewhere I should logically enjoy. But I did and that speaks volumes for the place. To be critical, because of the softer nature of the course, you don’t quite have to use your imagination on shots around the green as much as you do at seaside and top heathland courses but this actually made a refreshing change for me.

As far as inland golf goes Woburn is very close to the pinnacle; a fine English venue and certainly a worthy match for the three courses at the more famous Wentworth. It's a shame there isn't more variance in the three courses at this impressive 54-hole facility but that is more to do with the similar terrain and setting than anything else.

Read the review of Woburn (Marquess) here.

Read the review of Woburn (Duke's') here.