Woking – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• No practice range, just a net to get warmed up, so perhaps the relatively gentle first can be used to get your swing in order.
• There are many spots not to miss across this strategic course, but long off the back of the first green is an absolute no-go – a long and steep drop-off awaits.
• The long and challenging par 4 9th is a very strong uphill par 4 that sharply turns left around a copse of trees. Take the corner on with your tee shot and it can result in significant shortening of the hole, but the penalty for catching the trees and surrounding heather is severe.

Signature Holes

• 2nd – a superb long par 3, but a jolt to the system after the gentle first. Playing down and up to a green perched on a hill with a steep bank right and heather left. Par is excellent here.
• 6th – a beautiful classical heathland par 4. Playing from a tiered tee box to a pristine fairway beyond vibrant purple heather, with cleverly-placed bunkers left and right. The green is friendlier than others but requires a shot over a brook first.

Review:

Another Surrey heathland treat, but Woking is anything but run-of-the-mill – a wonderful club with a beautifully mature course featuring excellent course design and some sensational greens.

Woking is a paradise for the strategic player that enjoys a bit of golfing history. Playing surfaces are among the most pristine encountered, and they meander through tall pine trees and purple heather with a series of holes that need to be thought through rather than attempting to bully.

The first hole presents a nice wide fairway on a short par 4, albeit with the need for good clubbing on the approach due to a severe off the back, but the long par 3 second and sweeping par 4 third soon provide holes that are challenging and picturesque in equal measure.

The 4th and 5th are relatively straight-forward par 4s, the former with a nod to golfing history with the first ever fairway bunker seen on an inland course, but it is the 6th which really stands out – a wonderful design played from an elevated tee, with a striped fairway dissecting purple heather which pinches with bunkers on driving distance, forcing the consideration of a lay-up but longer approach to a green with brook in front.

The middle section is perhaps the most challenging, and the ninth in particular is a very strong hole. The tee shot ideally circumvents a left copse of trees around which the fairway banks sharply, but even then you are left with a very long uphill approach to another very undulating green.

Woking does possess some of the quickest and most eye-watering greens that include spots that you simply cannot go and expect to two-putt. The tiered surface on the doglegging 12th is a fine example of this – the tee shot on S.I. 2 feels relatively simple, and length achievable, but the defence is the accuracy with which an approach shot must be hit to find the right area.

14 and 15 are the only par 5s and come in succession, a quirk that could be solved by making the 14th the finishing hole, which would make sense with the green sitting just off the veranda outside the clubhouse, making for superb viewing for the nearby onlookers.

That being said, the finish at Woking is a decent one. The penultimate hole is an attractive longer par 4, and the 18th finishes to the right of the beautiful old clubhouse, a short par 4 which banks around a pond on the right extreme, with yet another large and severely-sloped green to pick your spot on before completion of a terrific loop.

You are spoiled for choice in this Surrey locale, but Woking is an absolute treat. A proper club with a beautiful yet tricky course in wonderful condition.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 7th (Surrey), 28th (England), 66th (GB & I)
• Golfer View Rating: 85%

https://www.wokinggolfclub.co.uk

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