Remedy Oak – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• Driver is the play more than anticipated, especially when not in the height of the Summer. Despite the tall Woburn-esque pines, the fairways are generous and often broader than they first appear, so the reasonable length at Remedy Oak is offset by an ability to tee it high and let it fly.
• The 18th is an interesting finisher, quite awkward and fiddly, and not one to relax over. The tee shot should be aimed for the centre of the bunker at the end of the fairway, c.210 yards and left-centre will find a flat lie, giving you the best chance of one more decent strike to find the green beyond the foreboding lake in front.

Signature Holes

• 4th – a fine long par 3 that plays downhill into a green set amongst beautiful woodland, with lush Dorset countryside beyond.
• 15th – a superb par 5. A fine driving hole that benefits from the rolling terrain, with yet another approach over water into an attractive green complex – potential risk-reward if your drive is advanced far enough and the wind direction is kind.

Review:

The most exclusive golf club south of the Home Counties, though Remedy Oak is more than just a soulless corporate venue, this is a proper course with real interest.

The biggest compliment you can pay to Remedy Oak, and perhaps the biggest surprise, is that this does not feel like just a twenty year old golf club, the excellent surfaces meandering through tall, mature forest and parkland feel like it has been here for many years longer.

Starting with a fine opening hole, which is neither a ‘gentle handshake’ nor too great a test, turning right and up the hill to an excellently framed green, the quality of the course really hits you with the excellent par 5 second and then a superb long par 3 at number four, seemingly carved into mature woodland beneath the raised tee complex.

It is clear that a great deal of thought and preparation has gone into making Remedy Oak an excellent and interesting golf course. The holes are reasonably diverse, there is a good mix of hole lengths which is particularly apparent on the back nine, and there are many wonderfully-manicured water features in front of back-to-front sloping greens throughout that threaten the under-struck shot.

There is a strong section to finish the front nine, which itself is a mini-loop of three holes that start and end near the clubhouse. The 7th is a challenging par 4 that doglegs hard right with the tee shot to played alongside a brook with your approach shot then over it, the 8th is a very attractive and slightly simpler short par 4, and the nine finishes with a very attractive par 3 played over a valley, with the green sitting between two large clumps of trees with the clubhouse beyond.

The back nine starts with another hole shaped left to right, which feels quite common at Remedy, but then eleven is another knock out par 3 that plays down to a green that sits Augusta-like with pond front right and tall pines beyond.

Twelve and thirteen are a little more straight forward, but then the back nine finds its stride with fourteen bringing a challenging but wonderfully shaped downhill par 4, snaking around the trees into a diagonal green complex, and then fifteen is just a wonderful par 5 that rolls along and around the undulating ground, with another excellent green that sits proudly beyond water in a manner and shape not dissimilar to the finishing hole at Wentworth West.

Following the shorter par 4 sixteenth and final par 5 at seventeen, then there is the fiddly and challenging finishing hole to contend with. The tee shot fires out between trees and bushes, heading for a bunker at the far end of the fairway, but then a sharp turn right sees the descent down to the final green with yet another large lake in front.

Remedy Oak surprised me, it blends exclusivity and the American golfing complex model with excellent design and real playability. Not only is this worthy of its top 100 spot and consideration among Dorset’s other strong course offerings, but one could see it rising further as the drainage measures bed in and the general quality continues to mature.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 56th (England), 4th (Dorset)
• Golfer View Rating: 79%

https://www.remedyoak.com/

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