Hockley – Golf Course Review

Golfer View Rating: 60%

“Top 100” Ranking: 7th (Hampshire)

Summary

A free-draining downland course set on an exposed hilltop above the M3, Hockley offers attractive views, a handful of memorable holes and some interesting strategic options around its elevated greens and sloping terrain. While there are enjoyable highlights, too many straightforward holes lack meaningful hazards or strategic depth, leaving the overall experience slightly underwhelming compared with the stronger downland courses nearby.

Golfer’s Tips

• Practice facilities, including grass range and dedicated pitching area, are first rate and well worth spending time on if timings allow.
• For a hilly course with a few blind tee shots, including the short sixth and par five fourteenth, there is a lack of marker posts – do pick your starting line carefully using the trees dotted around the course.

Signature Holes

• 12th – a great little downhill par three, playing to a plateau green with a sharp drop off right with a fine view across woodland beyond.
• 15th – playing down from the top corner of the course, a shorter par four but playing into the prevailing wind. The tee shot only needs to avoid one fairway bunker left, but the approach is an excellent, taxing shot that requires navigation of a ditch short and bunker short right guarding the approach from the right-sided slope.

Review:

Just south of Winchester on the chalky downland sitting above the M3, Hockley Golf Club is a free-draining hilltop course whose challenge is its exposure to the elements.

The initial handful of holes work their way up the hill, and after a reasonably gentle opener playing up to a generous fairway with banks sloping down from either flank, the second is a longer, far more interesting hole with a tee shot that turns right to left and up to the green.

Thereafter are a couple of further par fours, with the front nine also including two relatively unspectacular par threes playing uphill with limited intrigue beyond some front greenside bunkers.

Seemingly out of nowhere comes the twelfth, which is a beautiful short par three playing from an elevated tee box down to a plateau green perched on the side of a hill, with picturesque woodland beyond.

There are a couple of holes that present real strategic options on the basis of short length but with dotted bunkers and narrowing fairways, including thirteen playing straight up the hill from the far corner of the property, but there are too many open par 4s with little danger or nuance. Perhaps playing in firm, fast Summer conditions would increase the thought required when standing on the tee box.

The approach shot into fifteen is a highlight – another plateau green with ground that kicks in from the right towards a valley dropping off to the left. There is also a sharp ditch running across the front, which gives you real cause for thought with shot selection on a relatively short shot in.

Following the difficult long par 3 sixteenth played into the prevailing wind, the approach shot into the tabletop 17th green begins the sharp descent back down the hill and towards the clubhouse, which is completed by a snaking downhill par five finisher.

Hockley is an enjoyable if not slightly underwhelming course to play – there are certainly a couple of highlights, and a couple of holes that present some interesting strategic options, but overall there are perhaps too many straight forward holes with limited danger for errant shots. For downland courses that present a more interesting test I would sooner hop across the Wiltshire border to Tidworth Garrison or High Post.

https://www.hockleygolfclub.com

Other nearby courses:

• Stoneham – Golf Course Review
• Blackmoor – Golf Course Review
• North Hants – Golf Course Review
• Hayling – Golf Course Review

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