Woburn, lovely Woburn

My last golfing stop took me amongst the pines in leafy Bedfordshire to the glorious Woburn Golf Club.

Woburn boasts three brilliant golf courses, all of which have held large events. It was my pleasure to play the Dukes course (home to the Seniors European Tour Event).

The course is wonderful as it weaves its way amongst the dominating Pine Trees. All three golf courses give you a great feeling of isolation as you battle the tight fairways and lightning greens. The Dukes (despite a dousing of rain) was in great nick.

We came to the third hole and one of my all time favourite par 3's - just 128 yards with a 100 foot drop to the green - judging clubs is tough. A half punched 9 Iron saw my ball pitch pin high about 8 feet away, but the vicious green left me 30 feet. Woburn is a lot like that with great greens and hollows to swallow up the ball.

The other two courses at Woburn The Duchess and Marquess are superb, but I'll give you the low down later in the year........

Playing in a Pro Am!

The wonderful people at Vilamoura Golf, have kindly extended an invitation to play in there pro am team at the Marriott Worsley Park event in May. The event is part of the Challenge Tour, one level down from the European Tour, but should still be slightly nerve wracking!!

Worsley is supposed to be a good track, but I'll update you on what I think after my virginity is broken.

Hanbury Manor

I receive numerous invites to play different courses, most which I kindly decline (so that I actually do some work for most of the week. However when an invite for a corporate golf day at Hanbury Manor dropped on my desk, I immediately accepted.



I've played Hanbury three times now. I absolutely love the course. It is always really well kept and can pride itself on very good greens.



The front and the back nine are very different.



The first is a driveable par 4 with a huge hollow protecting a raised and undulating green which is a real 3 putter. The second is a short and tempting Par5 but a shallow green is protected by a lake so gives a real risk reward.



the Par 4 8th is stroke index 1. A long sweeping par 4 with a pond protecting a tilted green.



The back nine is good, two short but tricky par 3's and with par 4's using the water cleverly it has some great features.



My favourite is another shortish Par 5 narrowing to an approach shot over water to a 2 tiered green. I won longest drive there on the day (over 300 yards - very good for me!!!!).







Hanbury's hotel by Marriott is a good 5 star and the whole complex is a very good and different offering to the Grove.