2 /5 Adam Roberts: We had a two-day golf break booked at the beginning of March 2026, playing both the East and West courses with an overnight stay. To be fair, we’ve had one of the wettest starts to the year in a long time. However, there is no way either course should have been open for play.
The East course was essentially a bog. Almost every fairway shot plugged deep into the mud, meaning what should have been a safe shot often took ages to find—if you could find it at all. Because the ground was so wet, the fairways clearly hadn’t been mown, so you were hitting out of grass that felt more like first or even second cut. On top of that, the entire course was covered in worm casts, making it extremely difficult to strike the ball cleanly and leaving you covered in mud more often than not.
Unfortunately, the West course was no better. We lost countless balls simply because they plugged in the fairways. Saying the ground was saturated doesn’t really do it justice—the playing conditions were truly awful. My local course would almost certainly have been closed if the ground conditions had been anything like that.
The hotel itself was nice enough, but nothing special—no better than a Premier Inn or Travelodge. The bar prices were also quite shocking. Dinner was included as a three-course meal, but I’ve honestly had better food at a local pub chain. If you wanted a steak, there was also a £20 surcharge on top of your food bill.
Overall, it was quite a disappointing experience. Given the state of the courses, they really should have waited for the conditions to improve before allowing people to play.
