The Welcombe Hotel

The Welcombe Hotel provides an excellent Stay & Play opportunity, just a mile out of town from William Shakespear's birthplace in the centre of Stratford. The golf course, laid out in the grounds of a sumptuous stately mansion (now hotel), offers many undulating and stylishly crafted golf holes. From the layout's higher elevations you will enjoy wonderful views over the surrounding Warwickshire countryside.

Exuding a quintessentially English parkland feel, the course contains many interesting and challenging holes. Good quality bunkering and occasional water hazards play their full part, as do almost continuous elevation changes. Perhaps not surprisingly the undulating terrain throws up a few blind tee shots, and a couple of blind approaches, should you be out of position from the tee.

Big hitters will love the risk-reward short par-4 5th, with a blind shot required up and over trees and around the hole's right to left dogleg. Toughest of the blind drives comes at the prodigiously downhill par-4 12th (Poacher's Drop). At this gently doglegging hole, "nailing" your line over a marker post is vital.

As your round hits the closing stretch, the par-5 16th brings you uphill for a close inspection of the mansion and its geometrically laid out gardens. The short par-4 17th provides a possible birdie opportunity, before the par-5 18th brings you cascading downhill to the final well-bunkered green.

The course is generally well-maintained and presented, with sharp-edged bunkering and modest mounding creating an attractive look to the green surrounds. Hitting the generally smallish greens will test you approach skills, while putting on them is a question of reading the many subtle breaks and borrows. A little traffic noise creeps in at two roadside holes (the par-5 1st and par-4 13th), but certainly nothing to detract from the charms and challenges of this popular parkland layout.