Bearwood Road, Sindlesham,
Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 4SJ
Office
+44 (0)118 979 7900Fax
+44 (0)118 979 2911Website
Visit websiteGolf pro
Mike Shrieve (Director of Golf)The Course:
18 holes. Parkland-heathland course. Gently undulating terrain - a few slopes to climb.
Surroundings:
Woodland and lakes (including Bear Wood Lake).
Designer:
Martin Hawtree
51.410114
-0.875502
5 miles SE of Reading
From the M4 motorway, just south-east of Reading, take exit 10 and join the A329(M) direction Reading. Take the first exit off the A329(M), direction A329 / Winnersh / Earley. At roundabout turn right into Wharfedale Road. After 250 yards bear left at next roundabout. After 200 yards go through centre of large roundabout (going through two sets of traffic lights) and follow the B3270 (Lower Early Way N), direction The Moat House. After o.5 miles at next roundabout, turn left onto Mill Lane, direction Sindlesham Mill / Nirvana Spa (drive past Moat House on the left). At next roundabout, go straight over into New Road, direction Barkham. After 250 yards turn right into Bearwood Road. Drive past the Walter Arms pub and then church, and look for sign to Bearwood Lakes, on your right.
Bearwood Lakes Golf Course is yet another in an excellent array of layouts occupying an extensive heathland tract to the southwest of London. With a backdrop of mature oak, lime, beech and Scots pine, the course's undulating terrain rolls along, offering picturesque views of the Bearwood Estate and Bear Wood Lake itself.
This well-presented, quiet and natural layout, combines lakeside and parkland holes, and some that hint at a heathland persona (although lacking the usual heather and gorse trim). In abundance, is the pleasing interplay of many tree varieties, undulating fairways, wispy rough and frequent stylish bunkering. Three natural lakes totalling 50 acres, bring water into play on six of the holes, much of this water appearing on the "outer" back-nine loop.
If not water-lined, then many fairways are played through avenues of trees, while others occupy more open terrain, where heather and long grassy rough are definitely worth avoiding. The relatively open aspect as you look out from the clubhouse offers a scenic precursor of what's to come on this spaciously laid out course.
With much stylish bunkering around the course, and excellent quality, large and sloping greens to contend with, there's plenty to factor-in to your course management, if you are hoping to shoot net par or better.
Pick of the holes: the slightly downhill par-4 13th and water-flanked par-3 14th offer up the best and most scenic of the lakeside holes.
Limited access: this private course is generally playable only by members and their invited guests.
Private club; guests may only play if hosted by a member.
Players generally walk this course.
Good
Between 1890 and 1910, as the game of golf rapidly developed throughout Britain and Ireland, land was eagerly sought for the creation of many new golf courses. The fast-draining, gently undulating, open heathland, found in Surrey and Berkshire, was felt to be ideal terrain for the creation of golf courses to serve the nation's capital. The likes of Sunningdale, Woking, West Hill, Worplesdon, Swinley Forest, New Zealand, St George's Hill and Walton Heath, were all established in these early days.
Bearwood Lakes is a more recent arrival, but it carries the hallmarks of the finest courses established on the "heaths" to the south-west of London. Like its many relatives, the gently undulating terrain and fast-draining soil is home to a profusion of heather, rhododendrons, birch and pine trees.
The distinctive and rather grand redbrick building, seen across the lake at the par-3 14th, is Reddam House School, an elite private boarding school. Formerly known as the Royal Merchant Navy School, and then Bearwood College, the school occupies the Bearwood Mansion, built in the mid-1850s as one of the largest Victorian country houses in England.
England's 80th best course (Golf World, 2025).
Britain & Ireland's 176th best course (Golf World, 2025).
Mill Lane, Sindlesham, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 5DF
+44 (0)118 949 9988
Visit websiteOverlooking the river Loddon, the 100-room Best Western Reading Moat House successfully combines the individual elegance of a modern hotel with the charm of a once productive 19th century mill house.
No
Bearwood Lakes
East Berkshire; North Hants; Camberley Heath; The Berkshire; Swinley Forest; Sunningdale; Wentworth; Stoke Park; Temple.
Milton Road, Wokingham, Berkshire RG40 5QG
+44 (0)118 978 9912
Visit websiteCantley House Hotel is a spacious 36 bedroom Victorian country house hotel set in acres of beautiful Berkshire parkland. Formerly the home of the Marquis of Ormonde, the mansion was built in 1880 and originally converted with great care into a Hotel in 1983.
No
Bearwood Lakes; East Berkshire
North Hants; Camberley Heath; The Berkshire; Swinley Forest; Sunningdale; Wentworth; Woking; Worplesdon; West Hill; Foxhills; Queenwood; New Zealand; Stoke Park; Temple.
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