Golf Course Review – Witney Lakes Resort (Witney, Oxfordshire, UK)

Tees  

White = 6675yds, par 71, SSS 71

Yellow = 6375yds, par 71, SSS 70

Red = 5371yds, par 72, SSS 71 

Course Profile

Witney Lakes Resort is located in Witney, Oxfordshire, UK. It is a fairly new resort at just 15 years old and offers an 18 hole golf course, putting and chipping greens, 24 bay covered driving range, gym, pool, spa, restaurant and sports bar. The course plays 6675 yards from the competition white tees and features 5 decent size lakes, which come into play on several holes.

Whitney Lakes is a decent length lakeland course with many attractive feature holes. Before teeing off at the first you can’t help but notice the picturesque finishing hole over a large lake with fountain in the middle right in front of the clubhouse patio. But back to the opening hole, a 420 yard par 4. A fairly gentle opener but if you struggle for length you may feel the need to hit driver (always a bit more pressure on the first hole). 1 bunker guards the fairway and 3 guards your approach to the relatively flat green, which most of the greens are.

The holes that stood out for me were the water holes and the par 3’s. I’ve always been a fan of holes featuring water. I love the difficulty and course-management issues they add. The four par 3’s I also enjoyed, especially the 8^th and 12^th. The 8^th is a 175 yard tee shot, most of which is carry over a lake which happened to be home to some lovely swans, onto one of the more sloped greens on the course. The 12^th is an open par 3 but fairly lengthy at 189 yards from the yellows, and into a heavy wind as I played. It was a good challenge.

The signature hole at Witney has to be the 18^th. 398 yards, downhill with a lake protruding into the fairway and guarding the green. As an out-of-towner, playing the course for the first time, it was at the back of my mind from before I teed off. What club will I play over that final lake? Will I clear that final lake!? With that final approach shot being in view of the clubhouse, I can imagine it playing that little bit harder on competition day with fellow members/opponents watching you. On the windy day I played it, the wind was behind so it played very short and mostly pain free apart from the silly 3 putt!

I enjoyed a great day out at Whitney Lakes. The course was in fantastic condition for this time of year. The course is well kept from tee to green and it was clear to see the ground-keeping staff are plentiful as I bumped into a fair few on my way round. I feel I wasted an opportunity to enjoy the rest of the facilities, like the sports bar, restaurant, gym and spa. But I needed to beat traffic.

I did however have extra time before my round to use the range and practice greens. I felt a bit cheated by the ball dispenser at the range. It refused to take my 3^rd pound coin for 50 balls so hit “vend” and got around 25 balls. Good range though with lots of targets, new mats and half decent balls. I made my way to the putting and chipping greens before heading out. The 2 tear putting green was deceptively borrowed which unfortunately made the other 18 greens seem a little dull. I only played the course once so simply haven’t seen enough of the greens to make a big criticism, but almost every putt I had was either dead straight or just off the edge of the hole.

Conclusion

Overall Whitney Lakes is a great value golf course and an enjoyable day out. I would recommend this to any skill level player. Higher handicappers will find themselves dealing with some cleverly placed fairway bunkers. Lower handicappers will have to think carefully about when to attack and when to play safe.

Course Map from Witney Lakes Resort.