Review Rating - Silver

View of the hotel and clubhouse the practice area.

The parkland layout is accompanied by the Gothic hotel & clubhouse that was completed in 1772, both overlooked by Donnington Castle. The layout is a stern test for most golfers with a good selection of tees ensuring that it is playable for everyone. The higher ground of the front nine provides great views but leaves you exposed to the elements, while the back nine requires negotiating the tree lined fairways and water features.

The opening hole requires a little caution as it is a blind drive with the fairway dropping away quite steeply, making the bunker easily drivable. The narrow fairway of the second needs accuracy and well placed shots with no less than six bunkers along the way to the green, while the two tier green of the third needs a well judged approach.

View back down the 7th.

You need to drive well from the fourth tee to carry the bunkers at the start of the fairway, then a well placed approach is needed to carry the bunkers before the green, a par is a great score here. The fifth is longer than it looks so make sure you take enough club and with the contoured green you could be left with a tricky putt. The water on the sixth does not really come into play from the tee and there is a good chance of a birdie here if you can avoid the bunkers.

Make sure you check for pin position on the two tier green seventh and you need a good drive on the eighth to position for the approach to a narrow target. You will have a good chance of finishing the back nine with a birdie by clearing the bunkers from the tee to set up a short approach.

View of Donnington Castle from the 13th tee.

The back nine starts with the longest hole on the course which will require three solid shots to reach the green while a water hazard on the eleventh will swallow any approaches that come up short. This is followed by another scenic hole that requires a drive between the trees and bunker to leave a short approach over the road to a raised green. Try to cut the corner on the thirteenth to leave a good chance of a birdie but you need to avoid the bunkers and trees.

The fourteenth has four well positioned bunkers to avoid from the tee along with a water hazard to the right of the green. Depending on pin position the fifteenth can be quite a tough hole, positioned at the back of the green will require you to carry the bunker, a tough hole when the wind is up. The sixteenth is a standard par 4 dogleg followed by a tough long par 3 to a raised green. The closing hole needs a good drive to avoid the fairway bunkers and a well struck approach to negotiate the bunker and water hazard in front of the green.

View of the drive from the 12th tee.

The fairways and greens here are superb, we were told that they hardly ever have any temporary greens during the winter and they certainly played well on our visit.

Favourite Hole

Hole 8: 463 yard par 4.

This is one tough par 4, the fairway slopes dramatically downhill as well as from left to right, out of bounds and a fairway bunker await on the left. A large bunker sits just off to the right of the green and the land falls away to the left.