page_title: Woodhall Spa Golf Club
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Woodhall Spa Golf Club / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Layout Of Woodhall Spa Golf Course Circa 1936
context_page_description: Woodhall Spa Golf Club is a private golf club in England, that is located to the north of Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. The club was founded in 1891. In 1995 the club was purchased by the English Golf Union, who have since relocated their headquarters onto the site, which is now known as The National Golf Centre.
  Woodhall Spa has two golf courses. The original course, now known as ‘The Hotchkin’, which opened in 1905 and was originally laid out by Harry Vardon before being redesigned by Stafford Vere Hotchkin in the 1920s, and ‘The Bracken’, designed by Donald Steel which opened in 1998. The club has hosted many prestigious amateur championships including the English Amateur and the Brabazon Trophy on several occasions.
context_section_description: Golf started at Woodhall Spa in 1890 when a nine-hole course opened for play. The club was founded in the following year. In 1902 landowner and member, Stafford Vere Hotchkin, offered an expanse of land off Horncastle Road for the building of an 18-hole golf course. The course remains on this site today. Harry Vardon was employed to design the course. The official opening took place on 30 June 1905 and included an exhibition match between Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor.
  Harry Colt redesigned the course between 1911 and 1914. 
  In 1919, following a distinguished military career during the First World War, Colonel Stafford Vere Hotchkin MC returned and took over the running of the club. He was an accomplished golf course architect in his own right and remodelled many of the holes during the 1920s adding seventeen new greens. Only one of the original greens was retained (the 6th) but this was approached from a different direction. The course as it stands today remains largely his original design. 
  Following his death in 1953 his son Neil Hotchkin continued to run the course as a close-knit private members club where professionals had to be invited to play. He was a faithful supporter of amateur golf and served as President of the English Golf Union in 1972. He lived in a large detached property off Horncastle Road adjacent to the third tee. 
  Neil Hotchkin wished to protect and secure the future of the club as a home for amateur golf. In 1995 he sold the club and course to the English Golf Union. The EGU built a second 18-hole course (‘The Bracken’) which opened for play in 1998. The original course was then renamed ‘The Hotchkin’.
caption: Course layout circa 1936
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