Tadmarton Heath Golf Club
Proper heathland golf in the Cotswolds: gorse, heather and sandy soil, with a layout worthy of the Surrey heaths.
Proper heathland golf in the Cotswolds: gorse, heather and sandy soil, with a layout worthy of the Surrey heaths.
If any of us plays golf, Tadmarton Heath is the course we point people towards first. It sits above the village of Wigginton, a little south-west of Banbury, and it is that genuinely rare thing in this part of the world: an inland heathland. Most courses around here are parkland or downland laid over Cotswold clay, and they play very differently as the seasons turn. Tadmarton drains through sandy subsoil, so it stays firm and true when the fields either side of the lane are waterlogged. Come the wet months, when clubs nearer Chipping Norton are plugging balls in soft rough, the fairways here are still running fast.
The club opened in October 1922, and the eighteen-hole layout has the quiet, settled confidence that comes with a century of play. It measures a little over six thousand yards to a par of sixty-nine, which sounds modest until the gorse and heather start doing their work. This is not a course that beats you with length; it asks you to think, to keep the ball in play, and to respect the yellow banks of gorse that punish anything loose. We like it precisely because it rewards the shorter, straighter game rather than raw power. On a bright morning the drive out from the cottage, roughly twenty minutes through Ledwell and up towards Swerford and Hook Norton, is one of the nicer country runs you will do before breakfast.
Tadmarton is a traditional members' club, but a welcoming one, and it takes visitors happily. As a general rule visitors play on weekdays, Monday to Friday outside public holidays, while anyone playing as the guest of a member is welcome any day. Tee times are booked online through the club in advance rather than turning up on spec, so it is worth sorting your slot a few days ahead, especially in summer. The dress code has been relaxed in recent years but it still expects the usual golf-club sense: smart, tidy, no jeans on the course. Green fees change with the season, so check the current rate on the club's own site before you go rather than trusting anything you read second-hand.
The turf is the thing people remember. Because of the free-draining ground the greens hold their pace and the fairways run all year, which is why Tadmarton has a reputation well above its size and its green fee. It regularly appears on lists of the best value courses in Britain and Ireland, and once you have played it you understand why: the condition is on a level with places that charge two or three times as much. The gorse is genuinely penal, so it is a course that flatters honest, controlled golf, and there is real satisfaction in playing your way round rather than muscling it. After the round the clubhouse is exactly what you want, no fuss, a good plate of food and a pint, and nobody asking where you happen to be a member.
It also makes a natural half-day out from the cottage. One of us can play a morning round while the rest walk the villages or head into Chipping Norton, and everyone reconvenes for lunch. If you want a second course to pair it with over a long weekend, The Wychwood Golf Club near Milton-under-Wychwood is the obvious companion, about twenty-five minutes the other side of the cottage, and gives you a parkland contrast to Tadmarton's heath.
“Tadmarton caught me off guard. You don't expect heathland golf out here, but it's genuinely special. The condition of the greens and the quality of the turf are on a level with courses that charge three times the green fee.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.