Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Beautiful course with some great views and a variety of interesting holes. A tough challenge off the back tees and really hard when the wind blows.
Course in fantastic condition with true fast greens.
New clubhouse amazing with great facilities and club shop. Without doubt one of the best in the area now.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

This is one of my favourite courses in the south East. In my opinion it compares more than favourably to its more illustrious neighbours Mannings Heath and Lingfield Park. It is a great test of golf without the pretention of others around it.
The setting is undeniably beautiful with water, trees and length all playing their part on different holes. The thing which sets this course apart however is the greens. They are some of the most sloping are definately some of the quickest I have ever played.
With 2 for 1 prices it is also one of the best value courses around.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

(Round played: 27-Oct-2011 - Score: 117 Handicap: )

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Oh and ignore the other planted reviews here - clearly written by the course staff. They don't even show the imagination to come up with original names - all having the surname "B".

Desperate

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

The notion that this is a lovely course to play etc is only noteworthy if you don't happen to hit it on one of the more common days when it is clogged up with slow, hopeless players - members and visitors - with no marshalling of the course whatsoever to discipline sometimes shocking displays of slow play and time wasting.

The management here are only interested in making money, not delivering a memorable golfing experience. They vastly over spent on the recent course refurbishment, and immediately resorted to pre-bankruptcy measures of trying to charge a laughable £50 to visitors to play a course that is eclipsed by other courses in the area charging such a premium. And so they lowered the fee, and take a no limits policy on numbers - and player quality - resulting in 6 hour rounds as the norm.

I had to give up after just 3 holes in my most recent, and final, visit; when we hit the 4th hole there were no fewer than 7 groups on the hole. To add insult to injury, the manager was only interested in reacting defensively rather than with contrition; 'there are plenty more mugs where you come from', was the clear message.

Do yourself a favour - there are plenty of great courses in this part of the world. This one is comprehensively ruined by its short sighted management

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Great course. In excellent condition with a good variety of holes. Very fast greens.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Excellent back 9

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

terrific course with some brilliant holes on back 9.
we play in society every year great value with excellent facilities. one of my favourite.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

A very good and well kept golf course

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Fantastic course - stay on the fairways!!

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

I played this as part of a society day and was very impressed. There are some very demanding holes where accuracy

What a lovely course, every hole on this course offers a different game plan. There are some very challenging holes and shot positioning is more important than ever.



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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

First visit, couse in good nick despite some localised surface water. After a difficult drive at the first the challenge builds through the round and there are some really good looking holes on the back nine. Will happily go again.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

This course is very challenging in parts especially challenging in the winter months.Fairways & Greens are always in excellent condition.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Excellent picturesque course, especially the back 9. Great club, very friendly and would highly recommend it.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

had a society here, great course , one i recommend and one the society will come back to.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

An excellent course in good condition

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Excellent course, very interesting holes and quite challenging, pace of play quick and members very friendly.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Great coarse ,with smooth fast greens,the front nine is good and the back nine is excellent,lots of memorable holes and only £15 to play on wednesdays,an absolute bargain.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

This place is a lottery - you might get lucky and play on a day when they haven't managed to pack the course out with as many groups as they can with no regard for pace of play or customer enjoyment. Or you might well end up with a 7 hour round on the cards, with no interest from management in alleviating the situation.

Today, it was the latter.

It was monthly medal Sunday, which in Sweetwoods parlance means jamming up the course with a hoard of inept members, all playing off the back tees, but most of whom cutting a convincing image of individuals who have never taken a golf lesson in their lives. Characteristic of this sort of course, the members can't play golf for love nor money, but they love to wield the singular bylaw of "we don't have to let anyone play through because we're members playing in a competition" as evidence of their right to inflict misery on all other paying players on the course.

When we'd arrived, we paid for our scheduled tee time, with no mention of anything untoward on the course. It hadn't occurred to anyone in the pro-shop to notify us that our slot had been pushed back a full half hour due to a fog delay, and an ominously interminable pace of progress from the members playing in their competition. This was only revealed to us when we stepped up to the first tee, to find 4 other groups waiting to tee off at the time we were supposed to be heading out.

We managed to play just 3 holes, before we hit a log jam on the 4th where there were no fewer than 3 groups playing the hole, and a further 4 groups waiting on the tee (soon joined by the several groups rapidly descending on this tee behind us). These groups had already been reliably informed by a self-righteous lady member that she would have no intention of letting anyone play through. Nice attitude. Let's just adhere to the "rules" and ignore common sense. Judging by how seriously these people were taking themselves, they seemed to be entertaining the illusion they were playing in the Masters, and that we were all their admiring spectators.

Clearly the round was untenable - this was never going to finish. So my group, and most of the other groups we encountered, were obliged to walk off the course after just a handful of holes played.

Indignantly, we returned to the clubhouse to air our rightful frustration. We, like others we spoke to, had had a choice of where to play on this, one of the few remaining pleasant Sunday's in 2011. But we had come here, because we had been reassured the course was running clear, and we should encounter no problems enjoying a round of golf at a leisurely pace. As we walked into the pro-shop, we observed many groups still walking up to the first tee - the course managers seemed to think it was acceptable to continue to profit from any unsuspecting customers, who had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. This was shameless profiteering, with no hint of professionalism about it. This clearly isn't a golf course - just a factory line.

I asked to speak to the manager when I came into the pro-shop, who was unforthcoming, so was obliged to express my frustrations to the two assistants in the pro-shop - specifically, that they have no business allowing visitors to come to the course, and part with their money for a full 18 holes, knowing that the course was going to be rendered unplayable by the obvious litany of useless members turning the course into an interminable traffic jam. If you want to give the course over to your members for their medal - fine. But then tell any visitors that the course is closed. Don't try and have your cake and eat it. Eventually, an arrogant, pugnacious gentleman emerged from the office, to take issue with me expressing dissatisfaction with the state of affairs. He thought it was politic to respond with aggression rather than conciliation, and issued a string of irrelevant non-sequiturs to try and excuse their shoddy management.

I have encountered this situation once or twice before in the past, and when been obliged to complain, the course managers have duly apologised, issued a refund, and offered a free round in an attempt to preserve my custom. This course's attitude is clearly "take your money and hang the consequences".

Having shared this tale with various other friends, I have learned this is not unusual. The phrase "I will never play Sweetwoods again" is frequently uttered it seems - and the management of the course clearly couldn't care less.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

A beautifully laid out course which never gets boring from hole 1 to 18. The bunkers are nice, the greens are undulating and fast, there's also plenty of water features to keep you focussed.

However, this is where the good comments stop.
I played this after about 4 days of sun following a wet spell and much to my surprise the course was still quite boggy and the greens so soft they were full of footprints and pitch marks. This made putting a guessing game not a skill.

Fortunately I was playing on the twilight rate as the full £40 midweek or £48 at weekends is quite frankly a ridiculous fee to charge, about 20% more than they should be charging. (My value rating is based on full green fees)
I'd happily play this course again but only on twilight rates and never after a week of rain.

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Golf course review of Sweetwoods Park Golf Club

Over priced unless you are playing with a member.

Pleasant views and holes.

Good exercise with it's ups and downs.

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