Hellidon Lakes Golf & Spa Hotel

We waited about 15 minutes at every tee, so a short course took us five and a half hours. Maybe I’d have put up with that at Augusta, but this course definitely wasn’t that. The greens were among the slowest and worst I’ve played, and nearly every hole seems to be a blind dogleg. It’s tough if you don’t know the course, and I never will, because I won’t play it again. Shocking.

Good course, but the service was terrible. We went to play at 4pm on a Tuesday, and the pro shop was shut. We needed balls, so had to buy them at reception, where they only had packs of three. It was a very hot summer day, so we asked to hire a golf cart. The receptionist said there weren’t any, even though I pointed out the roughly 10 parked outside. She said she didn’t know whether they had enough charge to get us round.

The 18th is a grand finish. I hit a 7 iron to six feet and, to applause, then missed the birdie putt. We played the main course, Hellidon plus Lakes, on a hot June day and really should have hired a buggy. It’s a long round over lots of undulating holes, which makes club choice tricky. There’s little forgiveness in the knee-high rough, plenty of water but nothing too dangerous, and lots of doglegs alongside a few short par 4s you can drive. It’s a great layout and well priced, so I’ll play again, but it needs more investment. The greens vary in condition and difficulty and could be more consistent. There were lots of greenkeepers out on the course in the middle of the day, too. The pro shop is about average, and drinks are expensive.

The pool, spa, and driving range were closed without warning, which was disappointing. The hotel itself is pleasant, the staff are nice, and dinner was fine. Breakfast from the buffet was okay, though we’d hoped for a lot better. The hotel helpfully changed our package to include lunch instead of an evening meal on the night we ate elsewhere. For a change of scenery, you can get a taxi to Daventry or Southam. But the poor processes made check-in and opening and paying for a tab feel like pulling teeth. As for the golf, HELLidon Lakes is a devilishly hard course built across very hilly ground. It’s so tight that it doesn’t feel like a fair or fun test. Some pins on the tiny greens are on slopes that are close to unplayable. Everyone in our society, from scratch players to 28 handicappers, struggled. Most holes are short and quirky, sometimes just strange and a bit rubbish. The course condition was fair at best, and the uncollected clippings in the first cut made it easy to lose a ball. Book a buggy in advance; thankfully, they aren’t expensive. There are nice views, and the 18th is a great finish. After the round, you can have a beer on the balcony overlooking the green. There’s real potential in both the hotel and course, but until they make significant improvements, we’re very unlikely to return. I’d pay a bit more to go somewhere else. This was in October 2023, six men, booked through Your Golf Travel, two nights and three rounds of golf with breakfast and dinner for £300 each.