Play Competitive Golf in the East Midlands of England

The East Midlands runs one of the most quietly impressive open competition programmes in England, with singles, pairs and team events played from March to October across what is — surprisingly to many — the country's strongest concentration of inland championship heathland golf. Nottinghamshire alone contains two of the finest heathland courses in England (Hollinwell and Sherwood Forest), while Lincolnshire is home to the National Golf Centre at Woodhall Spa — England Golf's headquarters since 1995 and the spiritual home of English amateur competition. Add in well-organised opens at characterful clubs across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, and the East Midlands delivers championship-grade golf and strong fields without the green fees of the more famous regions.

The East Midlands occupies a unique position in English golf: the sandy soils that run from Sherwood Forest down into north Nottinghamshire and across into Lincolnshire produced a cluster of heathland courses in the Golden Age (roughly 1895-1930) that rivals Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire for architectural quality. Hollinwell, Sherwood Forest and Coxmoor in Nottinghamshire, Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire — all sit on free-draining sandstone or sand that supports firm year-round playing surfaces, gorse and heather. Beyond the heathland belt, the rolling parkland of the Charnwood Forest, the Lincolnshire Wolds and the Peak District foothills provides a different but equally satisfying form of inland golf. With three R&A Open Final Qualifying venues (Hollinwell is one of just four in England) and the national governing body's headquarters within the region, the East Midlands quietly hosts more elite amateur and professional competition than its modest profile would suggest.

Hollinwell (Notts Golf Club) — founded in 1887 when there were just 36 golf courses in all of England — moved to its current site in Kirkby Forest in November 1901, where two-time Open Champion Willie Park Jr laid out a course across 400 acres of free-draining sandstone in a natural valley within ancient Sherwood Forest. The name "Hollinwell" comes from a "Holy Well" spring beside the 8th tee that once supplied water to the monks of nearby Newstead Priory. J.H. Taylor reworked the bunkering in 1902 after the Haskell ball arrived, and long-serving club professional Tom Williamson (who served as both pro and head greenkeeper for over 50 years from 1896, and played in 50 consecutive Open Championships) added three new holes at the start in 1913. Today it stretches to 7,250 yards (SSS 76) from the championship tees, is one of only four R&A Open Final Qualifying venues in England (a role it has held since 2017), and has hosted the Brabazon Trophy a record six times — most recently in 2024 (won by Gregor Graham). Martin Ebert is overseeing a ten-year course restoration. Honours-board names include Christy O'Connor Snr, Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Woodhall Spa Golf Club is home to the National Golf Centre — England Golf's headquarters since the English Golf Union bought the site for a reputed £8 million in 1995 — and to the Hotchkin, regularly rated the finest inland course in the British Isles. The course has had three great architects in succession: Harry Vardon laid out the original 18 in 1905, Harry Colt revised it 1911-14 (the rebuilt course re-opening in May 1914), and Colonel Stafford Vere Hotchkin (who took financial control of the club in 1919 and was himself a leading Golden Age architect, working with Sir Guy Campbell and Major C.K. Hutchison as "The Three Majors") reshaped tees, greens and hazards through the 1920s and 30s to produce the layout that bears his name. Tom Doak led a three-year restoration completed in April 2019, removing hundreds of trees, restoring the famously deep heather-and-gorse-fringed bunkers and reviving the SSSI heathland. The 7,080-yard par-73 Hotchkin currently sits 4th in Golf World's Top 100 in England and around 60th-75th in the world. The Bracken — a 1998 Donald Steel parkland design — provides an excellent second course on contrasting clay.

Sherwood Forest Golf Club, on the eastern edge of Mansfield within the legendary forest itself, was founded in 1895 as Mansfield Golf Club and renamed when it moved to its present heathland site at Eakring Road in 1912. Harry Colt laid out the original 18-hole course on land granted by the 6th Duke of Portland from his Welbeck Estate, with James Braid redesigning many holes in the mid-1920s — Braid himself called it on completion "a wonderfully good golf course, as good in fact as any inland course in the country." The back nine, in particular, bears Braid's hallmark, winding hole-by-hole in near-isolation through pines, silver birch and oaks within Clipstone Woods. Further refinements were recommended by Sir Henry Cotton, Frank Pennink, Donald Steel and Fred Hawtree in the early 1980s, and the club has more recently undertaken extensive tree clearance to recover heathland character. Sherwood Forest is a Site of Special Scientific Interest — the largest area of low-lying heathland in the Midlands — and has hosted the British and English Seniors and Open Championship Regional Qualifying. The English Golf Union described it as "in a league of its own" when staging the 2006 England Boys' Amateur Strokeplay.

Holme Hall Golf Club sits in north Lincolnshire on the southern outskirts of Scunthorpe, on a 125-acre tract of free-draining sandy heathland that routinely surprises visitors expecting flat fenland. Founded as a nine-hole course in 1908 and extended to 18 in 1931 by Tom Williamson — the same long-serving Hollinwell professional and prolific course architect responsible for many of that club's later refinements — the 6,400-yard par-71 layout plays firm and fast year-round and is consistently rated one of Lincolnshire's finest. The course holds Championship status with the English Golf Union and regularly hosts county and regional events. With tree-lined fairways, natural water at the par-3 4th, and well-protected greens, it punches well above its weight as a competitive open venue.

Lingdale Golf Club, near Woodhouse Eaves in the Charnwood Forest of Leicestershire, opened in 1966 to a David Tucker design and sits ten minutes from junction 23 of the M1. The 6,460-yard par-71 layout makes excellent use of natural undulations and woodland, with USGA-specification greens that hold up well year-round. The course has two famous endorsements: Tony Jacklin, after his 1989 visit, described the opening three holes as "probably the toughest opening holes in the Midlands," while Peter Alliss called it "a hidden gem within the Midlands." Wildlife on the course includes pheasants, buzzards and occasionally muntjac deer. A new clubhouse opened in 2006, and the club's open programme remains one of the most welcoming and well-organised in Leicestershire.

Alfreton Golf Club, founded in 1892 on Wingfield Road a mile and a half west of Alfreton's town centre, is a characterful compact parkland course set against Oakerthorpe Woods on the edge of the Derbyshire hills. The layout uses 11 separate holes with alternate tees to produce a full 18-hole round — an old-fashioned configuration found at very few clubs in modern English golf, and one that gives the course a distinctive feel. The greens are widely regarded as among the best in Derbyshire, and the well-maintained tree-lined fairways and undulating terrain reward accuracy and short-game touch over distance. With sensible green fees, an active competition calendar and a warm members' welcome, Alfreton is a genuinely accessible introduction to East Midlands open golf.

The East Midlands offers a quietly extraordinary mix of landscapes off the fairway. Sherwood Forest itself — most of it now a National Nature Reserve — still contains the 1,000-year-old Major Oak, traditionally associated with Robin Hood. The Peak District National Park runs across the western edge of Derbyshire, with Chatsworth, Bakewell and Buxton all within easy reach. To the east, the Lincolnshire Wolds — an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — roll down towards the coast. Historic market towns like Stamford, Oakham, Newark, Melton Mowbray and Louth sit within an hour of most of the region's golf clubs, while Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Lincoln (with its hilltop cathedral) all combine compact city centres with quick access to the surrounding countryside.

Whether you pair an opens trip with walking in the Peak District, a literary pilgrimage to Newstead Abbey, or a visit to England Golf's National Centre at Woodhall Spa, the East Midlands delivers what it has always delivered — outstanding inland golf at outstanding value, in a part of England that rewards golfers who know where to look.