Reason for a Bearwood Lakes Golf Club review
A meeting with one of our media partners, who have a corporate membership.
I’d been to Bearwood on four previous occasions for product launches, photo shoots and media days but never had the opportunity to play what is a fantastic looking course – until now.
Where is Bearwood Lakes?:
About 15 minutes south of Reading. It’s in Berkshire but not too far from the Surrey sand belt so could easily be added to a golfing trip with some of the area’s fantastic courses.
It’s a fairly exclusive club with no visitors so you have to hope for an invite and go along as a guest of a member.
Bearwood Lakes seems to be very popular with retired Premier League footballers.
What to expect:
The views from the Bearwood Lakes clubhouse are superb and really whet the appetite. You stare straight down the first and have a good look at the approach to 18.
The seventh fairway and green also come back up to the right of the clubhouse.
It’s a relatively new course which opened in 1996 but feels much older as most holes are lined by mature trees.
The condition of the course and the greens were fantastic when we played despite being well into the autumn.
Every hole is picturesque, especially the par-3s, with the downhill 11th being particularly memorable. It is a bit Woburn-esque in places but then opens up a bit with more of a heathland feel on parts of the back nine.
Playing off the tees of the day made it friendly from a length point of view but some of the back tees looked way back so it would form a very stiff test off the tips.
The holes are consistently very good and there’s plenty of variety as you skirt around Bearwood Lake itself through holes 12 and 13.
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My best bit:
The tee shot on 7 was a particular highlight but couldn’t help thinking it would be a better finishing hole.
The elevated tee is well in the trees and you need to take a tight line to the left or play a draw around the right-to-left dog-leg.
Anything too straight or right will get gobbled up by a bunker and anything left might not make it out of the trees.
The walk up to the elevated green will be very satisfying if that’s where your ball has come to rest.
What to look out for:
Former Premier League footballers. And a couple of sneaky par-5s where there’s a split in the fairway which you can’t see. Make sure you are laying up to an area of fairway that you can actually see.
When I go back:
I’ll play the short par-4 8th and par-3 9th much better. The former only requires an iron off the tee so there’s no excuse to miss the fairway. The latter has water immediately in front of the tee and large bunkers short and right but you should be hitting what is a fairly large green from 150 yards.
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