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Tadmarton Heath: A glorious old-school heathland

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Why we’d rather be playing this tricky Oxfordshire gem

Tadmarton Heath

Tadmarton Heath is, without doubt, one of Oxfordshire’s finest golfing venues. It is a proper, old-school heathland that will test your game.

It is a golf course that has been around for more than a century now, and has tricked some of the very best into making mistakes despite being relatively short, at just over 6,000 yards.

Tadmarton Heath forces players to plot their way around the course, so if you rely on distance, you’ll want to rethink your methods.

There are some short par 4s on the property, but then the 9th, 12th and 18th are as testing as any par 4 you wish to play – all of which push 450 yards in length.

History

Cecil Hutchison – who helped design the King’s Course at Gleneagles – was the man behind the original layout at ‘Taddy’. The course officially opened in 1922, and has recently celebrated its centenary year.

Roger Wethered and Cyril Tolley – two men with three Amateur Championship wins between them – played a match to celebrate the opening of the golf course.

In recent years, Ken Moodie was brought in to make significant and strategic changes to the course, including the addition of bunkers and the extension of some of the putting surfaces.

What makes Tadmarton Heath Golf Club special?

It is rare to find a true heathland outside of Surrey and Berkshire in the southeast of England.  Tadmarton Heath is a delightful old-school version of heathland golf.

Almost every hole is beautifully framed by the irregularly shaped bunkers, some of which have wonderful sleepered faces.

There are six par 4s that, with the wind at your back, could be seen as drivable. Tadmarton Heath has just one par 5 on its par 69 layout, one that is only 6,050 yards in length.

Tadmarton Heath

Where does it rank?

39th in England Value

Where is it?

Tadmarton Heath Golf Club is to the south of the villages of Tadmarton and Lower Tadmarton in the English county of Oxfordshire. The club sits just five miles to the southwest of the town of Banbury. The city of Oxford is 25 miles to the south while Birmingham – England’s ‘Second City’ – is 50 miles to the north. The A361, which runs from Rugby down to the southwest of England, runs close to the venue.

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Get in touch with Tadmarton Heath

For more information about the club and course, visit its website or call them on 01608 737278.

You can play at Tadmarton Heath on the NCG Top 100s Tour this year!

  • Book your spot to play at Tadmarton Heath on the NCG Top 100s Tour on August 14th here.
  • You can also play at Berkhamsted and Frilford Heath (Blue) in our Oxfordshire & Hertfordshire Swing – check that out here.

Now have your say

Have you ever had the pleasure of playing at Tadmarton Heath? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!

About the author

Matt Coles
Matt Coles

Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…

Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.

He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.

Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…

Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.

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