Sandford Springs Golf Club

Sandford Springs opened in 1989 at Kingsclere, between Basingstoke and Newbury, with twenty-seven holes designed by Hawtree and Son, a practice that had been building courses since the nineteenth century and were founder members of the British Institute of Golf Course Architects. Nick Faldo and Bernard Gallacher performed the opening.

The land is Hampshire downland on the northern slope of the Kingsclere ridge, and the three nines each use a different part of it. There is a hotel on the property, which makes this one of the few genuine golf-break destinations in the county.

What it asks of you

Three loops of nine, the Park, the Wood and the Lakes, combined into eighteen in whatever pairing the club is running that day, which means the course you play in the morning is not quite the one you played last time.

The Park is the gentlest, at under 3,000 yards and a par of 34. The Wood is the hardest, cut through mature trees at around 3,150 yards and a par of 36, and it is the one good players single out. The Lakes brings water into play on five of its nine holes over a similar length.

The rolling downland is the constant. There are few flat stances anywhere on the property, and the ridge means several holes play significantly uphill or downhill. The greens are the strength across all three loops.

What players say about it

The club is open to visitors and the review record is large, helped by the hotel. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the courses. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• The greens draw exceptional praise, including from players who did all twenty-seven holes in a day and rated them the best they had putted on in years.
• Conditioning holds up in dry summers, which reviewers notice and credit.
• The setting in rolling downland is consistently described as scenic, and the variety between the three loops keeps a two-day visit interesting.
• The hotel packages are treated as good value by a large share of accounts, particularly for a golf weekend with dinner included.

What comes up against

• Green fees are considered pricey by some, and value is the point on which reviews divide most clearly.
• Service is inconsistent in the record. Alongside many positive accounts there are visitors reporting a poor experience, and that variation is worth knowing about.
• The Park loop is regularly described as the weakest, and a visitor who draws it twice comes away underwhelmed.
• Not knowing which two nines you will play until you arrive frustrates people who wanted to plan.

Getting there and when to go

Kingsclere is on the A339 between Basingstoke and Newbury, around fifteen minutes from junction 6 of the M3 and an hour from Heathrow, with Basingstoke on the main line from London Waterloo.

The courses play all year and the downland drains well. Late spring and early autumn give the best of the turf and the views. Booking is through the club, and the hotel makes a two-day visit straightforward.

Green fees

Rates, packages and tee times are handled by the club and vary by day and season. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published coverage for the design and the opening, and the club’s own site for access, the loops and booking. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played these courses, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the courses and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.