Manor Of Groves Golf Stay and Play Review

Jeremy Ellwood heads to the Hertfordshire/Essex border for a stay and play visit to the Manor of Groves Hotel in Sawbridgeworth

Manor Of Groves Golf Stay and Play Review

On course par 71, 6,197 yards

This three-star hotel in Sawbridgeworth on the Hertfordshire/Essex border lies 20 minutes from Stansted Airport.

The golf course at Manor of Groves opened in 1991 and plays either side of a narrow country lane. The opening trio and holes 13-18 play over more open-feeling terrain up and down a  slope.

When you return to this part of the course after the 12^th, the par-3 13^th is a shortish but pretty little par 3 with a stream running across the front of the green.

This is also the part of the course where you’ll find the longer par 4s and the layout’s two par 5s. The 2^nd is probably the toughest par 4 on your first visit to this part of the course. It stretches to 427 yards up the hill.

The 18^th is then a monster par 5 at over 600 yards off the tips. Mercifully, the first two-thirds are back down that same hill!

The 4^th to 12^th holes weave around the entrance drive the other side of the lane, and things are a little tighter and more thought-provoking here, with the short dogleg par 4s at the 4^th, 6^th and 12^th testing accuracy and position far more than length.

The difference between the two parts of the course is similar to that at Aldwark Manor in Yorkshire, where you start and finish on the more fiddly holes around the hotel either side of a visit to the more open-feeling holes the other side of the river.

Check out some of our other south England stay and play reviews:

• Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire
• Hever Castle, Kent
• Bramshaw Golf Club and The Bell Inn, Hampshire

Off course

The grand main Georgian Manor House was restored and converted into a hotel in the late 1980s and early 1990s and now boasts 80 rooms plus a state-of-the-art leisure club.

The Health Club facilities include a 20-metre indoor swimming pool, steam room, saunas, Jacuzzi, solarium, a three-tier air-conditioned Technogym, aerobic studio and sun terrace.

Food is served in La Brasserie Restaurant, The Atrium Bar or the Viewing Gallery Golf Lounge over in the clubhouse. The relaxed Atrium Bar is also the perfect spot for a pre- or post-dinner drink or cocktail.