Woking Golf Club

The Fourth Hole Changed Strategy

The golf course at Woking Golf Club began in 1893, when a group of London barristers leased open heathland from the London Necropolis Company. Tom Dunn created the original layout, making Woking the oldest of Surrey's heathland courses. In the early twentieth century, members John Low and Stuart Paton began reshaping it with ideas that moved away from simple punishment and towards decisions.

Their best-known intervention came at the fourth, where central fairway bunkers forced golfers to choose a line instead of simply playing straight ahead. The change upset some members, but became an early example of strategic design and helped give Woking a wider influence among course architects.

That thinking remains central to the round. Fast-running fairways reward position, heather punishes careless misses, and the greens provide the sternest examination. Their contours can appear gentle from the fairway, yet putts often move more than expected. The course now measures more than 6,600 yards from the back tees, but its defence still comes from angles, ground movement, and careful judgement rather than length alone.