New clubhouse
Donnington Grove Country Club has long enjoyed a reputation as having a Dave Thomas-designed championship golf course of the highest quality.
Its perfect location, wonderfully balanced course and billiard-table greens prompted one golf writer to describe it as ‘aesthetically faultless’. So, on the course, all was well. But something was missing from the club which sweeps through the countryside below ancient Donnington Castle and around the River Lambourn near Newbury in Berkshire.
The focal point of the Donnington Grove estate is the 18th century Gothic House with luxury accommodation for hotel guests, which meant that golfers had to share facilities.
‘We needed to do something to give golfers self-contained facilities,’ said General Manager Christopher Strong. ‘We had a five-star golf course and we needed a clubhouse to match.’
A huge investment programme was drawn up and work started last May on an ambitious building project which involved sacrificing hotel rooms and building a large clubhouse extension to the property. And the result, now unveiled, is spectacular: A NEW spike bar, classy but cosy, which will seat 60 people. It has been designed to open onto an outdoor area for al fresco dining
AN 80-seat restaurant serving carvery meals. This leads to a south-west facing terrace with views over the practice area, lakes and the River Lambourn
A NEW pro shop with the latest in golf fashion and equipment MODERN changing rooms with sauna steam room, showers and lockers.
Amid all this new luxury, there is a extra bonus for the avid golfer: an indoor tuition centre, all 80 square yards of it, which will be the home of Donnington Grove’s new Golf Academy.
Gareth Williams, the Director of Golf, said an announcement is expected soon about the appointment of an internationally-renowned head of the academy. The man they have in their sights is a leading coach who teaches a Major winner and a number of talented Tour players. The appointment will also link Donnington Grove with one of the most exclusive clubs in America.The centre has two Huxley Golf-designed putting areas, one flat and one with slopes. And there are driving areas with a laboratory to analyse your golf swing with the aid of a ball-launch monitor.
Gareth said: ‘We shall also have Titleist custom club fitting, and all these training aids will be by appointment only. This will be a state of the art facility which will put Donnington Grove further on the map as a golfing resort destination.’ Christopher Strong added: ‘Without fail, golfers would come here and say the greens are the best they’ve played on all year. The quality of the golf course was never in question. It was a venue for the 2005 Challenge Tour English Open, and it has the specs for European Tour events.
‘But members and visitors never had a complete product before. With this huge investment on a new clubhouse development, and an Academy side which is going to be important to our reputation, I believe we now have the complete Wow Factor.’