Although I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many golf hotels across the spectrum in the UK, and play several of the best golf courses in Cheshire, Carden Park near Chester and the Welsh border, which famously boasts a Jack Nicklaus course, had somehow never come on my radar. That all changed with a two-night visit this in autumn 2024 to play the Cheshire and Nicklaus courses and experience its very high-end spa.
The entrance drive must be one of the longest in the UK as you weave through the Nicklaus course before arriving at the very impressive hotel, where I got to stay in one of the courtyard suites. The two courses are set alongside each other, but have a very different feel, with the Cheshire playing over more rolling terrain and the Nicklaus over largely flatter ground, save for the 1st and 18th holes which play down from and back up to the clubhouse.
The 16th hole on the Cheshire course is a tight affair from tee to green
(Image credit: Carden Park Resort)
First up was the Cheshire course, where the 4th and 5th in a separate corner have replaced a couple of the original finishing holes. The 5th proved highly memorable as my 8-iron approach from 150 yards hung on the lip, half a roll away from my first long-range hole-out for aeons. When you come back out of this corner, you’re greeted by a tree in the middle of the fairway on the second half of the par-5 6th.
There’s enough water on the approach to 12 to make even the finest iron players a touch nervous
(Image credit: Carden Park Resort)
The 10th is a lovely short par 4 playing up towards a stand of pines that gives it just a hint of a Hillside or Formby feel, while the amount of water knocking around on the approach to 12 will make even the most formidable iron player a tad nervous, especially to the sucker left pin we were treated to. The unbelievably tight par-4 16th is followed by a slightly downhill par 3 that is beautifully framed. Perhaps the piece de resistance though is the short par-4 18th played from an elevated tee, with sand, trees and a cheeky little penalty area lurking in the hitting area.
There’s a real sense of excitement as you tee off from the elevated tee on the Cheshire course’s short par-4 18th
(Image credit: Carden Park Resort)
Jack’s handiwork
The Nicklaus course opened five years after the Cheshire in 1998, but the weather proved a little unkind, with persistent rain and plummeting temperatures bringing a premature taste of the winter golfing months ahead. I played with an…
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