Golf it could be argued is one of the main industries of Woodhall Spa with the first course of 9 holes being opened in 1890. This flourished until 1895 when the land that the course was built on was required for building. A new site was hurriedly found and another 9 hole golf course was laid out. By 1902 it became clear that the golf course would have to find another new home as the land was required for the expansion of the spa town once again.

Local landowner, Stafford Vere Hotchkin, offered a sandy tract of land off the Horncastle Road for the building of an 18 hole course. The course opened for play on 24 April 1905 and has come to be rated as one of the finest golf courses in the world, with the Golf Magazine of America rating it the world’s 43rd best golf course.

The English Golf Union bought the course in 1995 in order to set up a National Golf Centre. The Union also secured enough land to build a second course and to provide extensive practice facilities. The second course, ‘the Bracken’, opened for play in 1998 alongside the original course, now named ‘the Hotchkin’.