The Tudor Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club and Kings Hill Golf Club have joined the Visit Kent Golf Partners Programme that promotes the Golf in Kent brand (www.golfinkent.co.uk) as one of England’s finest golfing destinations.
The Tudor Park Marriott is a welcome addition to the group as it is one of one of Kent’s premier hotels and home to a par 70, 6,041-yard championship golf course designed by noted golf course architect Donald Steel. Nestled in a 200-acre park in the heart of the county, the Tudor Park Marriott also offers a spa, gym and swimming pool for post-golf R&R.
Conveniently located close to Maidstone just off the M20, the hotel provides an excellent stopping off point for golfers on their way down to the east coast links of Kent or on their return journey back towards London.
The addition of Kings Hill further strengthens the Garden of England’s golf offering.
Founded in 1995 on open heathland and woodland in central Kent, course designer David Williams has made excellent use of the natural features and gently undulating topography to create a course that has quickly established itself as one of the best golfing challenges in Kent.
The course is characterised by traditional links turf, carries over heather and rough to narrow, fast-running fairways and well-sculptured greens full of character and deceptive slopes. The course has full USGA specification greens and tees and benefits from an excellent, free-draining geology that makes it one of the driest inland courses in the county whatever the time of year.
The Tudor Park Marriott and Kings Hill join a distinguished group of golf club partners: the three Open Championship venues in Kent comprising of Royal St George’s, home of 14 Open Championships, Royal Cinque Ports and Prince’s Golf Club, Final Open Qualifying venues, North Foreland and Littlestone, the London Golf Club which hosted the Volvo World Match Play Championship in 2014, Lullingstone Park and Pentland Golf’s Boughton, Etchinghill and London Beach Golf Clubs.
Golf in Kent is also supported by accommodation providers, Shepherd Neame Coaching Inns & Hotels and Hand Picked Hotels, which have two hotels in Kent, Chilston Park Hotel and Brandshatch Place Hotel & Spa.
The Visit Kent Golf Partners group was originally set up by Visit Kent in 2009 when it launched a three-year campaign, timed to capitalise on the staging of The Open Championship at Royal St George’s in 2011, to develop the county into a credible golfing destination.
“The game of golf goes back over 100 years in Kent and the county possesses an impressive array of championship links, notable lowland and parkland courses and some relatively undiscovered tracks that make it one of England’s most varied and desirable golfing destinations,” says Cheryl Parker, Head of Development, Partnerships & Funding at Visit Kent.
“Thanks to our courses, a range of golfing accommodation and excellent transport connections to Europe via Dover and the Eurotunnel, London and the south east of England making the county easily accessible for local and international golfers, we believe that Kent has a world class golf product.”
To add to this Kent has a plethora of off-course attractions in terms of history, heritage, ancient monuments, gardens and national parks all set within a natural and varied landscape. The county is also making a name for itself as a gastronomic destination to go with its long-standing tradition of producing local ales – Shepherd Neame is England’s oldest brewer – and its growing reputation as a producer of fine wines.
Hence Kent is regularly referred to as a golfer’s paradise in the ‘Garden of England’.
Golf in Kent www.golfinkent.co.uk
Visit Kent www.visitkent.co.uk
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