Dale Hill Hotel and Golf Club

Before golfers stalked its fairways, Dale Hill’s 130 acres belonged to dairy cows who had no opinion on bunker placement. The Old Course opened in 1973, transforming pasture into a par 69 layout that would make the southeast’s short list of courses worth the drive. Two decades later, in 1997, former Masters champion Ian Woosnam arrived to design a second course, constructed to USGA specifications: his inaugural architectural project. The layout opens with a 602-yard par-5, apparently intended to humble you before breakfast and make you question every life choice that led you here.

The hotel now spans 350 acres of East Sussex countryside in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in what locals call ‘1066 Country,’ named for the Battle of Hastings fought on October 14, 1066, approximately 7 miles away near the present-day town of Battle. King Harold was struck in the eye by a Norman arrow, lost both the battle and his throne, and William the Conqueror changed the trajectory of English history. The cows, for their part, had been gone nearly a quarter-century by then and missed the whole thing.