Sunningdale’s Old Course was designed by twice winner of The Open Championship, Willie Park Junior and opened in 1901. The land on which it was constructed belonged to St. John’s College, Cambridge and mainly consisted of heather, gorse and pine trees.
On hearing that the General Manager of the railway, a Mr Owens, was interested in golf, they offered him the first honorary membership of the Sunningdale Club – he soon gave the order for the train to stop at Sunningdale. The first meeting of the Committee in the new Clubhouse was held on 20th September, 1901.
Sunningdale has hosted many prestigious events in golf, including the British Masters, Walker Cup, Women's British Open, and The Senior Open Championship. From 2004 to 2013, Europe's International Final Qualifying tournament for The Open Championship was held over both the Old and New courses at Sunningdale.
Sunningdale is the best of British heathland golf and it’s an absolute delight to spend a day here.
Arthur HillsOur two championship courses, The Valley and The Ridge, were designed by the legendary golf course architect, Arthur Hills.
Charles Blair MacDonald, who attended St. Andrews University and learned the game at the St. Andrews Golf Links, is considered the father of American golf course architects. In 1893, MacDonald built the Chicago Golf Club, which was the country's first 18-hole course.
Harry ColtHarry Colt designed Wentworth's famed West Course in the 1920s.
Stanley ThompsonChampionship 18-hole course This 18-hole, par 70 course was designed by Stanley Thompson. Built in 1935, Rockway remains one of the finest public golf courses in Ontario.
Saint Andrews Links located in the town of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, is widely recognized as the “home of golf.” Golf was played upon the Links at St Andrews as far back as the early 15th century. The oldest course at the Saint Andrews Links is known as the Old Course.
The first golf course in the United States was Oakhurst Links, built in 1884 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It was originally a six hole track which was later expanded to nine holes. Oakhurst was the first course and golf club in the United States.
1922Wentworth Club is a privately owned golf club and health resort in Virginia Water, Surrey, on the south western fringes of London, not far from Windsor Castle. The club was founded in 1922.
1922Since its founding in 1922, the golf club has been the nucleus of Wentworth Estate, a private community of villas, which occupies 700 hectares.
In the early 1850s Ramon Cabrera, the exiled Spanish Count de Morella, acquired the property and in 1854 moved into Wentworth with his English wife. After his death, the Countess de Morella bought most of the adjacent lands to form the present Wentworth Estate.
Sunningdale Golf Club was founded in 1900 on Chobham Common, on land owned by St. John's College, Cambridge. Its first Secretary was Harry Colt, who went on to design golf courses of international renown, such as the New Course at Sunningdale, Ealing, and Swinley Forest. Colt was highly influential in the creation of the Pine Valley Golf Club in ...
Sunningdale Golf Club is a golf club in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England, located approximately 30 miles (50 km) west-southwest of London . Sunningdale Golf Club was founded in 1900 and has two eighteen hole golf courses: the Old Course, designed by Willie Park Jr., and the New Course, designed by Harry Colt, ...
James Bond and Bill Tanner play a round of golf on the New Course in the opening chapter of the 1968 James Bond continuation novel, Colonel Sun, written by Kingsley Amis under the pseudonym, " Robert Markham ".
The book is available on Kindle. The club's first professional was Jack White, winner of the 1904 Open Championship, played at Royal St. George's. The course record on the Old Course is 62, jointly held by Nick Faldo at the 1986 European Open and Shane Lowry in the first round of Open Championship qualifying in 2010.
Bobby Jones had great fondness for Sunningdale. He scored 66-68 over it during qualifying for the 1926 British Open, with the 66 consisting of 33 full strokes and 33 putts, with every hole played in either 3 or 4; this has sometimes been described as the perfect round of golf.
I had grand plans to celebrate my 40th birthday. This seemed like a good excuse for a big trip and so I focussed in on Pebble Beach. Great in theory, but it presented numerous challenges in practice. The decision was taken out of my hands, however, when the global pandemic hit in 2020. So, I turned my attention to something closer to home.
The Old Course holds 29th position in the Top 100 rankings and is the list’s highest ranked English course. As such (and for the next fortnight at least) it is my first foray into the top 50. That the New Course is also ranked in the Top 100 makes it one of only two courses to have multiple entries (Royal Melbourne being the other).
Then the Roberts brothers put their ingenuity to work. On hearing that the General Manager of the railway, a Mr Owens, was interested in golf, they offered him the first honorary membership of the Sunningdale Club – he soon gave the order for the train to stop at Sunningdale.
The Sunningdale Story compiled by Guy Bennett, Club Secretary 1934 -1939. A short history of Sunningdale Golf Club from its first beginnings. An extract from Colt & Co, Golf Course Architects, by Fred Hawtree, 1991. Covering the years 1901 – 13 as Sunningdale Secretary.
The trouble for Sunningdale members was the London and South Western Railway timetable made no provision for the train to halt at Sunningdale and it steamed right through to Ascot. No amount of pleading with the railway’s timetable superintendent was of any use and the train continued to steam right on through.
During 1899 two brothers, T.A. and G.A. Roberts built a house in Sunningdale called “Ridgemount”. The land on which it was constructed belonged to St. John’s College, Cambridge and mainly consisted of heather, gorse and pine trees. There were no shops, no railway station, and no Ridgemount Road, merely a bridle path over the property running, ...
It was named Sunningdale Heath Golf Club, later to be known as the “chauffeurs’ course” or the “nine ‘ole”. After running into financial difficulties during the 1914-18 war it was taken over by the main Club with the plan to extend it in the future into a second 18 hole course for the Club.
The finest round of golf Bobby Jones played was at Sunningdale on June 16th, 1926. It was his first round in qualifying for the Open Championship at the Royal Ly tham and St Annes Golf Club course; 33, 33 — 66, four under the par 70 of the course, and six under 4’s. There have been lower scoring rounds, Bobby himself had ...
The first Annual General Meeting was held at the Café Monico in London on Thursday, 29th March, 1900 and the first Committee was formed. This Committee quickly approved plans for a Clubhouse “to cost with fittings not over £6,000, and a dormy house to be added afterwards at a cost to be decided on later.”.
It’s incredible to believe that originally the golf course was laid out on barren, open land. Harry Colt was a big influence at Sunningdale; he was Secretary and Captain in the club’s early years and redesigned the Old course, giving it a more intimate and enclosed feel.
In 1926, during qualification for the British Open, amateur Bobby Jones played the Old Course perfectly, scoring 66, made up of all threes and fours (taking 33 putts). This type of scoring was unheard of in those days. Bernard Darwin brilliantly summed up Jones’ round as “incredible and in decent”.
The 15th is also featured in the same book; it’s a superb par three, measuring 226 yards. Many people regard Sunningdale as the perfect golfing venue. The Old and New courses taken together are probably the finest pair of golf courses anywhere.
Description: The Old course at Sunningdale is one of the British Isles’ most aesthetically pleasing inland courses. Arguably, it was the first truly great golf course to be built on the magical Surrey/Berkshire sand-belt.
Simply put - a day of 36 holes at Sunningdale is one of the best days in golf. From the time you pull into the car park you sense you are somewhere special. The hospitality, facilities, food and of course golf are all first class. Once inside the gates you no longer feel like you are in a major metroplex but rather a world apart. Such is the ambiance of Sunningdale. As a Yank I have to say I love the customs and traditions of the English people. It's a pleasure to experience such civilized formality, and Sunningdale has it in spades.
Housing was built nearby creating perhaps the first instance of property development alongside the building of a golf course. H.S. Colt, who built the New course in 1922 was a guiding figure during the first two decades of the club, serving as Secretary, Captain and ultimately architect.
Lined with pine, birch and oak trees, it is a magnificent place to play golf. The emblem of the club is the oak tree, no doubt modelled on the huge specimen tree standing majestically beside the 18th green. It’s incredible to believe that originally the golf course was laid out on barren, open land.
The chart above shows the length distribution and left/right balance of the course.
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