Sunningdale New Course

Had Harold Colt ever been ennobled, he would surely have taken the title Lord Colt of Sunningdale. The club which is has made this suburban town on the borders between Surrey and Berkshire famous throughout the golfing world, is inextricably linked with thee man who could be described as the godfather of British golf course design.

The start with, Colt became the club's first secretary, just a year after it was opened in 1901 with a brand new course designed by Willie Park Jnr. It was a job he would hold for some 11 years, until they reluctantly agreed to his departure to pursue a full time career in golf course architecture. Whether during his tenure he effected any changes to the Old Course, as it became known, is unclear. What is certain, is the rolling heath land holes must surely have been a considerable influence to his own subsequent work.

Then, some ten years later, after the first Great War and the fallow years that followed, he was commissioned to extend an existing 9 hole course - Sunningdale Heath - to a full 18. Being Colt, he started from scratch, and laid out what is today essentially the New Course. Twenty years younger than the Old, it was always more open, barren, linkslike and therefore windswept. In all other ways though, it was much in the style of it senior partner, with the exception that generally the greens were demonstrably smaller.

Of the holes Colt laid out, 13 remain today; numbers 1 to 5 and 11 in. At the time he set to work, the club did not own the land it now has. Boundary constrictions meant that the holes towards the end of the front nine had to use some not particularly suitable land to the left of the existing 9th & 10th holes and also to the right of the 10th on the Old. The holes there were cramped, hilly and out of keeping with the rest.

The 12th at Sunningdale

The 15th at Sunningdale

The 14th at Sunningdale