C. K. Cotton
Cotton didn't take up golf course architecture until the end of WWII when well over 50. In between times he taught as a schoolmaster before drifting into the role of secretary at Parkstone and Stoke Poges.
Donald Steel wrote a story for the Sunday Telegraph with Ken Cotton, who subsequently became his senior partner. He was building two courses – St Pierre and Ross-on-Wye – in the early 1960s, so he went to both locations and wrote a piece about building new golf layouts, which he found absolutely fascinating.
They kept in touch. Then about two years later Ken contacted Donald as he wanted a bit of help and asked if he’d be interested. Donald stopped him before he’d even finished the question and said, “Thank you very much!” Before long, he joined forces with Ken Cotton, Frank Pennink and Charles Lawrie in their design practice.
Donald describes Cotton as “a pupil of Tom Simpson, a fine player himself, [who] decided to embark on a third career as an architect to establish his own name and portfolio in spite of the fairly flat market. St Pierre and Ross-on-Wye couldn’t have been more different, St Pierre almost ready-made and Ross-on-Wye carved out of poorly drained woodland.”
Steel continues: “Brickendon Grange was another of Ken’s new courses around that time and there was also a pleasant journey with him to Brecon to look at a course called Penotre, now named Cradoc. He was also responsible for the extension from 27 holes to 36 at Frilford Heath.
His best course abroad was Olgiata in Rome, scene of great Britain and Ireland’s first victory in the 1964 World Amateur Team Championship, but perhaps Ken’s greatest act of kindness to me was his bestowal of Tom Simpson’s ‘Golf Architect’s Bible’ which is an amazing leather bound miscellany of architectural and greenkeeping ‘secrets’. The fact that there is only one copy is because it is predominantly hand-written.”
A graduate of Cambridge University, Cotton was a scratch amateur golfer who was both a school teacher and golf club secretary between the wars before moving into golf course design when he saw potential opportunities in reclaiming layouts that had been neglected or fallen into disrepair during World War II.
Donald also wrote the following Sunday Telegraph tribute when C. K. Cotton died in 1974:
“It is a fitting tribute to Ken Cotton who died last Wednesday a few weeks before his 87th birthday that the week’s two major tournaments, the County Champions and the Dunlop Masters, were played on courses which he designed, Ross-on-Wye and St Pierre.
Their creation marked the beginning of the wave of new courses which have sprung into being in Britain in the last 10 or 12 years and their contrasting delights display the very best of Cotton’s undoubted talent as an architect.
His knowledge and appreciation of the art were based on his own considerable skill as a player whose handicap was once plus two; but one of the remarkable facts about an enviable life was that he graduated from Cambridge having played virtually no golf there, and did not take up golf course architecture seriously until the end of World War II when well over 50.
In between times he taught as a schoolmaster before drifting into golf in the role of secretary at Parkstone and Stoke Poges – and Oxhey where Ted Ray was professional and with whom he must have made the best professional secretary foursomes partnership in history.
His experiences as a secretary, together with those of a player, enabled him to get to know golf inside out and with the encouragement of his brother and some expert advice from his friend Tom Simpson he launched himself with immediate success on a third career. As in the other two, his kind and thoughtful manner won him nothing but friends and he will be widely missed.
In an effort to safe guard clients against golf course architects with little knowledge of their trade, he was co-founder of the British Association of Golf Course Architects and in June of this year succeeded Philip Mackenzie Ross as president.
It is sad to reflect that he and Mackenzie Ross represent almost the last of a generation which has seen so much change in the game this century, but it is unquestionable that their influence upon this change has been both lasting and good.”
Notable Courses
