Bramley

Founded in 1913, Bramley Golf Club commissioned Charles Mayo, the Burhill professional, to lay out a course at Gosden Hill with the official opening set for August the following year. Unfortunately, World War I intervened and the inauguration of the new layout was put on hold.

Authors John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming in their book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses write about Braid’s visit to the club in May 1935:

“The club’s early records are scanty but it has a small booklet from the 1930s which says that the course was ‘extensively reconstructed by the great James Braid.’ Later, it says ‘it was decided to change the layout of some of the holes – more particularly the 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th – James Braid of Walton Heath being called in for this important work.’

Further details, helped by a map dated 1934, reveal that the 16th was lengthened and used the old 13th green. The 17th was moved up the hill. The old 12th, now the 8th, was halved in length and the old 13th disappeared, as did the old 18th. The old 2nd changed, creating a new 4th.”

Today, the course extends to 5,930 yards from the back markers, playing to a par of 69, featuring back-to-back par threes on the front nine at the 204-yard 3rd and 170-yard 4th. The only two par fives on the card appear on the back nine at the 487-yard 13th and 516-yard 15th.