Six founding members met on 8 January 1889 to form what was originally known as The Waveney Valley Golf Club, with entrance fees set at ten shillings and sixpence for the first fifty members and eleven shillings for the others. A 9-hole course was quickly brought into play but two years after the club’s formation James Braid was called in to double the size of the layout.
Authors John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming in their book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses take up the story in this edited extract: “the original course was nine holes, designed by Willie Fernie. During the years 1889-1900, one new hole was created, a long hole was split into two the second time around, and seven alternative tees were built.
Following the arrival of Braid, nine of the ten greens remained and he added another nine. In a general reconstruction adding some 700 yards, he kept six of the original names, dispensed with three, and the club invented twelve more. Of these, seven are in use today. Gorse partly determined the layout of the course, though today’s course is more compact as the gorse has been severely cut back.
The terrain is basically heathland, rising and falling gently though, occasionally, suddenly, there is a ravine. Some of the greens are set in fascinating positions and add an extra degree of difficulty to a very interesting, old-fashioned course.”
