Harry Colt was the youngest of six children born to a solicitor father who died when he was only two years old. His mother then moved the family from London to Malvern, where he played golf at Worcestershire Golf Club’s original course on the common, becoming a proficient, plus-handicap player.

After attending Monkton Combe School in Bath, Colt studied law at Clare College, Cambridge. Twelve months after his 1887 enrolment, he joined the committee of the Cambridge University Golf Club and in 1889 became the club's first captain. After graduation he was admitted to the bar, becoming a solicitor and partner in the Hastings law firm of Sayer & Colt.

In 1894 he laid out the new course at Rye with Scottish professional Douglas Rolland and in 1895 was appointed Honorary Secretary of Rye Golf Club with Rolland becoming the club’s first professional. Between 1901 and 1913, Colt served as Sunningdale Golf Club’s first Secretary. Interestingly, when he first took up his appointment at Sunningdale his annual salary was £150.00, about a tenth of what he would have earned had he remained in the legal profession.

In 1907, twelve months after he reached the semi-final of the Amateur Championship, 

 (the first Honorary Secretary at Alwoodley Golf Club) called upon Colt to help him design a new course on the outskirts of Leeds, and the doctor later joined 

 becoming Colt’s second business partner. Two years later, Colt’s new course opened at Stoke Park, framed by the iconic backdrop of the 18th century mansion house, designed by James Wyatt, architect to King George III.

His “least bad course”, Swinley Forest, quietly opened for play in 1911. Authors Henry Lord and Peter Pugh, commented in 

Masters of Design – Great Courses of Colt, MacKenzie, Alison & Morrison

 as follows: “One of the most astonishing things about Colt’s routing was that it was mapped out in his mind’s eye before any of the thousands of pine trees covering the site were removed.”

Already within his portfolio were Blackmoor, St George’s Hill and Camberley Heath. Colt had also visited France and laid out Golf de Saint-Cloud in Paris. He had also sailed to North America and designed new courses for the Toronto Golf Club and the Country Club of Detroit. Additionally, Colt worked with 

 at Old Elm Club and routed Pine Valley with Philadelphian hotelier, George Crump.

In 1913, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, unable to remain committed to his duties at Sunningdale, Colt resigned as Secretary, having now established himself as one of the world’s leading golf course architects. He was now utilising the services of Suttons Seeds, along with George Franks and Claude Harris, who had formed the first golf construction firm, Franks Harris.

“When peace returned at the end of 1918”, remarked Henry Lord and Peter Pugh, “Colt wrote to all his old golfing contacts offering the services of Colt, Alison and MacKenzie… in 1920, [MacKenzie] was increasingly keen to branch out on his own, following Alison to North America and the prestigious commissions he so craved.” MacKenzie left the Colt and Alison partnership in 1923 so “Colt brought a new assistant, the 30-year-old 

, into the fold… In 1922 he began helping Colt with the building of Sunningdale’s New course… In 1928 Morrison was made an official partner and the new company of Colt, Alison & Morrison was formed.”

“Colt had really stopped designing courses in 1939, happy to let his two partners stand out on their own while he remained in the peaceful seclusion of East Hendred with his wife, Laura, until she passed away in 1948.” Henry Shapland "Harry" Colt died three years later in 1951.

 by Donald Steel: “He was the first captain of Rye in 1894, a mere five years after holding office as captain of Cambridge University. His is the first name to be shown on the Honours Board in the dining room at Worlington, although Colt’s Cambridge days preceded the club’s foundation in 1893.

Colt courses are always eminently playable, not heavily-bunkered and with no long carries. Denham is a good example of his handiwork; a stiff enough test to make good players think without posing too much of a handful for the rank and file.

Donald Ross may have had Colt in mind in his general reference to ‘golf as it was meant to be played’. Both were pioneers of a new art whereby great thoughts went into the process of providing a coherent sequence to the layout with interesting green design as a separate study.”

 by Cornish & Whitten: “Several firsts in golf course design are generally attributed to H.S. Colt. He was the first to consistently use a drawing board in preparing his course designs. He was the first to prepare tree-planting plans for his layouts.”

: “In Britain, Harry Colt was the first amateur golfer – rather than professional – to earn a reputation as an architect. Some say he is still the greatest of them all.”

“Colt had a few simple dictums. The early holes should ease you into the round; nothing too demanding at the start. Ideally, every club in the bag should be used, regardless of skill. The routing of the course would be determined by the land, and there would be no hard and fast rule about the numbers of par threes or fives on any given nine… Colt had no peer as a designer of short holes.”

 – such is the capricious nature of ceremonial awards Harry Colt is shamefully absent from the Hall of Fame despite the inclusion of a number of Colt’s contemporaries.


Creating Classics: The golf courses of Harry Colt 

Such is the capricious nature of ceremonial awards, Harry Colt is shamefully absent from the World Golf Hall of Fame despite the inclusion of a number of his contemporaries.

Harry Colt

Harry Colt studied law at Clare College, Cambridge. Twelve months after his 1887 enrolment, he joined the committee of the Cambridge University Golf Club and in 1889 became the club's first captain.

Hugh Alison, as he was known to his friends, was educated in Worcestershire at Malvern College before going on to study history, law and divinity at New College, Oxford. He represented the university in the 1903 and 1904 Varsity matches and in the second of these contests, he famously pitched onto the 18th green at Woking from the clubhouse verandah roof.

Alison’s sporting prowess also extended to the cricket pitch, where he played first class matches for Somerset. With all this extracurricular activity away from the cloisters, it’s perhaps no great surprise that he never completed his studies. In fact, after being sent home several times, he was eventually expelled from the college.

He could play a bit (reaching the fourth round of The Amateur Championship in 1906) and a career in golf soon opened up for him after leaving Oxford when he became the secretary of Foxrock Golf Club in Dublin. He was there for only a short time before returning to England to become the first secretary of Stoke Poges Golf Club (with its new course designed by 

) in 1908, earning £13.6s.8d a month plus a small accommodation allowance.

Whilst there, he assisted Colt with the design of several courses in the Greater London area before The Great War intervened, which saw him become an Army captain working in ciphers. When hostilities ceased, Alison was assigned to North America to drum up business, designing more than twenty new courses during a nine-year tenure on the other side of the Atlantic.

Regarding his time spent in the United States and Canada during the 1920s, Henry Lord and Peter Pugh in 

 wrote: “His eye-catching bunkering, often severely large and deep in equal measure, can call for courageous shots,” with one commentator “likening his elevated, built-up greens to those of the Americans 

Alison was a founding member of the International Society of Golf Architects, along with architects such as 

 and Tom Simpson. Formed in 1929, the society operated from secretary Tom Simpson’s office at his home in England.


A high point in Alison’s design career came during a short trip to Japan at the end of 1930, accompanied by his construction foreman George Penglase, when he built several new layouts – such as Tokyo, Hirono and Kawana – and revised others, like Nauro and the East course at Kasumigaseki. To this day, large, steep-faced bunkers in the land of the Rising Sun are referred to as ‘Alisons’.

During the 1930s, Alison worked on projects in places as far apart as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa. He also collaborated with design partner 

 on several course designs in the Netherlands before World War II interrupted proceedings, causing him to re-enlist for the Army’s decoding department.

Alison moved to South Africa with his wife in 1947, revising a number of courses in that country before he passed away five years later, less than twelve months after the demise of his great friend and mentor, Harry Colt. John Morrison was then left to run the company for another decade until he too died in 1962.

It’s true to say that C. H. Alison is one of the most overlooked Golden Age architects, largely because his work was carried out on behalf of Colt Alison & Morrison Ltd, with Harry Colt given the architectural credit for projects that should really be attributed to his much-travelled design associate.

 by Cornish & Whitten: “Alison was co-author (with Colt) of 

Golf Courses: Design, Construction and Upkeep

, edited by M. A. F. Sutton (1933, revised 1950)”.

“The architect’s many influences contributed to his distinctive style. He followed strategic design principles, believing that risky shots should be justly rewarded with improved angles. However, when considering the era he operated in, his courses were often long and difficult; which, again, was a legacy of his experience at Pine Valley (where he had previously worked). Alison’s bunkering was highly personalised, being usually grand in scale, frequently deep and often downright intimidating.”


 by Toby Cumming: “In the decade after WWI, Alison spent much of his time in North America. When George Crump died in 1918 with several holes of Pine Valley still unfinished, the club formed an advisory committee to oversee completion of construction. Alison joined the committee in place of his boss and mentor Colt, and his report saw significant changes made to the course.

The course appears to have made significant changes to Alison too, with his appreciation of the fiendishly difficult Pine Valley showing through in his later design work. Alison maintained an office in Detroit in the 1920s on behalf of Colt, and he designed standout courses at the Country Clubs of Detroit and Milwaukee. He also laid out a course over a very different landscape at Sea Island in Georgia.

Alison’s travels continued throughout the 1930s, and he worked in Malaysia, Morocco, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. His most influential course from this time, however, was at Royal Hague (1936).”

Known as Hugh to his friends, he famously pitched onto the 18th green at Woking from the clubhouse verandah roof. He later became the first Secretary at Stoke Poges and to this day, large, steep-faced bunkers in Japan are referred to as ‘Alisons’.

C. H. Alison

Alison studied history, law and divinity at Oxford and represented the university in Varsity matches. In one of these contests he famously pitched onto Woking’s 18th green from the clubhouse verandah roof.

Bert Way

Michigan

U.S. Senior Amateur

U.S. Amateur

Founded in 1897, the Country Club of Detroit had a course in play soon after its formation, thanks to the efforts of Bert Way, an English professional golfer – and former apprentice to Willie Dunn at Westward Ho! – who had emigrated to America the previous year to take up an appointment at Shinnecock Hills.

Harry Colt was commissioned to redesign the layout in 1912 and his partner Hugh Alison would return during his nine-year American stay to make further improvements in the late 1920s. Robert Trent Jones Sr. carried out a renovation in the early 1950s and Keith Foster rebuilt the bunkers in 2005 before Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm rebuilt all the greens in 2012, returning the course to its Colt/Alison roots.

The club has hosted the US Amateur twice. The first time was in 1915, with Robert A. Gardner winning for the second time, and the other occasion was in 1954, when Arnold Palmer claimed the Havemeyer Trophy after a narrow one-hole victory in the final. The course is also often used for an annual pro-am event called the Turning Point Invitational which raises money for Detroit schools.

Tom Doak commented as follows in his January 2020 newsletter:

“When Brian Slawnik did our greens renovation here a few years back, we worked around the existing bunker scheme, but the club finally decided they didn’t need every green surrounded by bunkers, and asked us to take a few more out!”

Country Club of Detroit

Lost Dunes

North America

The Country Club of Detroit commissioned Harry Colt to design the golf course at Grosse Pointe Farms in 1912. Robert Trent Jones Snr remodelled it half a century later, prior to the club hosting the 1954 US Amateur...