Croham Hurst

The following edited extract is from the John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses: “Golf Illustrated is excellent in charting the origins of this South Croydon club, in almost a blow by blow account.

On October 1911 it announced that James Braid ‘has reported very favourably’ on the grounds proposed. In December it reveals that the club will have two professionals and two courses, one a nine hole course. On 13th April 1912 Braid and three others opened the course though only nine holes were in play.

In August 1912 the magazine states that the eighteen hole course will be seeded in early autumn, and it will have greens on ‘absolutely modern lines and bunkers like fortifications, all under the joint supervision of James Braid and F. Hawtree’.

In April [1913] the main course is still not ready. Braid and Hawtree are projecting a summer or early autumn opening for their 6400-yard course ‘full of interest over pleasantly undulating country’. No expense is being spared, says the article.

On 25th October 1913 the course was opened. A detailed look at the present scorecard suggests holes 1, 2, 6 to 9 and 16 to 18 are virtually the same holes, but holes 3 to 5 are much reduced in yardage. Holes 10 to 15 have a different order.

Harold Hilton was very appreciative of the course and Braid’s architecture, though he had the temerity to half criticize Braid’s bunkering as being ‘a little too simple’ though it is a ‘fault on the right side’. It was a longish course and perhaps Braid decided to be lenient to its players.”