Hockley Golf Club

Hockley Golf Club dates back to 1914, when landowner Horace Trimmer decided to have a 9-hole course built as a silver wedding anniversary gift for his wife Bessie, who was a keen player.

Jock Woodson, club maker at the local Magdalen Hill links, laid out the holes in 1915 then he became the club’s professional for the following thirty-five years. A second nine was added soon after the layout first opened for play.

John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming take up the story in this edited extract from their book James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses: “The landowner died in March 1920, and the executors decided to review and re-align the course. Braid was their choice. He was paid £25, and had the assistance of Woodson.

The two of them walked the downland from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. placing long sticks for greens and short ones for tees. The new course was to measure 5,500 yards, and to be similar to the longer, pre-1920 course.

It would be a fascinating exercise to compare the pre-Braid course, the Braid course, and the present course. Basically, they are not dissimilar, going up to the valley, hole 5 near the top, holes 6 to 13 to the right on rising and falling land, hole 14 across the top of the downland, and holes 15 to 18 along and down the left side.”