Hull

Founded in 1904 by nine local golfers of whom Haggitt Colbeck, a solicitor, was the first captain, Hull Golf Club started out with a 9-hole course on a site off Anlaby Road, three miles east of its current location, which later became Boothferry Park, the home of Hull City Football Club until recent times.

The story continues with the following edited extract is from James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses by John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming:

“Twenty years at the Anlaby course were brought to an end when the council embarked on a ring road around Hull. The Hellyer family, who owned the land, gave notice to the club, and a move to nearby Kirkella, a site of 108 acres, was logical.

Braid’s design consisted of three loops: holes 1 to 5 internal, 6 to 12 anti-clockwise along the perimeter of the land, and 13 to 18 along the south side and then internal, a fairly predictable layout. Braid’s four par threes almost underline his philosophy.

The 4th travels east, the 8th south, the 13th northwest , the 16th west. The lengths vary too.

This parkland course has stood the test of time, only the 9th changing, into a dogleg. Two aspects have changed: the reduction of over a hundred bunkers down to about fifty, and the difference in trees.

Old age, storms and Dutch Elm disease removed some of the original trees and many from the 1950s’ planting, resulting in the present greater diversity. The number of full Braid courses which have scarcely changed over the years is small. Hull is one of them.”