Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club (JH Taylor)

The Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club has seen golf played in Old Deer Park for well over 100 years having been founded in 1892. Despite the club losing many historic artefacts in the clubhouse fire of 2001, the history remains with many pictures of famous faces and foremost tournaments gracing the walls of the new building. It is no surprise that with its grand location so close to central London and neighbouring the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, it is still a very popular course. Bernard Darwin wrote in 1910 that there were ‘probably more rounds played at Mid-Surrey throughout the year than any other golf club in the three kingdoms’, and whilst this is perhaps not the case today there is still a thriving membership at the club.

Along with 36 holes, Royal Mid-Surrey features an impressive array of practice facilities. There’s a large putting green in the gardens outside the clubhouse, a practice range of 180 yards or so as well as several short game areas. The clubhouse itself features several bars, a large restaurant and a snooker room whilst also hosting some of the best changing facilities anywhere to be found.

The Outer Course (now known as the JH Taylor layout) is the main course at the club. Measuring 6,402 yards, on first appearance it is not a long course but there are only two par fives keeping the par down to just 69. Seven of the par fours are over 400 yards and two of the par threes over 200. Add to that an array of large deep bunker and J.H. Taylor’s famous humps and hollows – which play like the dunes of a links course – and you start to see why the standard scratch score is set at 71. Indeed this is a course where both accuracy and length are at a premium. No sooner is this evident than the 1st hole, an opening par three of 225 yards to a small green flanked by bunkers. The test continues as the next six holes wind there way through mature trees and the boundaries of Kew. Although things start to open a little from the 8th, clever cuts to the fairways and well positioned bunkers still reward a well placed tee shot and the consequence of not hitting your mark will often be at least a stroke. Things do not get easier after the turn either as the long par fours start to bite. The closing stretch encompasses a 458-yard par four, a 209-yard par three, a 423-yard par four and another 405-yard par four. This is certainly a course where a good score needs to be built early, and then hung onto with dear life over those final stages.

The club is investing greatly in the course at present too. It is clear that the distraction of the clubhouse fire perhaps took its toll on the course, however plans are now in place – and very much evident – to once again raise the course quality and general presentation. Let it be noted however that this is by no means bad at present; the bunkers are well raked with plenty of sand in them and the greens whilst undergoing heavy maintenance at the time of writing, still roll fairly true. There should be no reason why come summer another of Bernard Darwin’s writings should not again be apt, that the greens be ‘as near perfection as anything short of a billiard-table could possibly be’.

The club is criticised at times for being laid out on land which is too flat and for not possessing any stand out holes. This we feel is unfair for whilst the land is flat, there is a general undulation down to the River Thames and the numerous humps and hollows along with several raised greens mean there are certainly flatter courses out there. There are also a number of very good holes and the overall layout is as strong as you’re likely to find. Probably the strongest run is from the 2nd to the 8th where a grand variety of trees border each of the holes. Accuracy is at a premium here, no more so than at the 3rd, a right to left dogleg where just hitting the fairway is not good enough as you could still find your approach to the green blocked by trees. Likewise the course finishes very strongly. 17 and 18 are both challenging holes that sweep gently uphill to the clubhouse. The fairway narrows over this time and the bunkering increases; there is no doubt these will have provided many an exciting finish.

Perhaps the only criticism therefore that is fair to acknowledge, is the disturbance that the flight path to Heathrow causes. This is obviously no fault of the club nor indeed is it a situation likely to change, but the paths are rotated so you may be so fortunate to play on a quieter day and living in the area I can attest that you grow accustomed to it in time. In such case it must be noted that otherwise this is a very peaceful place to be with very minimal traffic noise that pollutes so many courses which are in any kind of proximity to a motorway these days.

So we can see that in the past one hundred years little has changed, Royal Mid-Surrey is still an excellent location to enjoy a round of golf, and, as the sport increases in popularity, it is the author’s belief that shall still be the case 100 years from now.

Article by Christopher F. Hamblin