Sandwell Park

Sandwell Park Golf Club was originally founded as West Bromwich Golf Club in 1895, with members playing on a 9-hole course at Churchfield before the club moved two years later to its current location, closer to Birmingham city centre.

The new 9-hole course opened on Christmas Day 1897 then Harry Vardon played J.H. Taylor in an exhibition match the following November, with both professionals casting an eye over land earmarked for an additional nine. Vardon returned to play James Braid in October 1901 when the new course was brought into play.

Plans were drawn up by Harry Colt in 1911 for a radical reworking of the course and work was carried out while allowing members to play on temporary holes until competitions re-commenced in September 1912.

After World War II, Colt’s design partner John Morrison advised the club then Fred W. Hawtree designed a new 16th hole when the 10th was lost to the M5 motorway in the late 1960s. The modern-day course retains all but four of its original Colt greens (on holes 9 and 16-18).

Mackenzie & Ebert produced a course audit for the club in 2020 and it will be interesting to see to what extent their recommendations on irrigation, tree management and bunkers are subsequently acted upon.