South Moor

Located to the south of the colliery town of Stanley, the South Moor & Craighead Course was officially opened on 26 April 1924 by Sir Clive Morrison-Bell, Member of Parliament for Honiton in east Devon. He presented the club with a silver claret jug to mark the occasion and this trophy is still played for annually.

The father of the mine’s superintendent had had his arm amputated by Alister MacKenzie and it was through his introduction that the architect visited the club in 1925 to suggest improvements to the layout.

According to the club, “the supremo suggested major improvements to the course routing. He did so on the proviso that the club could get colliery board approval to extend westwards onto more promising land.

It required the removal of gorse and scrub to create fairways for the challenging holes that still wind their way through some of the most interesting contours of the current course.”

The club has plans that show eighteen holes on its east side in 1924. The following year, MacKenzie developed holes 8-17 as new on the west side then used the east side land to create holes 1-7 and the 18th.

Today, the course extends to 6,293 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 72 – 35 out and 37 in, with the inward half measuring almost 400 yards longer than the outward half.

Unusually, two of the opening three holes are par threes, at the 161-yard 1st and 147-yard 3rd. Back-to-back short par fours at the 5th and 6th offer reasonable birdie chances, with the 512-yard 12th a tough nut to crack, rated stroke index 1.