Harry Colt was the youngest of six children born to a solicitor father who died when he was only two years old. His mother then moved the family from London to Malvern, where he played golf at Worcestershire Golf Club’s original course on the common, becoming a proficient, plus-handicap player.

After attending Monkton Combe School in Bath, Colt studied law at Clare College, Cambridge. Twelve months after his 1887 enrolment, he joined the committee of the Cambridge University Golf Club and in 1889 became the club's first captain. After graduation he was admitted to the bar, becoming a solicitor and partner in the Hastings law firm of Sayer & Colt.

In 1894 he laid out the new course at Rye with Scottish professional Douglas Rolland and in 1895 was appointed Honorary Secretary of Rye Golf Club with Rolland becoming the club’s first professional. Between 1901 and 1913, Colt served as Sunningdale Golf Club’s first Secretary. Interestingly, when he first took up his appointment at Sunningdale his annual salary was £150.00, about a tenth of what he would have earned had he remained in the legal profession.

In 1907, twelve months after he reached the semi-final of the Amateur Championship, 

 (the first Honorary Secretary at Alwoodley Golf Club) called upon Colt to help him design a new course on the outskirts of Leeds, and the doctor later joined 

 becoming Colt’s second business partner. Two years later, Colt’s new course opened at Stoke Park, framed by the iconic backdrop of the 18th century mansion house, designed by James Wyatt, architect to King George III.

His “least bad course”, Swinley Forest, quietly opened for play in 1911. Authors Henry Lord and Peter Pugh, commented in 

Masters of Design – Great Courses of Colt, MacKenzie, Alison & Morrison

 as follows: “One of the most astonishing things about Colt’s routing was that it was mapped out in his mind’s eye before any of the thousands of pine trees covering the site were removed.”

Already within his portfolio were Blackmoor, St George’s Hill and Camberley Heath. Colt had also visited France and laid out Golf de Saint-Cloud in Paris. He had also sailed to North America and designed new courses for the Toronto Golf Club and the Country Club of Detroit. Additionally, Colt worked with 

 at Old Elm Club and routed Pine Valley with Philadelphian hotelier, George Crump.

In 1913, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, unable to remain committed to his duties at Sunningdale, Colt resigned as Secretary, having now established himself as one of the world’s leading golf course architects. He was now utilising the services of Suttons Seeds, along with George Franks and Claude Harris, who had formed the first golf construction firm, Franks Harris.

“When peace returned at the end of 1918”, remarked Henry Lord and Peter Pugh, “Colt wrote to all his old golfing contacts offering the services of Colt, Alison and MacKenzie… in 1920, [MacKenzie] was increasingly keen to branch out on his own, following Alison to North America and the prestigious commissions he so craved.” MacKenzie left the Colt and Alison partnership in 1923 so “Colt brought a new assistant, the 30-year-old 

, into the fold… In 1922 he began helping Colt with the building of Sunningdale’s New course… In 1928 Morrison was made an official partner and the new company of Colt, Alison & Morrison was formed.”

“Colt had really stopped designing courses in 1939, happy to let his two partners stand out on their own while he remained in the peaceful seclusion of East Hendred with his wife, Laura, until she passed away in 1948.” Henry Shapland "Harry" Colt died three years later in 1951.

 by Donald Steel: “He was the first captain of Rye in 1894, a mere five years after holding office as captain of Cambridge University. His is the first name to be shown on the Honours Board in the dining room at Worlington, although Colt’s Cambridge days preceded the club’s foundation in 1893.

Colt courses are always eminently playable, not heavily-bunkered and with no long carries. Denham is a good example of his handiwork; a stiff enough test to make good players think without posing too much of a handful for the rank and file.

Donald Ross may have had Colt in mind in his general reference to ‘golf as it was meant to be played’. Both were pioneers of a new art whereby great thoughts went into the process of providing a coherent sequence to the layout with interesting green design as a separate study.”

 by Cornish & Whitten: “Several firsts in golf course design are generally attributed to H.S. Colt. He was the first to consistently use a drawing board in preparing his course designs. He was the first to prepare tree-planting plans for his layouts.”

: “In Britain, Harry Colt was the first amateur golfer – rather than professional – to earn a reputation as an architect. Some say he is still the greatest of them all.”

“Colt had a few simple dictums. The early holes should ease you into the round; nothing too demanding at the start. Ideally, every club in the bag should be used, regardless of skill. The routing of the course would be determined by the land, and there would be no hard and fast rule about the numbers of par threes or fives on any given nine… Colt had no peer as a designer of short holes.”

 – such is the capricious nature of ceremonial awards Harry Colt is shamefully absent from the Hall of Fame despite the inclusion of a number of Colt’s contemporaries.


Creating Classics: The golf courses of Harry Colt 

Such is the capricious nature of ceremonial awards, Harry Colt is shamefully absent from the World Golf Hall of Fame despite the inclusion of a number of his contemporaries.

Harry Colt

Harry Colt studied law at Clare College, Cambridge. Twelve months after his 1887 enrolment, he joined the committee of the Cambridge University Golf Club and in 1889 became the club's first captain.

James Braid was born in 1870 to James Braid (a farm worker) and his wife Mary (née Harris) who was an accomplished weaver. His father had two other children from an earlier marriage of which he had been widowed. James came into the world at Liberty Place, between Earlsferry and Elie, but the family later moved to a small weaver’s cottage at 36 High Street, Earlsferry.

James attended Williamsburgh primary school and caddied at the local links, where he learned how to play the game. Entering a junior caddies competition aged eight, he won the event with many strokes to spare. A year later, he saw every shot played by Champion Golfer Jamie Anderson who was playing in a Professionals v Amateurs match on the Elie course.

Braid finished his schooling aged 13 and became an apprentice joiner, walking three miles to and from his place of work six days a week. Two years later, he had enough money to pay his entry fee and annual subscription as a member of Earlsferry Thistle, the artisan club attached to the Elie golf course, and he won the second medal he contested on what was then still an 11-hole layout.

Braid moved to St Andrews in 1889, playing in matches against Andrew Kirkcaldy and his brother Hugh, then moved to Edinburgh two years later, joining the Edinburgh Thistle Club which played on the Braids municipal moorland course overlooking the capital. He spent another two years working there before heading south of the border.

His cousin Charles Smith, the foreman clubmaker at the Army and Navy Stores in London had notified Braid of a vacancy that had arisen. So, although Braid had never made a club in his life and knew nothing about the process, he set off for the Big Smoke with at least an understanding of how to work with wood and tools.

From late 1893 until the summer of 1896, Braid’s time away from his London day job saw him practice at a number of clubs, including Chiswick, Sudbrook Park and Mid-Surrey. He also assisted at Hastings in 1895 before becoming the fulltime professional at Romford a year later.

Braid laid out the course at nearby Theydon Bois in 1898, receiving £4.13s.6d for his efforts. It was a 9-hole affair (which 

 extended to eighteen holes in 1971), most of which is still intact. It would be the first of many courses he’d design but his professional playing career was also in full swing.

Three years after winning his first Open in 1901, Braid moved to Walton Heath and he would remain Head Professional there until his death forty-six years later. The club’s two courses are the work of 

 and the canny Scotsman knew better than to tinker with layouts generally accepted as being among the best in the British Isles.

Instead, he concentrated on winning the Open again and by the end of the decade, he would be crowned Champion Golfer of the Year and hold aloft the Claret Jug a further four times; twice at St Andrews in 1905 and 1910, at Muirfield (again) in 1906 and at Prestwick in 1908.

Braid had a remarkable playing record in The Open, entering every championship between 1896 and 1938. All told, he took part in 39 events (38 consecutively) with an astonishing nineteen Top 10 finishes.

His record in the News of the World match play was also very impressive, competing in 32 consecutive tournaments from 1903 to 1939 (winning four times and finishing runner-up twice).

It’s reckoned that Braid played more than 1800 rounds of 18-hole golf during his playing career in matches, tournaments and qualifying events and his record stands up well against the other two members of the Great Triumvirate – versus Harry Vardon it’s 55 won, 12 drawn, 49 lost and against J.H. Taylor it’s 41 won, 11 drawn, 36 lost.

Braid’s contract at Walton Heath allowed him to be away from the club for up to ninety days during a year so, when he was not competing in tournaments, he was able to travel the length and breadth of the country designing new courses or modifying and advising on existing layouts.

During his career, it’s reckoned Braid designed more than a hundred 9-hole and 18-hole courses. He also extended more than fifty 9-holers to 18-hole layouts and he either reconstructed or altered over two hundred courses in some way or another, even if just advising on new bunker schemes.

Braid rarely travelled abroad – he was apparently affected badly by motion sickness – so his foreign designs are limited to around a dozen in total in N. Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man. He ventured occasionally to play on the continent of Europe, winning the French Open at La Boulie in 1910.

Braid used Paisley contractor John R. Stutt for construction work on at least fifty of his projects over a time span of more than quarter of a century and it was his trusted friend Stutt who completed his last course at Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway, shortly after he died in 1950.

James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses

, authors John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming had this to say in their epilogue: “Braid’s courses seem to stand the test of time better than most… [his] work will never become obsolete: it has actually become ‘required reading’ for today’s trainee architects who, it is to be hoped, will remember the values which Braid established.”

Kevin Kenny ended an essay entitled ‘The design work of James Braid in Ireland’ in the book 

Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective (Volume Six)

“When summing up Braid’s work in Ireland, two things stand out: firstly, the simple but effective practice of adding trees and bunkers to provide definition to the courses under his care; and, secondly, and of greatest significance, the efficient and distinctly non-fussy manner in which he went about his work.

J.R. Stutt, who did most, if not all, of the construction work on Braid’s Irish designs, confirmed that ‘his plans were always crystal clear and definite; and it was exceptional indeed for even minor alterations to be made during the carrying out of his work’.

Similarly, when assessing his qualities as a golf course architect, Bernard Darwin, his friend and biographer, declared that Braid had a ‘good eye for country, a temperate judgement and a fund of plain common sense.’

These qualities were seen to great effect wherever he worked in Ireland. Invariably, this involved short visits, followed by a succinct letter or plan of his suggestions. And Braid’s willingness to utilise nature, as much as sensibly possible, was a constant hallmark.

Today, in an era of large golf design teams utilising earth-moving technology, and firms who introduce artificial water hazards, it is worth remembering that one of the game’s true and lasting giants found such economical ways to create courses. These have been challenging and enjoyable to play. Furthermore, they have endured the test of time.”

Author George E. Payne’s brilliant three-volume book 

Divine Fury of James Braid: Professional Golf Standard Bearer

 pays tribute to James Braid, the man, as illustrated in the following edited extract:

“James Braid was a friend of king and road sweeper alike who never moved a step to seek popularity and yet attained it in rich measure. He refused to have a telephone at home saying if he had one he would never get any peace. Never possessing a car, Braid travelled everywhere by train and was said to know the train timetables to golf venues off by heart.

Over his 80-year lifespan Braid was seldom seriously ill unlike his great friend and rival Harry Vardon. His eyes were his most frequent problem (resulting) from an accident during his time as a joiner in his teens, when he accidentally got lime in his eyes, leaving him almost blind in his left eye.

Vardon, J.H. Taylor and Braid were all relatively abstemious, but all enjoyed a drink. Braid’s favourite tipple was a glass of port. Early in his career Braid was said to be a smoker but by 1911 it was recorded that ‘he never smokes’. In later life he was said to be partial to a pinch of snuff.

Braid was a grand gallery player and crowd pleaser. Wherever he went, if he failed to break the course record, he would certainly hit some record drives, carries and cleek shots, the like of which had never been seen on the course before. This made him a more interesting player to follow than those who played a more methodical steady game without serious risk taking.

Braid habitually went for the big shot if there was any chance of achieving it. They say he was never happier than when playing from deep rough. No rough was too dense for his excavations and no carry too intimidating for his courage. He found the clubs of his day inadequate for getting out of heavy rough and invented the great big niblick.

Braid maintained a Ledger Book in which he kept details of his non-Walton Heath professional’s trading between 1919-20 and 1939-40. Braid’s income after expenses was an average £302-15-5 per annum. The ledger also contains names of greenkeepers who were seeking employment and quotations from clubmakers and tree surgeons.

Braid, though by nature reserved to the point of shyness, was a man of great character. His opinion, if he could be persuaded to give it, carried immense weight and his wisdom and judgement were universally recognised. He had a truly Scottish pawky sense of humour and retained every national characteristic of a Scot, even his accent went unchanged despite the long time he lived in England.

Braid entered hospital in November 1950 for what seemed a routine appendix operation, but sadly he failed to recover from the trauma thereof and passed away, in the presence of his sons, some three weeks later in a nursing home on 27th November. James had the good fortune to lead a full life up to the very end, a happy warrior still in harness.”

Harry Vardon wrote in 1912: “I enjoy nothing more than the sight of Braid getting out of the rough. The best – worst – of Braid in the rough is that it generally means no punishment at all for him. It is a real treat to watch him playing a shot in an extremely difficult position. He has no equal at it. The only place in which he is beaten is the place in which he has no room to swing his club. Give him just enough space to raise the implement and he will recover from anything. The trouble may be gorse or rank grass, or rocks or a railway track; as he takes the club up you know something will have to go, and that the ball will go with it.”

Bernard Darwin wrote in 1934: “As regards golfers, nobody could look so wise as James Braid is. There is nobody whose every word and action is so redolent of sagacity. One thinks of him first and foremost as a man of extraordinary cool, wise judgement. Certainly, no man ever played golf with a wiser head. He was a superb iron player, a master of very kind of running shot and though not a naturally good putter he made himself for one period of his career almost a great one. A better player out of difficulties I am sure was never seen, he was as skilful and resourceful as he was strong.”

J.H. Taylor wrote in 1943: “James had tacked on to him the reputation of a bad putter. This may have been justified when in the early days he was gathering the threads of his game together and showed weakness when it was a matter of knocking the ball into the hole from short distance, a weakness that afflicts all. This supposed weakness is more than compensated by the exactitude of the long run-up approach putts. As a diviner of the true line to the hole there is no superior – I have yet to meet the player who could hole the ten-yard putt with greater regularity.”

Henry Cotton wrote in 1948: “This tall, stooping, ruddy-complexioned old Scot is one of the wonders of the golfing world. Jimmy, besides being a great golfer from a technical point of view, is the possessor of a wonderful temperament; he learned never to show any emotion in his golf, and in addition is a man of very few words. He has a great eye for a golf hole and will cross a tract of virgin land and plot out golf holes as well as any man. He has been a successful golf architect and his many golf courses are not rubber stamped; they are original.”

James Braid and His Four Hundred Golf Courses

 by John F. Moreton and Iain Cumming (2013)

World Golf Hall of Fame – Class of 1976: “James Braid’s worst finish in The Open Championship from 1901-1910 was fifth. In 1904, he was also the first player in an Open to break 70, shooting 69 in the third round at Royal St. George’s.”

James Braid

James Braid was born in 1870 in Earlsferry, the adjoining village to Elie in the East Neuk of Fife. He became a member of Earlsferry Thistle aged fifteen and was off scratch by his sixteenth birthday.

Vardon was born in Jersey, the son of an English gardener (Philip George Vardon) and a French mother (Elizabeth Augustine Bouchard), into a family of six boys and two girls. Both he and his younger brother Tom spent most of their summer holidays caddying on the local links.

Along with Ted Ray and a few others, the Vardons were part of a group that become known as the 'Jersey School' which emanated from the Caddies Competitions run by Royal Jersey Golf Club, allowing youngsters to learn to play the game on the course without a membership.

Tom Vardon turned professional first and headed off to England in search of golfing fame and fortune (he would later emigrate to the United States where he worked for twenty-five years until he died in 1938) with Harry following him across the Channel in 1890.

Harry became a farmhand before he’d even reached his teenage years then he was a gardener to a Mr Spofforth who was a golfer. Just like James Braid and J.H. Taylor, he joined a local Working Men’s Golf Club and was soon playing off a plus 3 handicap when he teed it up to play occasional rounds with his employer.

His first appointment in England was as the professional/greenkeeper at Studley Royal Golf Club in Ripon then he moved on to Bury Golf Club for a short time – playing in his first Open at Prestwick alongside J.H. Taylor at Prestwick in 1893 – before taking up a plum position at Ganton in 1896.

That year, after the County match between Hampshire and Yorkshire played at Ganton, club members raised money for a challenge match between Vardon and 

Vardon won this match 8&6 over 36 holes then went on a month later to win the Open at Muirfield, after a play-off against Taylor. He also won another two Opens whilst at Ganton (Prestwick in 1898 and Royal St George’s in 1899) then finished runner-up the following three years.

There were many big money, winner-takes-all challenge matches arranged in those days, with Vardon playing against others such as Ben Sayers and 

 His 1899 match play tussle against Willie took place over 36 holes at North Berwick and 36 holes at Ganton. Harry carried a 2-hole lead into the second game at his home club in Yorkshire, winning 11 &10 and collecting the purse of £200.

Vardon was at the height of his powers when he made his first tour of the United States and Canada in 1900 (he would later visit in 1913 and 1920). His sponsors, AG Spalding, had just brought out the "The Vardon Flyer" and they wanted their man to promote the new ball.

In effect, Harry became golf’s first international celebrity when he made this tour and it lasted almost twelve months, covering many thousands of miles. He played literally dozens of matches and exhibitions and it’s said he only ever lost two games (both against Boston professional Ben Nicholls) during the tour.

It was a highly successful overseas venture for Vardon, culminating in his 2-stroke victory in the 6th edition of the US Open at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois in October 1900, with J.H. Taylor in second place and eight Scotsmen occupying all of the other Top 10 positions.

After leaving Ganton in 1903 (succeeded by Ted Ray, his fellow Channel Islander, good friend and rival, who also went on to become an Open Champion and US Champion) he joined South Hertfordshire Golf Club, where he remained for the rest of his golfing career.

Vardon won the 1903 Open at Prestwick from his brother Tom, though he was ill during the tournament and subsequently spent more than six months at Mundesley Sanatorium in Norfolk battling tuberculosis, a condition he would continue to fight for years to come.

He challenged strongly every year for the Open up until the First World War and he won the tournament twice again, in 1911 and 1914. Together with 

 and J.H. Taylor, Vardon formed what was dubbed “The Great Triumvirate” of golf, with these three claiming sixteen of the twenty-one Opens contested between 1894 and 1914.

Vardon toured North America again in 1913, accompanied by Ted Ray, and they played an extensive series of forty-five exhibition matches, winning thirty-six of them. He finished second in the US Open that year in a 3-way play-off against Ted Ray and eventual winner Francis Ouimet.

His last trip across the Atlantic came after the Great War in 1920, aged 50, and he was accompanied once more by Ted Ray, playing a gruelling schedule of nearly 100 exhibition and challenge matches over a 6-month period. He again finished second in the US Open, a stroke behind the champion, Ted Ray.

During his career, Vardon won forty-nine individual titles and thirteen team events, nine of which were when representing England against Scotland. It’s said that over the two-year period of 1898 to 1899, he won fourteen of the seventeen events he played in, finishing as runner-up in the other three.

He struggled with health problems in his later years, turning to coaching and writing golf instruction books.

: “Vardon taught himself the effortless, upright swing that would serve him the rest of his life. Still, as a child he played very few actual rounds of golf, never had a lesson and at age 13 became an apprentice gardener. He played in a few tournaments into his late teens and didn’t decide to make it a career until he saw that his younger brother, Tom, had turned professional and was doing well in tournaments.

But Vardon was made for golf. Although only 5-feet 9-inches and 155 pounds, he had enormous hands that melted perfectly around the club. He also possessed a sweet, peaceful temperament. Most of all, Vardon had a swing that repeated monotonously. His swing was more upright and his ball flight higher than his contemporaries, giving Vardon’s approach shots the advantage of greater carry and softer landing. He took only the thinnest of divots.

Vardon played in knickers (the first professional to do so), fancy-topped stockings, a hard collar and tie and tightly buttoned jacket, but still there was a wonderful freedom to his movement. He allowed his left arm to bend as he reached the top of the backswing, and there was a lack of muscular stress or tension at any part of the swing. 'Relaxation,' he said, 'added to a few necessary fundamental principles, is the basis of this great game.'”

From bleacherreport.com: “Due in large part to Hollywood’s depiction of the 1913 US Open in the popular film 

, most associate Harry Vardon with his unsuccessful trip to America in 1913. However, 13 years earlier in 1900, the Vardon Invasion occurred.

While in the prime of his career, Vardon toured America for several months, won at least 70 out of 80 exhibition matches and concluded his tour by winning the 1900 US Open by two strokes over J.H. Taylor. Vardon’s tour of America in 1900 more or less introduced this young nation to the game of golf.

Little did he know that 13 years later this introduction would come back to bite him at the Country Club in Brookline, MA.

When we think of winning streaks in golf, three things come to mind.

1) Bobby Jones' four consecutive Majors in 1930

2) Tiger Woods’ four consecutive Majors between 1999 and 2000

3) Byron Nelson’s eleven consecutive wins in 1945

But Harry Vardon has an impressive streak of his own, only it’s not recognized by most golf fans. During the prime of his career, Vardon had a streak of 14 consecutive wins in Europe. This is better than Nelson’s streak of 11, only it’s not recognized by most fans and analysts because it took place in Europe.”

Courtesy of Ganton Golf Club: “Vardon was an excellent all round sportsman playing cricket in his youth and whilst at Ganton first played centre forward and later in goal for the village football team.

Vardon's swing was much more upright than was the vogue at the time, and he played with a slightly bent left arm and a flying right elbow, when the fashion was for a rigid left arm. He was rare among great players in not taking a divot with any of his shots.

So precise was he with all his clubs that he could always sweep the ball off the turf cleanly, hardly disturbing the surface at all. He showed that rhythm and timing were more valuable than strength.

Nevertheless, Vardon had the reputation of being a long hitter, though the clubs he used were lightweight and never more than 10 in number. He popularised the overlapping grip, which became known as the Vardon Grip, although he did not in fact invent it.

Vardon was a kindly and considerate man of great courage. His name will live in golf annals. Not only was he the supreme player of his time but he was a catalyst to the development of golf in America and his methods are a link between the style of the early players and the modern approach.”

James Braid attended Harry Vardon’s funeral with J.H. Taylor and he paid this tribute to his departed friend and rival: “We have lost one of the immortals of our great game of golf. Harry Vardon was a name synonymous with all that is finest in golf and in a man. Harry was truly one of the pioneers of golf as we know it today. By his play and by his attitude as a player he accomplished a great deal in popularising the game he so much loved. His style was that of the old master. How his grace and accuracy could still be copied today. He will stand as the true example of a great golfer. In common with all my brother golfers I mourn his passing.”


World Golf Hall of Fame – Class of 1974: "Harry Vardon was possessed with a talent and method so singular he was considered a shotmaking machine in the era of hickory and gutta percha. He won The Open a record six times and was golf’s first superstar. Vardon was a true original. On his own, he developed the Vardon Grip, the grip used by 90 percent of golfers today."

Harry Vardon

In 1900, Vardon embarked on a year-long tour of the US and Canada to promote AG Spalding's new “Vardon Flyer" golf ball. The Open Champion quickly become golf’s first international celebrity.

Staffordshire

England

South Staffordshire Golf Club came into being in 1892, moving north to its present location sixteen years after its formation. Harry Vardon - who at that time had won four of his record six Open championships - was entrusted with the design of the club’s new course in 1908.

Soon after, Harry Colt made some improvements, as did James Braid in 1936 when he combined the first two holes and designed a new 7th and 8th. Fred Hawtree and Donald Steel also carried out more upgrading work in 1967 and 2003, respectively, when the 15th hole was altered and general bunkering modification were made.

Today, the course measures just over 6,500 yards from the back markers and plays to a par of 71. With a standard scratch score of one more than the par, golfers should not expect a walk in the park when they tee it up here.

Head Professional Peter Baker - a member of the GB & NI Walker Cup team in 1985 and a Ryder Cup player for Europe in 1993 - currently holds the course record with a fabulous score of 63 which was some mark to make on a tough track during the Captain’s Charity Pro-Am in 2010.

The holes at South Staffordshire are routed in an old-fashioned out and back manner, with the 5th hole, a 480-yard par five, rated the toughest hole on the front nine as it doglegs left and slightly uphill to a raised green. On the inward half, the 444-yard right doglegged 12th is the one that gives golfers most difficulty, with a blind approach to a sloping green causing all sorts of trouble.

South Staffordshire

Beau Desert

Britain & Ireland

Originally designed by Harry Vardon, and remodelled by Harry Colt, James Braid and then by Donald Steel, South Staffordshire Golf Club is a quintessential gem.