Taunton & Pickeridge

Major Frank Newton was the driving force behind the establishment of Taunton & Pickeridge Golf Club, founded in 1892. The Major played his golf at Burnham & Berrow and was fed up with the lengthy journey to the links, so he commissioned his friend – Herbert Fowler – to lay out nine holes across ground formerly used for lime mining and sheep grazing. Fowler was one of the club’s founding members.

Fowler and his associate Tom Simpson added nine further holes in 1925. This course remained in play until the late 1950s when further land was made available and Fred Hawtree remodelled the layout.

The course starts rather dully until you reach the 5th where the ground aspect on the tee of this short par five changes with a drive across rumpled mine workings. You may be forgiven for thinking you’re walking across links land as you approach the stroke index one’s 7th green. Old mine workings again must be avoided on the one-shot 8th where short is not advisable.

Driving off adjacent to the halfway house at #9 (the longest hole on the card) in no way prepares you for what lies ahead. The fairway undulations are simply remarkable and the bunkerless greensite with its depressed trench to the right is genius. This hole is more akin to a duneless Burnham than an inland Taunton and Pickeridge.

Mine workings continue to provide character on the next few holes, exemplified by the approach to the cunning green complex at #11 which is set prettily within wooded surrounds at the northernmost point of the property. Fairway undulations continue at the two-shot bunker-free 12th and at #13.

Heading for home, the layout continues strongly with two dogleg left par fours, one short at #15 and one long at #17, before the course finishes uninterestingly, as it started, at the innocuous short par four home hole.