The Tryall Club opened in 1958 and was one of the first golf courses of real character to be built in the Caribbean.
Overall rating
4.5
The Tryall Club opened in 1958 and was one of the first golf courses of real character to be built in the Caribbean.
Eugene Browne, a relative of the second Marquess of Sligo, former Governor and Vice Admiral of Jamaica, acquired the Tryall estate at the end of the 19th century and established a plantation that produced a million coconuts a year at its peak in the 1930s.
By the mid 1950s, however, the coconut market had declined to such an extent that the property was sold by William Delisser, husband of Eugene Browne’s daughter, to a group of Texan businessmen.
They planned to develop the estate as a resort, bringing in another native of the Lone Star state, architect Ralph Plummer – who laid out great courses at the likes of Preston Trail Golf Club and the Cypress Creek course at Champions Golf Club – to design an 18-hole layout at Tryall.
Opened in 1958, the course was one of the first of real character to be built in the Caribbean. Whilst it has never been the longest in tournament golf , measuring just over 6,300 yards when first constructed, it has never been torn apart in half a century of play, even by the pros – thanks mainly to its imaginative design and, of course, the trade winds that can bemuse and befuddle the very best of golfers.
The first six holes at Tryall are routed on the flatter part of the property near the coast and provide a gentle start to the round. From the 7th onwards, the fairways are intuitively laid out over rolling foothills and one good hole follows another, uphill and down, with the 450 yard 14th rated one of the best par four holes in all the Caribbean.
A number of important tournaments have been held at the club, starting in the mid 1980s. The Mazda Champions LPGA – Senior PGA tournament was held from 1985 to 1987, followed by the LPGA Jamaican Classic from 1988 to 1990. The prestigious Johnnie Walker World Championships then came to town between 1991 and 1995 with Fred Couples (twice), Nick Faldo, Larry Mize and Ernie Els – all Majors champions – winning.
Before the first of these World Championships, it had been mentioned that one of the pros would break 60 at Tryall, which then measured under 6,800 yards. Not only did nobody score a magic 59 or less, only Fred Couples, the winner, had a total score that broke par for the four-day tournament!
The design team of the prolific American architect Arthur Hills was involved in a minor course renovation in 2003. Although a master plan for improvements was prepared for the entire course, only the sixth green was actually rebuilt.
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