Wakefield

Wakefield Golf Club was founded at a meeting of interested parties at the Bull Hotel, Wakefield in August 1891. Nine holes were set out on Heath Common and play got under way on 2 April 1892.

A Special General Meeting of the club was held in November 1910, with members approving a proposal to move 2½ miles to a new site owned by Sir Thomas Pilkington at Woodthorpe. Sandy Herd then laid out eighteen holes and the new course opened on 30 September 1911.

Five months later, Herd, Fowler, Colt and MacKenzie were all asked to submit their fees for bunkering plans. Alister MacKenzie was chosen to submit a report for his quoted fee of five guineas and work was authorised to start as soon as his suggestions were received.

The course was then officially opened on 25 May 1912 with an exhibition match between James Braid and J.H. Taylor. Club membership rose from 278 eight months earlier to 430 by the end of 192, more than double the number in the last year playing at Heath Common.

The course today is essentially the same as back then, with an anti-clockwise routed front nine enclosing a clockwise back nine, each loop starting from and returning to the clubhouse. The main differences are the current 1st and 2nd which were the old 1st and the original par three 3rd which no longer exists.