Harry Vardon

[T_MacWood]

Of the great triumvirate (Vardon, Braid and Taylor), Vardon get the least attention as a golf architect. In his design portfolio is Woodhall Spa, Little Aston, Sandy Lodge and redesigned Royal County Down among others...should he be given more credit and attention?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I suppose the reason he gets little attention is that his work at Woodhall Spa and RCD was later obliterated.  I'm going to be writing Sandy Lodge's centenary book, so I'll know rather more about it in due course, but quite a bit of his work there survives, although much of the detail building (the sleepered bunkers, for instance) was supervised by the owner.  He tinkered a lot with South Herts (although he didn't live to see his work completed) but it's not memorable architecturally.  How much of today's Little Aston is untouched Vardon I cannot say, but it is a fascinating collection of holes, the bunkering being cleverly strategic.  Its two-shot holes are too short for today's big hitters (few exceed 400 yards) but I love them.  It is probably overlooked because of its being parkland, but the subsoil is gravel and the drainage is superb, making for excellent winter golf.  I used to play Brocton Hall when I was a teenager, but I don't remember anything about it!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tom is it partly that he did so few courses?  The ones you list are about 30% of what is so far believed to be his output.  If he hadn't suffered with this health how much more could he have won and designed?   However 30% notable courses is an extraordinary strike rate - only CB McDonald scoring higher (if we rule out the one offs)?

Mark As I said on the recent Braid thread a gentleman called Ian Cumming is writing a book on the golf courses of Vardon and Taylor and if you’d like to speak to him email me and I’ll give you his number. (He also said that Vardon did more work than previously known).

 I would have thought that writing Sandy Lodge’s history is a peach of a job.  I find it an outstandingly friendly and unpretentious club with some excellent golf. Having the driving range directly in front of the course encourages a very social feeling on summer evenings.  It would also be a major candidate for a sensitive reconstruction exposing more of the sand it lies on – you can still see the outlines of many grass bunkers that grew over in WW2.   The website gives a good outline for those who are interested.

I have played a few times with David Scammell there and if you see him say hello.  He’s a long term member of the first team there and a few years ago he and the others decided that putting some gorse back would enhance the course and paid for it themselves!

Also Cornish & Whitten credit the course to Vardon/Colt and Robert Hunter reminisces in the early pages of “The Links” about playing Colt’s holes at Sandy Lodge.  David said he’d never heard of the Colt link.  Any truth in it?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tony,

Count me in as a potential purchaser of any book on Vardon, Taylor or Braid.  Such a book has to be written for love - there are all too few potentail purchasers of golf architecture books in the UK.  I don't think I've got any original material to supply to the authors, but I should be delighted to learn more about any or all of them.

Mark.

[T_MacWood]

I recall looking at an old Carter's Seed pamphlet with a few pictures of Brocton Hall and the bunkers looked fabulous. Vardon must have been affiliated with Carter's...Reginald Beale was their top golf course construction consultant and he had artistic flair in constucting bunkers.

My impression is Sandly Lodge was a prominant design in its day, somewhat revolutionary. It had some very unusual man-made hazards, sandy hillocks with tufts of rough grass. The painting in Darwin's 'Golf courses of the British Isles' shows some of them.

Vardon was connected with Ganton, I wonder if that course and Colt's work there had an impact on his golf design efforts.

[peter_p]

I can't find any link between Colt and Sandy Lodge at this site on Colt: http://www.coltassociation.co.uk/index.ph