Most Influential Inland Course - Woking?

[BCrosby]

I knew Woking was a well respected course and worth a visit. I never thought of it, however, as having major historical significance.

But writing in the late '20's, Tom Simpson says that Woking was a watershed inland course. Built originally by Tom Dunn, about 1905 (?) he says the work of John Low and Stuart Paton there represented the first application of strategic design features to a heathlands course. Prior to Woking, he says, inland golf was dominated by "Victorian" designs, an era Simpson calls the Dark Ages. After Woking, things were different.

I know that Woking was one of Bobby Jones's favorite courses. He used the CL bunker on the 4th at Woking as the model for a CL bunker (NLE) he built on the 11th at ANGC.

But I never thought of Woking as a pivotal course in the history of gca. Is Simpson right about the significance of Woking?

Bob

[Tony_Muldoon]

Bob I understand there is a club history but I've yet to locate one.  I'd like to know the period of time they did their work over as I get the impression it was quite a few years. Low was well connected and an early writer.
It was the first Heathland course although mystifyingly Darwin refers to marshy ground.  He also says that from the 1890's it's the first place he recalls the distinction between mown fairways and rough.

It will be very interesting to hear what people know.

[Bill_McBride]

Bob, I think I read recently that the centerline bunker at Woking emulates the Principal's Nose at #16 Old Course.  As such, it wouldn't be an original feature, right?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Bill you're correct, the Principal's Nose is not original to Woking but, as Ran explains in his excellent review, it was the first time that such a feature was incorporated into an inland course to introduce stragey on an otherwise simple and short Par 4.

[BCrosby]

Bill -

Yes, it does appear to borrow from the PN concept. In fact the 4th at Woking, with OB right, is kissin' cousins with the 16th at TOC.

Simpson's point, however, was that such features were new to inland courses and Woking was the first to use them.

Bob

[Tom_Doak]

I love Woking, which Darwin wrote so eloquently about.  It was certainly an important course in its day.

The course made a deep impression on Tom Simpson and probably several others among the architects working in England at that point.  However, there is little evidence to suggest that it had a major influence on the work of Colt or Fowler or Braid.

Dr. MacKenzie never mentioned Woking, however one could make the case that the success and acclaim for Woking's "amateur" designers (John Low and Stuart Paton) led the way for the Country Life contest, MacKenzie's prominence, and the interest of other "amateur" designers such as George Thomas and Robert Hunter and Jack Neville.  

Certainly, John Low was a respected figure in the circle of golf architecture back in the day ... he is quoted in nearly all of the great architecture books of the 1920's, including Dr. MacKenzie's, but all for his general views on golf architecture rather than about Woking directly.

[Chris_Clouser]

Bob,

In a hurry so these thoughts may not make sense just thrown together.

Simpson wrote about Woking because it was the course that he was a member at and a course that influenced him, after the changes made by Paton and Low.  The time Simpson joined the club was after Sunningdale and Huntercombe were both completed.  The reason Simpson probably joined Woking was because it was a "barrister" club and most, if not all, the members were barristers.  

Woking was perhaps the dominant club in the London suburbs from 1894 to 1901 when Sunningdale was completed.  But I think that was more of a membership allure than with the quality of the course.  Up to that point it was still the original Dunn layout.  Paton and Low didn't start their work until after 1900 from all accounts I have read.  If someone has evidence that says otherwise though I'm all ears on that matter.  Because it would be quite important from a timline perspective.

I would guess, depending on the architect, you could find other courses that were just as influential in there career.
For example, Abercromby would probably say Huntercombe was much more influential on his career.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Do we know the precise dates of Low and Paton's work at Woking?  If it is 1905, then it is post Sunningdale which was surely very influential in the style of heathland golf.

[BCrosby]

Chris -

Thanks. Interesting.

I'll check the Simpson passages again tonight, but he seems to talk as if the Low/Paton changes were something he had never seen before. He says most of the club members hated them originally, but he thought they were fascinating and they were what got him interested in gca.

He does credit Sunningdale, Walton Heath and Huntercombe as also being important, but he suggests that the Low/Paton changes at Woking predated them.

I don't know whether Simpson was right about that. I guess it's possible (though I think unlikely) that he just was touting his own club.

In any event, I would like to know more about those pivotal years. There was a lot going on and it had huge consequences for gca.

Bob

[Tony_Muldoon]

(I'm doing this from memory so if Richard Pennell reads this can you please confirm).

The above is the principals nose feature that Simpson introduced on the 14th at New Zealand. I believe he referenced it back to the one at Woking which is less than 5 miles away.  I'm not sure exactly when Simpson worked on New Zealand but it would have been some after the corse opened in 1905(?).

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tony, I think New Zealand opened in 1895.

[Sean_A]

My date for the Low-Patton bunker is 1900 and Tom Dunn completing the course in 1893.  Darwin was a mega advocate for Woking.  He described Woking as "one of the stars of sand and heather".  Darwin also said "although my judgement may not be strictly an impartial one, I still think it is the pleasantest of all upon which to play..."

Ciao

[Tony_Muldoon]

Mark as ever you are correct.  

Another admirer of Woking was Guy Campbell the architect of Pulborough "Woking possesses more good strategic holes than any other inland course" and "I never cease admiring the genius which created these holes, especially when on remembers that they were made long before the southern golfer had been educated up to this kind of thing".

John Laing Low was captain 1901-1902, Stuart Patton (“The Mussolini of Woking" Darwin) was Captain in 1902-3.  I would guess the changes started during their tenure.  The fourth is commonly referred to as the first strategic inland hole. The recent book “The Centurions of Golf” described their work as improvements to “Dunn’s somewhat simple layout. Redundant bunkers were removed and replaced by grassy hollow, undulations and subtle slopes were built into Dunn’s flat, square greens, and tees were repositioned.”  Finegan says it was cross bunkers that were eliminated.

As to the influence of the club it had many famous members. Low was influential with the R&A, particularly on the Rules Committee (it was only in 1897 that the R&A’s version of the Rules were universally accepted.); Darwin became a member in 1897.  Balfour was captain 1904-5.

Low wrote in Concerning Golf (2nd ed. 1906) about a club with which he was connected recently adding a bunker at the 17th that aroused bemused comments from members.

We have to remember it was the first course built on the free draining Heathland close to London; as such it would have been watched and much admired. Its timing couldn’t have been bettered when it was founded in 1892 it was at the cusp of an explosion in interest in Golf. Being close to a railway line meant it could easily attract a wealthy and influential clientele from London and right from the start it attracted golfers of real historical interest to join. I can find no record of it hosting tournaments and this may have led to it becoming less well known than say Worplesdon, Walton Heath or Sunningdale.  I would love to see a copy of the History.