A couple of weeks ago I posted a question regarding the evolution of Rye Golf Club; it was a short thread, with probably more questions than answers. But since then, I've tracked down the club history
"Rye Golf Club the first 90 years" by Denis Vidler (1984). I haven't read many club history books, but this must rank right up there with the best. Plenty of great stories and most importantly (to me) a detailed account of how the course evolved. And this course has gone through some changes, to say the least!
Here are the two maps in the book.
The 1977 map is essentially indentical to today's layout. Apart from the flooded quarry on the eleventh.
Harry Colt designed the original course in 1894 and here is
Denis Vidler's account of how the course evolved:
1907 AlterationsColt’s design produced two unequal halves, one of eight holes, played as the first half, the other ten holes, played as the second. In 1907, in order to balance the two halves, one short hole was abolished in the longer half and one added to the other. The two halves, now equally balanced, were then changed around and renumbered, the tenth hole becoming the first.
The 1907 alterations depended on finding a suitable site for a new short hole in what was then the first half. The way to this discovery was opened by the decision to reclaim land “on the shore to the south of the sandhills” in order to lengthen the hole that became the thirteenth by taking play over the hill. Until then this hole was a mere 250 yards in length, the green falling short of the sandhill on the narrow neck of fairway where a cautious second shot to the thirteenth hole now finishes. In 1905, when the idea was first mooted by C.W. Archer, Chairman of the Green Committee, the land in question was at times under water, and Archer’s bold concept not surprisingly met with a sceptical response from the Main Committee. Archer finally won his way on condition that part of the cost-£15 out of the £85-should be contributed by members who would be repaid “in the event of the experiment being successful”. Clearly a case of the proposer having to put his money where his mouth was.
For a time the success of the experiment seems to have hung in the balance and opponents of the idea named it “Archer’s Folly”. Darwin was not one of these, for writing in 1907 he praised the idea as “the famous sea hole which one of our benefactors, Clement Archer, invented so that we used to call it “Archer Field”… the second shot has to be played over an imposing range of sandhills into space. We pass up the mountains to see a vast green surrounded by a sea wall.
It was no doubt also Archer who, having taken play over the hill, saw how to bring it back to the hinterland and to create the new short hole, to become the fourteenth. A position for the tee was a chosen on top of the hill alongside the thirteenth green and, 140 yards distant on the opposite hillside on unused land, a site was selected for the green; not now easy to identify, but somewhere in the fairway of the present ninth hole.
The arrival of the new fourteenth hole opened the way for another important change, a new tee for the next hole, which lengthened it and created the fifteenth as we know it today. Before 1907 this hole was also a mere 250 yards in length, the tee situated on the bank alongside the thirteenth fairway.
The disappearance of the short hole on the other half, described by Darwin as “an extremely futile hole”, was not only good in itself but brought other benefits. The hole that was to become the third, which had shared a green with the short hole, was lengthened, the fairway turning sharp left at the Coastguard Cottages and crossing the road to a green on the sandy spit of land now used for grazing donkeys.
The other hole to benefit, the hole running parallel to the third but in the opposite direction, was the seventh, which swallowed up the yardage of the short hole, thereby increasing its own to 500 yards. Like the third it was a dog leg, the fairway following the flat land, the green on the bank between the present fourth green and fifth tee.
The single surviving hole of this half, the present fifth, underwent its one and only change in 1907. The green, previously in the valley below the tee, was raised to it present position on the hill. This suggestion is credited to R H de Montmorency during his Captaincy in 1902.
One of the original holes which deserves special mention is the first. It was no easy proposition as an opening hole. There was a ditch in front of the tee which ran the length of the fairway; another water hazard protected the green; and the Camber Road dissected the right hand side of the playing area.
The 1907 alterations were made on the recommendation of the Green Committee under the Chairmanship of Clement Archer, without expert advice. When rather late in the day, in 1909, James Braid was called in to cast an eye over what had been done, his opinion fortunately was entirely favourable. Writing in 1907, Darwin too had commented favourably on the changes, concluding his article with these words: “It is possible for the unkind critic to call the course short. It now measured 6,446 yards, but apart from the mere question of yards, it has the genuine undeniable quality of a first class course.”