Bygone Birmingham: HARBORNE GC

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Tommy,

I think you are thinking of the 13th at Reddish Vale, but I don't think it's very similar:








Hope you flourish,

Mark.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Mark, that wasn't the hole I was thinking of.  Like 13 at Harborne the green was similarly sited.  I'll see if I can't come up with a picture of it.

[Sean_A]

Tommy

The only hole I can of is the short 9th.  It is sort of stuck into a corner of the property and while not a lot like Harborne's 13th, I can see a resemblance.

Ciao

[Sean_A]

Jeepers, do I ever find Colt courses compelling.  Its hard to believe a course of this quality can't attract a full membership in a city the size of Birmingham.  See the updated tour on page 1.

Ciao

[Mat Poade]

I think we are doing OK for members, like most clubs we could do with a few more though ;-) North Worcester just down the road has been sold to property developers, so I imagine we'll be OK.

[Tom Kelly]

I need to get back to Brum and have another look at Harborne, the more I look at the photos, the more it intrigues me.

How and why I didn't try to play it more whilst at uni is a mystery and a poor effort on my part!

[Sean_A]

Tom

You should make some effort to get back to Brum.  Harborne really is a decent candidate for top 100 in GB&I...though nobody but me likely believes this.  There are so many strong holes with tricky greens relying almost exclusively on slope...which means approach angles and where one leaves the putts on the greens will make a big difference to scoring.  Really, the only big issue is too may holes with a crossing water hazard, but I suspect this can't be helped due to drainage.

See the updated tour on page 1. 

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

After a long period I finally got to Harborne recently and I’m very glad I did.


Lovely use of pretty undulating terrain and lots of really fine and noticeably Colt-ish features still in place with tees and greens on higher spots, subtle use of angles, greens benched into side slopes etc. I’m afraid I don’t have the words to describe the features as I would like to......but I very much liked what I saw. Not too many trees either although I wouldn’t want to see any more.


But it’s the green complexes that were especially nice to view and play. One view that particularly caught my eye was looking left from just in front of the 17th tee where the delightful earthworks supporting the 2nd, 3rd and 7th greens could be seen in all its glory....apologies for no photo, unusually no camera with me.


Like many a course of a similar era technology in terms of ball and clubs hasn’t done it any favours, a couple of ‘bombers’ playing behind us were killing it with their distance off the tee. However, there was plenty of interest to challenge or provoke thought for those of more modest length.


The course was in very fine condition, which was amazing, staggering even, given the by U.K. standards horrendous floods and thunderstorms that had passed through a couple of days earlier. Well done to the greenkeeping crew! The bunkers alas, particularly those that had been re-done with some kind of coated stone underlay, had been well and truly trashed by the water flow. I wish the Club well in repairing them.


If you like golf architecture and Harry Colt designs in particular I recommend you put Harborne on your list of courses to play.


Atb

[Sean_A]

ATB

Once summer rolls around Harborne is often in very good nick.  In fact, the same can be said for many of the Brum courses, not surprising as they are mainly clay based with poa.  The winter is a different story!

Anyway, I am pleased you like the course, there is a lot packed into that small property.

Ciao