Hadley Wood

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I've been invited to play in a company day at Hadley Wood. Does any of you know it?

[Neil_Crafter]

Mark it is a Mackenzie designed course near London from the immediate post WW1 period. Our friend Nick Norton plays there I believe so you could email him for more info. What it is like today I don't know as I haven't seen it myself. Would be worth making our usual enquiries while you are there as I don't believe we have been in touch with them. 

[Neil_Crafter]

Mark
Just checked and the course was opened in May 1922 and it was constructed by Franks Harris Bros. Mackenzie attended the opening.
Here are a few period postcards to give you an idea of how the course once looked. Have fun!

[Paul_Turner]

Neil

So this must have been designed while he was with Colt and Alison?  (Franks Harris being Colt's construction team of choice).  Interesting because Hadley Wood is in the South so should have been in Colt's territory.

Whereas say Prestbury (1921) is in Mackenzie's territory and is mostly Colt's work (although we know that Mack visited there too).   The whole partnership seems very strange in how the work was split up.

PS I think John Morrison redesigne some holes later on.

[Neil_Crafter]

Paul
Yes the whole idea of a partnership is a mystery to me as to how it worked. I can only think that it wasn't necessarily territorial as you would expect London to be Colt if so. Mackenzie did the London Flying Club at Hendon around 1920 as well as a few others. I imagine if you brought the project into the partnership it was yours. There are even cases of Colt and Mac separately submitting for the same project while in partnership! Very odd.

On a slightly related note, have you heard of Colwyn Bay GC in Wales (NLE) which is recorded as being designed by Colt Mackenzie and Alison? Wasn't listed in Colt & Co.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Did you ever get to play Hadley Wood, Mark?

I'm playing Stoke Park and Camberley Heath with the MacKenzie Society in a couple of weeks' time and was intrigued to discover that there s a Dr Mac course nearby. Most are in the north.

Is it worth taking a look?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Duncan,

Sadly I never did get to Hadley Wood - it would have been during a company day for the company my younger son was then working for.

I knew Stoke Park as Stoke Poges in the days before the courses were modified. It was a lovely, if run-down, private club with sensible green fees. It is now very high end. Enjoy the clubhouse! Camberley, too, was in its days before its Japanese make-over and the introduction of that silly lake. Lovely course in those days, but a feeling of constriction with surrounding housing and roads.

Stoke Park's near neighbours are Beaconsfield and Denham, both Colt, and Mark Pearce could advise on other Chiltern courses. Otherwise, from Camberley, I'd head for Woking.

M.

[Adam Lawrence]

Frank Pont is underway with a bunker restoration project at Camberley Heath, so it's likely you'll see works going on.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Neil, Here's an informative article about Colwyn Bay. I have an elderly aunt who lives in a house on St Andrews Road which lies on part of what used to be the course. http://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-64/1031-colwyn-bay-golf-club-upper-colwyn-conwy
Mark.

[Mark Pearce]

I knew Stoke Park as Stoke Poges in the days before the courses were modified. It was a lovely, if run-down, private club with sensible green fees. It is now very high end. Enjoy the clubhouse! Camberley, too, was in its days before its Japanese make-over and the introduction of that silly lake. Lovely course in those days, but a feeling of constriction with surrounding housing and roads.

Stoke Park's near neighbours are Beaconsfield and Denham, both Colt, and Mark Pearce could advise on other Chiltern courses. Otherwise, from Camberley, I'd head for Woking.

I liked Stoke Park more when it was a run-down private club than the glorified CCFAD it has become.  The glorious clubhouse has become rather too plush for my sensibilities.  Last time I was there (earlier this summer) there was evidence that they are enlarging the greens to reverse years of shrinkage and I was very impressed by the condition of the course and the direction it was going in.  The course is good but I prefer both Denham and Beaconsfield, which are the best of the clubs in that part of Buckinghamshire.  Burnham Beeches is a step below Stoke Park, Denham and Beaconsfield but for pure GCA interest from Camberley Woking and the other 2 Ws are closer and superior.

[Ben Attwood]

I played here today and really enjoyed it. It has squeezed in the top 100 in England and apparently the membership is interested in restoring original features. The bunkers are notable and retain some of the character, if not the scale of the ones pictured above. The course was in good condition, although wet. It was challenging in that golden age way with quite a bit of elevation change and rarely a straight putt or even stance.


To top it off a very welcoming pro, who kept knocking the price down as he didn't think I'd get 18 in (I did). Even Sean Arble may have found the fee acceptable!