The story of Alfie and Harry Ward’s Arbory Brae golf course is a tale of … what?
The, now closed, course was located in south central Scotland one mile off a busy motorway and was many things. Shakespeare might say it was, ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’ What it was NOT was eighteen holes, long, glitzy, manicured, or restored by a ‘name’ architect.
Willie Fernie of Troon fame laid out the nine holer on 25 acres on the side of Arbory Brae hill in 1892. It laid fallow for decades before the Ward brothers resuscitated it in the mid-1990s. Measuring less than 2000 yards, its scorecard didn’t dazzle the modern golfer and his snazzy smart phone. Very few courses featuring holes that average 204 yards do!
It remains a story of the cussed determination of two brothers to dust off a village course and re-open it to the public. Located in a beautiful secluded valley, the course would serve as a means to reconnect with the way the game was once played. No muss, no fuss, hit it and go get it in a pastoral setting. To authenticate the experience, Alfie and Harry even developed their own gutta percha ball. Doing that took a lot of brain power! Other sources of inspiration for the brothers included Max Behr and the inimitable Tom Paul, who gets a very nice shout out in their Feature Interview.
The splendid setting of Arbory Brae as seen from high above.The brothers displayed world famous Scottish grit. While they had each other, they didn’t have much else as they poured thousands of man hours into the project. The right equipment would have reduced the manual labor considerably but they didn’t have it. They persevered, going broke every step of the way. Heroes like David Joy and Archie Baird helped but the bigger institutions withheld support. The huge industry that is Scottish tourism couldn’t - or wouldn’t
– get their heads around this different brand of golf. No marketing budget existed to take notice. It was strictly word of mouth.
I wish I could say I have met these guys but I haven’t. Alfie and I have corresponded going on 14 years now. He kindly wrote up Arbory Brae as an In My Opinion piece at the start of this century. Alfie wrote that this
‘Arbory Brae golf course and its modest little Pavilion are the living proof of ‘grass roots’ golf in Scotland. Golf is not just about the famous, it’s about every single person who has, or will, contribute in some way to the game’s progression and success.’ How can you not pull for a guy like Alfie who wrote in his October 2005 Feature Interview,
‘ … with some monotonous whinging and crying – my mother managed to acquire some old (very old) clubs for me, and I soon learned the critical craft of….. evading the local green keeper / warden who sought the green fees we couldn’t afford.’ The Wards love golf so much it hurts. In this month’s Feature Interview, they maintain that their cup is half full even though the course closed. What they did was for love - the game and each other - with no real hope of a financial return. In the end, Alfie notes,
‘I was highly honoured when Jim Dodson DID play the course and wrote it up for Golf Magazine. I remember him saying to me – ‘What I think you have here is ... the soul of golf’. That pleased me no end!’ Why did Arbory Brae close (I refuse to say fail)? Because of you and me. I didn’t go, did you? Not enough people did. The green fee was £25 and half the time you get the feeling that they didn’t charge it. Juniors played for free, always. To me, it failed because the dynamics of golf have changed. Back when it opened, golf was a communal affair and everyone pitched in. Making a buck from our beloved game was not a driving factor. Roll the clock forward and everything costs and costs more. Income must be meaningful to balance the ledger. That never happened at Arbory Brae. The brothers kept it open from 1997 to 2003. From their writings, it is easy to determine that they didn’t overspend, they ‘under-earned.’
In the face of all reason, Alfie and Harry fought on and to understand why Scots have accomplished a disproportionate number of things around the world, look no further than this tale. The whole story is told in their recently released book titled
Fairways? What Fairways! It can be purchased from the web site
www.fairwayswhatfairways.co.uk. It reads like an Agatha Christie murder with a host of sane and insane characters. As an aside, I would like to thank Tony Muldoon for his great assistance and guidance in pulling this Feature Interview together.
Hope you enjoy this old fashioned look into ‘the soul of golf.’ As Alfie wrote,
‘Arbory Brae was a place for all golfers.’Best,