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Sean Arble was born and raised near Detroit and learned the game of golf at Grosse Isle, a Donald Ross course built about the same time as Oakland Hills. After graduating from university, he traveled about Europe getting jobs here and there. Through an unlikely set of circumstances while working in the Netherlands, he ended up moving to Japan where he met a lovely English woman from Sutton Coldfield (not far from Birmingham). After exchanging vows in 1990, they eventually settled down in England after the birth of their daughter. Soon thereafter, he rediscovered the great game of golf and became interested in course design and history.

According to Sean, “The game was truly blessed by the discovery of heathland, downland and moorland terrain as ideal turf and soil to play the traditional form of golf. It is perhaps more astounding that the likes of HS Colt, H Fowler, A Mackenzie, T Simpson, JF Abercromby and W Park Jr. were on hand to take full advantage of this revelation to produce such a concentration of inspiring courses. My interest in the game is nourished by the full realization that these great architects stood on the shoulders of Old Tom Morris and countless unheralded designers whose work I encounter in the back alleys of golf. In an age of hybrid grasses and cut limits measured by the millimetre, the best of these bygone courses find ways to resonate and be relevant. With this philosophy in mind and the encouragement of friends, I founded Classic British Golf Tours in the hope that others may also experience once again that feeling of playing the game as a child.”

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