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Transcriber's Note

This version of the text is unable to reproduce certain typographic
features. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_.
Bold font is delimited with the '=' character as =bold=. Words printed
using "small capitals" are shifted to all upper-case.

The illustrations were each presented with a full page caption, and
were separated from the text by blank pages. In this text, these
illustrations were moved to fall at paragraph breaks and appear as,
for example:

 [Illustration: SUNNINGDALE
                _The tenth hole_]

Please consult the transcriber's notes at the end of this text for any
additional issues.




                        THE GOLF COURSES OF THE
                             BRITISH ISLES

 [Illustration: ST. ANDREWS
                _Looking back from the twelfth green_]




                            THE GOLF COURSES

                                 OF THE

                             BRITISH ISLES


                                   BY

                             BERNARD DARWIN


                             ILLUSTRATED BY

                             HARRY ROUNTREE


                                 LONDON
                            DUCKWORTH & CO.
                   3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN


                         _All rights reserved_

                            _Published 1910_




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE

     I. LONDON COURSES (1)                                      1

    II. LONDON COURSES (2)                                     23

   III. KENT AND SUSSEX                                        44

    IV. THE WEST AND SOUTH-WEST                                68

     V. EAST ANGLIA                                            93

    VI. THE COURSES OF CHESHIRE AND LANCASHIRE                111

   VII. YORKSHIRE AND THE MIDLANDS                            130

  VIII. OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE                                  147

    IX. A LONDON COURSE                                       158

     X. ST. ANDREWS, FIFE, AND FORFARSHIRE                    165

    XI. THE COURSES OF THE EAST LOTHIAN AND EDINBURGH         181

   XII. WEST OF SCOTLAND: PRESTWICK AND TROON                 202

  XIII. IRELAND                                               215

   XIV. WALES                                                 231

  INDEX                                                       250




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  ST. ANDREWS                                     _Frontispiece._

  SUNNINGDALE                           _To face p._            4

  WALTON HEATH                                   "             12

  WOKING                                         "             18

  MID-SURREY                                     "             24

  STOKE POGES                                    "             28

  CASSIOBURY PARK                                "             30

  SANDY LODGE                                    "             32

  NORTHWOOD                                      "             34

  ROMFORD                                        "             36

  BLACKHEATH                                     "             38

  WIMBLEDON COMMON                               "             40

  MITCHAM COMMON                                 "             42

  SANDWICH                                       "             44

  SANDWICH ("HADES")                             "             46

  DEAL                                           "             50

  PRINCE'S                                       "             54

  LITTLESTONE                                    "             56

  RYE                                            "             58

  EASTBOURNE                                     "             62

  ASHDOWN FOREST                                 "             64

  WESTWARD HO!                                   "             70

  BUDE                                           "             78

  BURNHAM                                        "             80

  BROADSTONE                                     "             84

  BOURNEMOUTH                                    "             88

  BEMBRIDGE                                      "             90

  FELIXSTOWE                                     "             94

  CROMER                                         "             98

  SHERINGHAM                                     "            100

  BRANCASTER                                     "            102

  HUNSTANTON                                     "            106

  SKEGNESS                                       "            108

  HOYLAKE (1)                                    "            112

  HOYLAKE (2)                                    "            116

  FORMBY                                         "            120

  WALLASEY                                       "            122

  LYTHAM AND ST. ANNE'S                          "            124

  TRAFFORD PARK                                  "            126

  GANTON                                         "            130

  FIXBY                                          "            134

  HOLLINWELL                                     "            138

  SANDWELL PARK                                  "            142

  HANDSWORTH                                     "            144

  FRILFORD HEATH                                 "            148

  WORLINGTON                                     "            154

  ST. ANDREWS                                    "            166

  CARNOUSTIE                                     "            178

  GULLANE                                        "            182

  MUIRFIELD                                      "            184

  NORTH BERWICK                                  "            190

  MUSSELBURGH                                    "            196

  BARNTON                                        "            200

  PRESTWICK                                      "            204

  TROON                                          "            212

  DOLLYMOUNT                                     "            216

  PORTMARNOCK (1)                                "            220

  PORTMARNOCK (2)                                "            222

  PORTRUSH                                       "            224

  NEWCASTLE                                      "            228

  ABERDOVEY                                      "            232

  HARLECH                                        "            238

  PORTHCAWL                                      "            244

  SOUTHERNDOWN                                   "            246




CHAPTER I.

LONDON COURSES (1).


Some dozen or fifteen years ago the historian of the London golf
courses would have had a comparatively easy task. He would have said
that there were a few courses upon public commons, instancing, as he
still would to-day, Blackheath and Wimbledon. He might have dismissed
in a line or two a course that a few mad barristers were trying to
carve by main force out of a swamp thickly covered with gorse and
heather near Woking. All the other courses would have been lumped
together under some such description as that they consisted of fields
interspersed by trees and artificial ramparts, the latter mostly
built by Tom Dunn; that they were villainously muddy in winter, of an
impossible and adamantine hardness in summer, and just endurable in
spring and autumn; finally, that the muddiest and hardest and most
distinguished of them all was Tooting Bec.

All this is changed now, and the change is best exemplified by the
fact that although the club has removed to new quarters, poor Tooting
itself is now as Tadmor in the wilderness. I passed by the spot the
other day, and should never have recognized it had not an old member
pointed it out to me in a voice husky with emotion. The ground is now
covered with a tangle of red houses, which cannot be termed attractive,
and such glory as belonged to it has altogether departed. Peace to its
ashes! it could never, by the wildest stretch of imagination, have been
called anything but a bad course, and yet it held its head high in its
heyday. Prospective members by the score jostled each other eagerly on
the waiting list, and parliamentary golfers distinguished the course
above its fellows by cutting their divots from its soft and yielding
mud. I still recollect the thrill I experienced on first being taken
to play there; it was a distinct moment in my golfing life. It was
exceedingly muddy, but it was not so muddy as the course at Cambridge
on which I usually disported myself, and on the whole I thought it
worthy of its fame; people were not so difficult to please in the
matter of inland golf in those days.

Tooting is no more, but there are many courses like it still to
be found, most of them in a flourishing condition, near London.
Meanwhile, however, a new star, the star of sand and heather, has
arisen out of the darkness, and a whole generation of new courses,
which really are golf and not a good or even bad imitation of it,
have sprung into being. Here are some of them, and they make an
imposing list--Sunningdale, Walton Heath, Woking, Worplesdon, Byfleet,
Bleakdown, Westhill, Bramshot and Combe Wood. The idea of hacking and
