Crazy About Coulsdon

I've already introduced you to Sandown Park Golf Centre, located in the middle of the famous racecourse. It was here that I took my first steps on the this golfing pathway with a week of lessons as a ten year old in the Summer of 76 (http://threeoffthetee.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/going-back-to-my-roots.html). Now I'd like to take you to Coulsdon Court Golf Club, the scene of my first ever eighteen hole round with my dear old dad, sadly no longer around to give his version of events. I did a piece some time ago that summed up nicely what it meant play with him (http://threeoffthetee.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/generation-game.html).

The course was built in the early 1920's on the grounds of Byron's house. At the time the course was commissioned the house and grounds were owned by the Cearne Family and they decided to build a private course which was designed by Harry S Colt. It was leased to Croydon Council in the 1930s on the provision it was always kept as a Public Course. Formed in 1938 Coulsdon Court was established to provide golf for those who wanted to join a club and enjoy the company of fellow golfers. Here are some interesting facts about the place:

The course used to have 365 bunkers on it - 1 for each day of the year
Over 150 different types of tree exist on the course - Byron used to bring cuttings back from his travels around Europe
No bombs were dropped on the course during the second world war despite heavy raids on Croydon
Coulsdon Court had the first golf buggy in England.

Coulsdon Court possesses the cardinal virtues of situation and accessibility. The course is laid out on the plateau that tops the midmost of the ridges which run out towards Purley from the North Downs and standing 500 feet above sea level. It commands an immense stretch of hill and dale from the fringes of London on the North to Caterham Valley on the south. By road it is something like fourteen miles from Hyde Park Corner. From the 9th Green spectacular views over London are possible with all the major city buildings being clearly visible.

Standing there with the whole course before me I had butterflies in my stomach and for a moment I didn't want to play. What if I made a fool of myself or couldn't do it. I'd been progressing well on the range and the par 3 course at Sandown Park but this was something completely different. As a kid, everything just seemed so big. The holes seemed so long, the bunkers looked massive and there were trees everywhere. This is how the Coulsdon Court website describes the first hole:


"The first hole offers a relatively easy introduction to Coulsdon Court. The drive should leave you a short iron into the green but if you hook the drive there is trouble with a bunker or for the longer hitters trees on your left. A slice, although putting you into the well spaced trees on the right, should still give you a shot into the green unless you are really unlucky. Your second short iron is into a green protected by bunkers both left and right and sloping severely from back to front. Many a new player has seen his ball rush several feet past when putting from above the hole".

The 1st at Coulsdon Court... and so the golfing journey began

Let me tell you that for the first proper golfing shot this was no easy introduction and in my own tiny world was on a par with any opening drive in the last round of a major or the first shot of a Ryder Cup. The swing wasn't a thing of beauty but I did manage to get it away. To be honest the finer details of that inaugural round have disappeared in the sands of time. It seemed to be over in a flash even though it consisted of 130 odd blows and any number of lost balls. I have no idea what my dad scored or how well he played although we would reminisce about it for years to come, usually over a pint or two somewhere.

A number of things struck me. How easy it seemed to be to get a game. Oh the naivety of youth. Yes it is a pay and play but I'm sure knowing what I know now that my dad had the devils own job trying to get us on at 4.00pm on a Saturday afternoon. In my mind we just jumped in the car, turned up, gave the nice man in the shop our money and toddled off.

Golf courses are very long. Although Coulsdon Court isn't long at around 6,100 odd yards as a kid it seemed to go on and on. Some of the par 5's, especially when you aren't moving it very far with each shot seemed to go on for ever. I still get that feeling now when my game is off.

Proper greens are very hard. I'd only played on pitch and putt and par three courses and neither of these had greens that you'd describe as well kept. Suddenly here I was on a putting surface where the ball didn't jump about. Not only were they much bigger than anything I'd come across but they were also a world away from what I was use to. Speed was mind blowing. OK maybe not, but as a ten year old kid these seemed to run like Augusta. They were so hard. I wasn't use to huge borrows and breaks and so to be honest once I eventually got to each green putting was a new world altogether and very much a lottery. Again, not much has changed in the last thirty odd years and putting can still be an alien concept.

It may not have the cachet of a big name course and may be seem by many as just a pay and play but to me this first round at Coulsdon Court was my bit of golfing nirvana. My dad and played there regularly each summer for a couple of years but I've not been back since. It would be nice to wander back there at some point and have a game and reminisce about a time when it never rained in summer, golf wasn't played in the head and a bad shot wasn't the end of the world. Where did it all change?