COLT’S CLASSIC COURSES STAND THE TEST OF TIME

Despite many of his golf courses being well over a hundred years old, it is a measure of the timeless quality of Harry Colt’s skill as an architect that his work continues to enchant and challenge every new generation of golfers, whether it be over the classic heathland courses at Sunningdale, Swinley Forest and St George’s Hill, or the championship links at Muirfield, Portrush and County Down and many more less heralded layouts besides

Although christened Henry Shapland Colt, most golfers worth their salt will know the surname ‘Colt’ is one to be uttered in reverential tones whenever it crops up in discussions about the provenance of a golf course’s quality. To have his name connected with your club is to infer a certain level of built-in quality, and one that has stood the test of time.

Clubs that had the foresight – and the money – to take on his valuable design services around the turn of the 20th century are rarely backward in coming forward about their connections to the man who is widely regarded as having laid the groundwork for the Golden Age of golf course architecture that followed. He is also championed as being arguably the most influential golf course architect of all time, with many modern golf course designers drawing on his design philosophies in their work to this day.

Born in Highgate in north London in 1869, the young HS Colt spent many hours of his early childhood summers at Worcestershire Golf Club, where he learned the game from Douglas Rolland, uncle of the legendary James Braid. Like many of those that went on to become great golf course architects, Colt was a more than decent player himself. He captained the Cambridge University golf team between 1891-93 and won the R&A Jubilee Vase while still a student. After he graduated, Colt practiced law in Hastings in East Sussex, and in 1884 became a partner in the firm of Sayer & Colt, which was based in the town.

With his background, education and burgeoning legal career, Colt seemed destined to become a respectable member Britain’s upper class, but golf already had a hold on him. In 1895, Colt joined his mentor Rolland in the design of a new golf course at Rye in East Sussex. That same year, he became honorary secretary of the club. From this position, he developed his earliest philosophies of design as he gradually tweaked the course over the next six years.

In 1901, Colt shifted more decisively towards a career in golf when he applied for the position of secretary at the recently established Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire. Over the ensuing years, he made updates to the course, especially after the introduction of the rubber-core ball. He also began to build up his design portfolio, with demand for his design services growing to such an extent that he soon had to take on more staff.

Colt teamed up with Charles H Alison in 1906 and together they worked on Kingsthorpe in 1908, Northampton County in 1909, Denham in 1910, St George’s Hill in 1912, and Camberley Heath in 1913. In 1909, Colt’s masterpiece, Swinley Forest Golf Club opened, the Surrey heathland layout immediately becoming one of England’s finest courses. In 1914, just before the start of World War I, Colt finished construction on the fourth course at St Andrews, the Eden, which many astute observers say is still the best of the Home of Golf’s links tests.

In 1907, Colt travelled to Leeds to provide a second opinion on the newly completed Alwoodley

Golf Club. There he met club secretary and course designer Dr Alister MacKenzie. Colt felt that the course embodied his own design ideals and spoke glowingly of it at a meeting with the club’s committee. His relationship with MacKenzie led to the formation of the firm of Colt, MacKenzie & Alison in 1919. After MacKenzie struck out on his own in 1923, Colt and Alison brought on John Morrison. Demand for Colt’s expertise soon expanded beyond his home shores, and in 1911 he visited North America, where he laid out the Country Club of Detroit and the Toronto Golf Club.

On that same trip, he also spent a week advising George Crump on the routing of the holes at Pine Valley. After Crump died, the club hired Colt to see the project to completion. His work at Pine Valley, as part of what many historians consider to be the most collaborative golf course design in history, likely inspired several significant American architects.

All told, Colt and his firm designed more than 300 courses on six continents. But the lingering effects of the World War I on Britain’s economy and society, combined with the onset of Great Depression and World War II, meant that the 1920s and 30s were slower for Colt than in the two decades before, and his work all but dried up. Colt died in 1951, at the age of 82, to little fanfare, but his legacy lives on across the world in the form of dozens of golf courses that feature his signature work.

THE DESIGNER OF A COURSE SHOULD START OFF ON HIS WORK IN A SYMPATHETIC FRAME OF MIND FOR THE WEAK, AND AT THE SAME TIME BE AS SEVERE AS HE LIKES WITH THE FIRST-CLASS PLAYER.

COLT’S DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

Colt was a master of lending man-made features a natural look and believed in allowing his designs to become part of the land.

In routing his courses, Colt tried not only to blend the holes into nature, but also to create great variety. He incorporated distinctive landforms that rendered holes instantly memorable. He strove to find par 3s of differing lengths and to avoid successive par 4s or similar length or direction. Ultimately, Colt wanted the golfer to walk away not only feeling that the course had arisen naturally from the terrain, but also remembering each hole on its merits.

Colt was an early proponent of the idea that a golf course should challenge the advanced player while making room for the casual golfer. To achieve this, he often placed hazards strategically to defend the ideal line of play, but leave longer, more circuitous routes to the green less guarded. Many of Colt’s holes therefore have centre-line hazards with safe paths on either side, using fairway width to create angles and options. In addition, sometimes his designs employ diagonal cross-bunkers, where a heroic carry opens an ideal path to the green. Colt’s ability to force decisions through the clever placement of fairway bunkers is one of his trademarks.

At most of Colt’s designs, you will rarely find greens surrounded entirely with bunkers. Instead, you will find avenues for run-up shots, often played from and over sloping, undulating ground. This emphasis on the ground game allows inexpert players to make do with their lowertrajectory flights but at the same time requires better golfers to hit a variety of shots. Colt’s green-side bunkers tend to be small and deep to force players to think on their approaches and to penalise them for poor planning or execution.

On the putting surfaces themselves, variety is again the name of the game for Colt. His greens present a mixture of slopes, some severe, others more benign and subtle. These graceful contours – which both feed and reject, depending on your angle – create delicate pin positions and make for entertaining chips and putts. Specifically, Colt often used variations of the plateau-style green, which he believed rewarded an elite player’s ability to hit a high-lofted shot.

Notable Colt Courses

Pine Valley, Sunningdale (Old and New), Swinley Forest, Rye, Royal Portrush, Wentworth (West), St George’s Hill, St Andrews (Eden Course), Muirfield, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Royal County Down (enhanced design), Hamilton, Royal Liverpool (redesign), Woodhall Spa.