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The Course
For any golfer, Epsom offers an unusual challenge. At 5,656 yards, the
course comprises a variety of traditional downland holes of varying difficulty.
Some are tight requiring accuracy from the tee, whilst others demand good
positional play due in the main to Epsom’s undulating topography.
However, it is Epsom’s greens which have become legendary in the
area. Consistent and very true, they offer a very demanding test because
of their mixture of surprising speed and undulation. Only the 18th green
can boast to be level - and it is the only hole at Epsom to feature bunkers.
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Course History
The Club accepted the advice of Mr Alexander Patrick of Wimbledon in laying down the first course and paid him one guinea for it. The course was an amalgam of what was then known as the College Masters course' and that of Mr T W Lang.
Club members of long standing can possibly recall that 25 years ago the
12th Green was situated on the far side of the road across the Downs leading
to Tattenham Comer. A very harrowing drive it was too, to a small green
with private gardens adjacent and therefore out of bounds to any wayward
shot. When that hole was altered by the building of the existing 12th hole,
the fairway in front of the 15th green was also filled in, and evidence
of it can still be seen by the different texture of the grass there.
We know that in the early part of the century road users must have had
to run the gauntlet of drives from the old 2nd, 8th, 9th, 13th, 15th, 16th
and 17th as they all crossed one or other of the roads across the Downs.
There are records of early matches being abandoned because of the number
of school children on the course. Now that school children are either driven
to school, or indeed drive themselves, one hesitates to think of the possible
consequence of a poor drive on these holes now.
Over the past few years it has been necessary for safety reasons to move the second green, build new 3rd and 17th holes and to put the 18th back to its original place.
The Club House, of which we are justly proud, was erected in 1892. In 1913
the billiard room was added followed by the men's locker room which underwent
its first major refurbishment just over three years ago. Enlarging the
lounge bar and dining area allowed accommodation for the recent greatly
increased membership. Despite that we have, for the first time in many
years, a waiting list for new membership. More recent changes to the ladies'
quarters and those made to the stewards' accommodation mean that the Club
House is now eminently suited to our needs and set to take members into
me next one hundred years in style.
But what has probably never changed, and which is possibly the finest single
characteristic of the course, is the unrivalled view one gets across the
Downs to London and beyond. On a good day Windsor Castle can easily be
picked out in the west, as can many skyscrapers of the City in the East.
It is something of which we will never tire.
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