History Of Golf Clubs Around The World

In 1891, Scottish settlers founded the Royal Melbourne Club in Australia. Not surprisingly, it is strongly influenced by the Scottish Club Royal & Ancient Club of St. Petersburg. Andrews. The dune landscape of this field strongly resembles the typical Scottish Lynx Cors (links course). This was the name of the very first golf courses, which were located on lifeless (hlink, “infertile” in Old English), unsuitable neither for agriculture, nor for pastures, landscapes intermingled with dunes, connecting (in English link) the coast and arable land. Initially, the Royal Melbourne club field consisted of two fields, each with 18 holes: the Western one, designed by Alister Mackenzie, and the Eastern one, which Alex Russell equipped. In the 1950s, the two fields combined, and in 1959 the common field was solemnly opened on the occasion of the World Cup.

The world community was delighted. The greens of this wild field, riddled with obstacles and littered with bunkers, require the player to exert all forces. Experts do not get tired to praise short-cut grass of this field. A remarkable feature of Royal Melbourne is the solidity with which the bunkers were dug. Nothing here reminds of the sterile meticulousness with which bunkers on modern golf courses are equipped. The bins at Royal Melbourne are wild, unpredictable and incredibly voracious. Cypress Point, USACypress Point at the Pacific OceanIn the very south of the Monterey Peninsula (Monterey) in California is the exclusive Cypress Point Golf Club. The location of the field opened in 1928, which is located at the foot of the Santa Lucia mountain, not far from its “older brother”, the Pebble Beach field is like a fairy tale: mighty cypress trees stand among the fairways and greens, the Pacific Ocean foams incessantly lashing out on the coastal cliffs. Architect Mackenzie resisted the temptation to place the holes there, offering the most picturesque view. Instead, he made a spectacular landscape element of his field. Mackenzie drew his attention primarily to the greens. Since the length of the field is small (5. 95 kilometers), he provided him with numerous turns and special inclinations leading the ball to the side (breaks). So already on the first such site we have to deal with a real hill. A narrow fairway between 4th and 5th holes squirms in a dense coniferous forest, and at the end of the track, at the 5th hole, the player generally faces a two-level green.

On top of that, on the Fairways 3 and 6 there are snow-white bunkers, which Mackenzie set, as one should have supposed, right in front of the green, which is already difficult to get on. Today Cypress Point is one of the most exclusive private golf clubs in the world. Its only 250 members come from all US states and from abroad. But from this field does not become less attractive for golfers from around the world. Royal Portrush Golf Club (Dunluce), IrelandIrish Royal Portrush Golf Club - the fight against natureFounded in 1888, the Royal Portrush Golf Club is now considered one of the richest traditions of the British Isles, and in 1951, this field was the first on the Irish land to host the British Open. To the west are located the hills of Donegal (county in the north-west of the island), the Atlantic rages in the north, the bulk road and limestone sea cliffs to the east. Already this description suggests that Royal Portrush is a full-blooded Lynx Corse. With its natural symmetry and austere beauty, this field captivates even the experienced player. In addition, excellent natural drainage allows you to use the field year round, unless it is covered with snow or ice. But the natural beauty turns into a difficult game. The fairways in this field are extremely narrow and almost always (except for fairways 1 and 18) break sharply (such sharp turns are called dogleg).

So the player has to excel and be extremely careful and accurate, otherwise he has no chance, especially with the strongest north-westerly wind, to score the ball on the green, having put in the put one, two or three (the put number of blows is called “steam” and depends on the distance between the tees and the green) of the blow. But everyone who is preparing to strike from this field knows that he will face a struggle not with the obstacles created by human labor, but with nature. This is what they enjoy here. Royal County Down Golf Club, IrelandSoft field Royal County Down Golf Club changes its colorAnd today there are people who say that Royal County Down is, along with Pine Valley in the USA, the most difficult golf course in the world. Even though this opinion is largely subjective, Royal County Down, located along Dundrum Bay, in the shadow of Morne Mountain, can safely be called one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world. The local landscape is a classic blend of hills, plains, water and settlements. On clear days, you can enjoy the view of the Isle of Man, which is 64 kilometers to the east.

According to club records, this field in 1889 was created for 4 pounds by the famous golfer Tom Morris the Elder (Old Tom Morris). After some improvements and rearrangements, the field has everything a golfer can only dream of: narrow hilly fairways, small greens that constantly change their strength and direction of the wind, huge dunes hidden by heather and ulex, which change their shade yellow to soft purple. And as with every significant golf course, County Down has its own handwriting: here are very special, unique bunkers, overgrown with reeds. To add "blind" blows, to which sometimes one has to resort because of the difficult landscape, and it becomes clear why this field is called "charming, but eccentric. "Pebble Beach Golf Links, USAPebble Beach Golf Links on the Pacific CoastThe Pebble Beach field, built in 1919, owes its existence to Samuel Morse, the namesake and nephew of the inventor of the telegraph and the famous telegraph code. Morse bought this amazing piece of land on the California coast near the South Pacific Railway Company. The original plan of the golf course, stretching across the cliffs from the ocean to the forest of Del Monte Forest, was developed by Jack Neville, who was not a golf course architect, but a land dealer. No matter how picturesque the local landscape may be, for a golfer the Pebble Beach golf course remains one of the most difficult challenges to this day.

Large tournaments, such as the US Open, were held here several times, and National Pro-Am is held once a year at Pebble Beach, during which professional golfers and Hollywood stars compete. The duel between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson during the US Open 1982 was unforgettable and forever imprinted in the history of American golf. Niklaus should have gotten the fifth US Open title unhindered, but Watson managed to do the incredible on the last two (17th and 18th) holes. These holes are surrounded by the ocean and bunkers, and on the 18th in addition there is a tree; but Watson managed to score a ball, having spent one hit less for each hole than the steam provides (the number of blows is called berdy) and won the champion title. Les Bordes, FranceFabulous French field Les BordesIn the French region Center has 30 golf courses, which seem to be a kind of golf museum. Even in spite of the fact that not each of these fields begins and ends at the historical castle (according to tradition, the first and last holes are located at the club building), the various fields of the French center are worthy of making a small sortie here.

The best example of this is the almost ideal fairways of the club Les Bordes, an advertising sign of the Center. This club was opened in 1986 and according to the idea of ​​Baron Marcel Bich (Marcel Bich), producing writing materials of the Big brand, and his Japanese partner Yoshiaki Sakurai was to become the golf center of the entire region. The famous Texas golf course architect Robert von Hagge received a blank check and began building a top-class golf pearl on the Sologne Lake Plain. In 1987, the club was opened and quickly became one of the best clubs in Europe.