Little Aston Golf Club

Little Aston Golf Club

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Club information
Coordinates	52°35′44.0″N1°52′0.7″W / 52.595556°N 1.866861°W / 52.595556; -1.866861
Location	Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England
Established	1908 [1]
Type	Private
Total holes	18
Events hosted	English Amateur Brabazon Trophy British Ladies Amateur British Masters Jacques Léglise Trophy Schweppes PGA Close Championship Swallow-Penfold Tournament Daks Tournament Boys Amateur Championship Dunlop Tournament
Website	http://www.littleastongolf.co.uk
Designed by	Harry Vardon [1]
Par	72
Length	6813 [2]
Course rating	74 [3]

Little Aston Golf Club is an 18 hole members golf club located within the Little Aston Park Private Estate in Sutton Coldfield, England which has hosted a variety of leading professional and amateur tournaments including the Schweppes PGA Close Championship and the Brabazon Trophy.

History

Little Aston Golf Club was founded in 1908 when Harry Vardon was commissioned to convert 136 acres of land into the golf course, the design commissioned by Harry Vardon remains largely unchanged to date. ^[1] The land had previously formed part of the estate of Little Aston Hall. ^[3]

Little Aston hosted its first significant tournament when it hosted the English Amateur in 1927 ^[4] and hosted its first professional tournament at the 1951 Dunlop Tournament. Subsequently the club has gone on to host the Schweppes PGA Close Championship the forerunner to the European Tour's flagship event in 1962 ^[5] and the Brabazon Trophy on 3 occasions from 1970 to 1994. ^[6]

In more recent years the course has been lengthened with addition of several new championship tees to continue to remain a competitive challenge in light of the changes in distances achieved by modern player and equipment. ^[3]

Former players

• Nick Littlehales (1978-1983)

Course and scorecard

There is a single 18 hole course at Little Aston Golf Course which takes the form of a parkland course, from the championship tees the course measures 6,813 yards.

Tee	Rating/Slope	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Par	Men's	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	4	3	35	4	4	5	3	4	5	4	4	4	37	72
SI	Men's	13	5	7	1	15	9	4	11	18		3	10	6	17	16	2	8	14	12
Championship	74	392	446	514	317	161	423	362	410	193	3218	444	393	485	183	342	549	419	380	400	3595	6813
Medal		392	446	503	317	161	423	362	392	193	3189	432	393	485	161	326	549	398	380	391	3515	6704
Yellow		392	410	490	314	153	410	346	376	178	3055	426	363	485	156	300	517	375	370	374	3365	6420
Par	Women's	4	5	5	4	3	4	4	4	3	36	5	4	5	3	4	5	4	4	4	38	74
SI	Women's	13	5	7	9	15	1	4	11	18		3	10	6	17	16	2	8	14	12
Red		368	392	442	271	137	385	313	342	143	2793	391	296	437	130	262	473	313	339	328	2969	5762

All distances given in yards ^[2]

Tournaments hosted

Boys Amateur Championship

Little Aston first hosted the Boys Amateur Championship in 1994 and subsequently hosted the matchplay tournament again in 2008 with the following results: ^[7]

No.	Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1	1994	Christopher Smith	Chris Rodgers	2 & 1
2	2008	Pedro Figueiredo	Fraser McKenna	39th Hole

Brabazon Trophy

Little Aston hosted the Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy on 3 occasions between 1970 and 1994 with the following results: ^[6]

No.	Year	Champion	Score
1	1970	Peter Moody	296
2	1979	D. Long	291
3	1994	Gary Harris	280

British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship

The club hosted the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in 1998 with Kim Rostron of England beating Gwladys Nocera of France 4&3 in the final. ^[8]

British Masters

The club has hosted the British Masters on 5 occasions between 1947 and 1969, for sponsorship reasons the tournament was known as the Dunlop Masters during this period and the results were:

No.	Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Ref
1	1947	Arthur Lees	283	Norman Von Nida	[9]
2	1955	Harry Bradshaw	277	Henry Cotton	[10]
3	1958	Harry Weetman	276	Bobby Locke	[11]
4	1963	Bernard Hunt	282	Ralph Moffitt	[12]
5	1969	Cobie Legrange	281	Peter Butler	[13]

Daks Tournament

Little Aston hosted the Daks Tournament on the European circuit in 1954 with Peter Alliss winning the event. ^[14]

Dunlop Tournament

In 1951 Little Aston co-hosted the Dunlop Tournament with Sutton Coldfield Golf Club with Charlie Ward of South Africa winning the event. ^[15]

English Amateur

The club has hosted the English Amateur on 4 occasions between 1927 and 2010 (co-hosting with Sutton Coldfield Golf Club in 2010), with the following results: ^[4]

No.	Year	Winner	Runner-up	Score
1	1927	Philip Perkins	J. B. Beddard	2 & 1
2	1948	Alan Helm	H. J. Roberts	2 & 1
3	1985	Roger Winchester	P. R. Robinson	1 hole
4	2010	Tommy Fleetwood	Warren Harmston	1 hole

Jacques Léglise Trophy

Little Aston hosted the 1994 Jacques Léglise Trophy amateur boys' team golf competition between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe, with Great Britain and Ireland winning 12½ – 2½. ^[16]

Schweppes PGA Close Championship

In 1962 the club hosted the Schweppes PGA Close Championship which is now the European Tour flagship BMW PGA Championship, the winner was Peter Alliss with a score of 287. ^[5]

Swallow-Penfold Tournament

Little Aston hosted the Swallow-Penfold Tournament in 1966 with Welsh golfer Dave Thomas winning the event.

See also

List of golf courses in the United Kingdom

References

1. "Heritage". Little Aston Golf Club. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
2. "Scorecard". Little Aston Golf Club. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
3. "Course Guide". Little Aston Golf Club. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
4. "Previous Winners – English Amateur". England Golf. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
5. "BMW PGA Championship European Tour Past Winners and History". Golf Blogger. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
6. "Previous Winners – Brabazon Trophy". England Golf . Retrieved 29 August 2014.
7. "Boys Amateur Championship". Golf Today. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
8. "Kim secures Curtis place with Open win". Lancashire Telegraph . 15 June 1998. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
9. "Lees and Von Nida tie for "Masters" title". Glasgow Herald . 10 October 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
10. "Bradshaw wins "Masters" golf tournament". Glasgow Herald . 22 September 1955. p. 4. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
11. Horne, Cyril (22 September 1958). "Masters golfer's visit to Scotland". Glasgow Herald . p. 3. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
12. "Masters title for B. J. Hunt". Glasgow Herald . 1 July 1963. p. 4. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
13. Jacobs, Raymond (15 September 1969). "Legrange wins from the front". Glasgow Herald . Retrieved 30 August 2014.
14. "Daks Tournament". GolfCompendium.com. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
15. "Ward's 70". Aberdeen Evening Express . 4 April 1951.
16. "Past Winners – Jacques Léglise Trophy". R&A Championships Limited . Retrieved 30 August 2014.

External links

• Official website