Temple Golf Club

Last updated

Temple Golf Club
Temple Golf Club - geograph.org.uk - 605459.jpg
Club information
Berkshire UK location map.svg
Icona golf.svg
Coordinates 51°32′10″N0°47′20″W / 51.53611°N 0.78889°W / 51.53611; -0.78889
Location Hurley, Berkshire, England
Established4 May 1910
Total holes18
Website www.templegolfclub.co.uk
Designed by Willie Park Jr.
Par 70
Length6,210 yards (5,680 m)

Temple Golf Club is a golf club located in Hurley, Berkshire, England. It is about 2 miles northwest of Maidenhead. It was opened in 1910. The course was designed by Willie Park Jr. It is recognised for its scenic beauty and its emphasis on sustainable environmental management.

Contents

Location

The Temple golf course is on the right bank of the River Thames near Hurley, Berkshire, and not far from Maidenhead. [1] It is on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, and is surrounded by beech woods. In the 19th century the land occupied by the golf course was part of Temple Park, [lower-alpha 1] in which many specimen trees had been planted. These were incorporated into the golf course layout. [3] The course covered about 400 acres (160 ha) of the park. [1] The terrain consists of a series of ridges, which were exploited by the designers. [1]

Course

A reviewer in 1920 wrote, "It may fairly be asserted that very few English golf links possess the beauties of Temple as regards the surroundings. From the terrace of the Club House the eye takes in a green expanse of English pastoral scenery which is bounded on the horizon by the bold, bluff outlines of the Chiltern Hills, and also takes in one of the most beautiful pieces of the Thames Valley by Marlow and Bisham." [1]

The course is 6,210 yards (5,680 m) long, with par of 70. [4] According to Henry Cotton, "Temple is tricky to score on, simply because no green is set up for the golf shot, so the ball goes forward off the pitch if incorrectly flighted and over hit. The turf is superb at Temple and the fairway lies almost too good to be true." [5] Donald Steel said the course is "challenging enough to keep good players at full stretch without diminishing the enjoyment of the rank and file." [4]

In 1999 Temple was the national winner of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) Golf Environment Competition. According to BIGGA Judge Dr. Keith Duff, chief scientist at English Nature, "Temple provides the elusive feel good factor (often intangibly) when you play a course which both challenges the skills of the golfer, and at the same time, inspires you with its setting. [6] In 2017 the club was a finalist for the BIGGA Greenkeeping Achievement of the Year award. [7]

History

18th hole, just south of the 19th Temple Golf Club - geograph.org.uk - 605475.jpg
18th hole, just south of the 19th

The Temple Golf Club was founded in 1909 by some local landowners and army officers, including Colonel F. C. Ricardo, said to be the inspiration for Mr. Toad in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows . [4] The course, originally called Temple Links, was designed by Willie Park and James Hepburn. It opened on 4 May 1910. [8] Maintenance in the early days was labour-intensive. The grass was cut using sickles, scythes and horse drawn mowing machines. The hillside was maintained by grazing sheep, and the hay was cut and baled by a local farmer. The course was home to wildlife such as geese and ducks in the marsh areas, partridge and pheasant, hare and deer. [9]

In the early days there were relatively few members, and the course was not used much in winter. The fairways were very narrow, and there were many more bunkers than at present. [3] The golfing enthusiast Raymond Oppenheimer was active in management of the course, which was owned by his family. [9] At the age of 16 he was a scratch golfer at Temple. [10] Players included Sam Snead, Lawson Little, Cyril Tolley, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Joe Carr, Michael Bonallack and Henry Cotton. Cotton later became the club's professional. [11] Raymond Oppenheimer withdrew from management of the course in 1969. [12] Since then the course has been managed by a Committee of the Green and a chairman. [3]

Environment

The subsoil is chalky, which makes the course drier than most. It does not suffer from mud and puddles during wet weather. However, a dry summer did not burn the natural bent and fescue grasses that dominated the turf when the course opened. [8] In the early 1970s the club installed a pop-up irrigation system. The combination of lack of aeration, excessive watering and fertilization and intensive mowing made the greens lush and soft, but damaged the grass quality, with the original bent and fescue grasses pushed out by annual meadow grass. [13] The traditional hay meadows were destroyed, reducing the numbers of insects, butterflies, moths, birds and small mammals. [14]

Bales of hay on the mown rough between fairways Temple Golf Club - geograph.org.uk - 988429.jpg
Bales of hay on the mown rough between fairways

There was still significant ecological value in the original grasslands, but the cutting regime was suppressing its development. [15] In 1990 the club implemented changes in response to an ecological appraisal. These included changes to cutting regimes in the grassland roughs, and thinning, restocking and understory regeneration in the woodlands. [16] Under the new regime, the roughs were cut twice each year, in spring and late summer. Cuttings were removed to avoid build-up of nutrients and thus to encourage growth of wild flowers rather than weed grasses. Semi-roughs were cut between once a week and once every three weeks. [15] Between 1990 and 2007 the cost of fertilizer was cut in half and the cost of pesticides by almost three quarters. Water usage went down by two thirds. [4]

The course as of 2011 consisted mainly of high-quality grassland but had large areas of mature semi-natural woodland, and long hedgerows. All were managed to maintain their ecological quality. [17] The hay meadows cover about 20 hectares (49 acres) and support wildflowers, butterflies and birds. They are lightly cut in spring and harvested in autumn. The cut material is composted on site with other green waste, and the finished compost is applied to areas that have little or no topsoil. [17]

The roughs and semi-roughs were studied in a report for the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Naturalist Trust and the Windsor and Maidenhead Wildlife Group. It found more than 200 flowering plant species, including a colony of more than 200 green winged orchid plants which could justify scheduling as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The woodland margins contain helleborines, spurge laurel and wood spurge. There was evidence that badgers had been foraging in the semi-roughs, and the woodland margins contained badger tracks and setts. [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ Temple Park is named for the Knights Templar, who had a preceptory there. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf course</span> Series of holes designed for the game of golf

A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurley, Berkshire</span> Village and civil parish in England

Hurley is a village and rural civil parish in Berkshire, England. Its riverside is agricultural, except for Hurley Priory, as are the outskirts of the village. The Olde Bell Inn adjoining the priory is believed to date from 1135.

The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Links (golf)</span> Style of golf course

A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. Links courses are generally built on sandy coastland that offers a firmer playing surface than parkland and heathland courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Ealing</span>

The London Borough of Ealing, one of the outer London boroughs although not on the periphery, has over 100 parks and open spaces within its boundaries. These include allotments, cemeteries, playgrounds, and golf courses in addition to the larger open spaces such as nature conservation areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newtimber</span> Village and parish in West Sussex, England

Newtimber is a small village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located north-west of Brighton. The parish also includes the hamlet of Saddlescombe. The parish lies almost wholly with the South Downs National Park, with the exception of a small section of the parish north of the B2117 road. The planning authority for Newtimber is therefore the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA), the statutory planning authority for the National Park area. The downland scarp, which includes Newtimber Hill, Newtimber Holt, Saddlescombe chalk quarry and Summer Down, is mostly part of the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill, designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitcham Common</span> Common land in Mitcham, south London

Mitcham Common is 182 hectares (460 acres) of common land situated in south London. It is predominantly in the London borough of Merton, with parts straddling the borders of Croydon and Sutton. It is designated a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.

Turf management or pitchcare describes the work needed to keep a sporting pitch ready for use. This article looks at the various types of sporting pitches and the type of challenges which they present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf equipment</span> Items used to play the sport of golf

Golf equipment encompasses the various items that are used to play the sport of golf. Types of equipment include the golf ball, golf clubs, and devices that aid in the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenskeeper</span> Person who cares for a golf course

A greenskeeper is a person responsible for the upkeep of a golf course. Their duties include all horticultural practices, as well as the setting of flag-sticks and marking of hazards. Other responsibilities typically include raking bunkers, watering plants, repairing divots, trimming tee boxes, and mowing the course. Greenskeepers often work under the direction of a golf course superintendent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid (golf)</span> Type of golf club

A hybrid is a type of club used in the sport of golf with a design borrowing from both irons and woods while differing from both. The name "hybrid" comes from genetics to denote a mixture of two different species with desirable characteristics of both, and the term here has been generalized, combining the familiar swing mechanics of an iron with the more forgiving nature and better distance of a wood.

Arthur James Lacey was an English professional golfer who finished in the top ten of The Open Championship on four occasions in the 1930s. He also played in the 1933 and 1937 Ryder Cup matches, and was then selected as non-playing captain of the Great Britain and Ireland side for those matches in 1951. He was chairman of the PGA from 1949 to 1951.

Centennial Park Golf Centre is a 27-hole golf course situated on the border of Etobicoke and Mississauga in Southern Ontario. The facility includes a driving range, putting green, chipping green, and an 18-hole mini-golf course. Although privately owned, it is open to the public and operates on a first-come, first-served basis. The hours of operation are typically within 30 minutes of sunrise and sunset, depending on weather conditions. While the season is influenced by the weather, the course usually opens at the beginning of April and closes at the beginning of December.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club</span>

The Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club is a private golf club and golf course comprising two 18-hole courses located in Old Deer Park in Richmond, south west London.

"Tee Off, Mr. Bean" is the twelfth episode of the British television series Mr. Bean, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and Thames Television for Central Independent Television. It was first broadcast on ITV on 20 September 1995.

The Melbourne Sandbelt is a region in southeastern Melbourne, Australia, known for its sandy soil. Several significant golf courses are located in the region.

Oxhey Golf Club was a golf club located near Watford in Hertfordshire, England. The Harry Vardon designed 18-hole golf course was host to several important tournaments including the News of the World Match Play and the McVitie & Price Tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal West Norfolk Golf Club</span>

Royal West Norfolk Golf Club is a golf club in Brancaster, Norfolk, England, about 7 miles (11 km) east of Hunstanton, between Brancaster Bay and the salt marshes. The links course opened in 1892. Simon Rayner is a professional at the club. The "Royal" club name is named after Edward VII, who was the Prince of Wales at the time of opening.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernbrae Meadows</span> Public green space in South Lanarkshire, Scotland

Fernbrae Meadows is a public greenspace in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located on high ground to the south of Rutherglen, specifically directly south of the Fernhill neighbourhood. It is a local nature reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Oppenheimer</span> English businessman, golfer and Bull Terrier enthusiast

Raymond Harry Oppenheimer CBE was an English businessman, golfer and Bull Terrier enthusiast. His family was wealthy from its interests in South African diamond mining. During World War II he became a wing commander in the Royal Air Force. In 1951 he was captain of the British team in the Walker Cup.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Paper-Maker 1920, p. 153.
  2. ↑ Temple Ho, Temple Fm...
  3. 1 2 3 Peake 2001, p. 15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Smith 2009.
  5. ↑ Cotton 1969.
  6. ↑ An environmental temple.
  7. ↑ Finalists of the BIGGA Awards 2017...
  8. 1 2 Peake 2001, p. 12.
  9. 1 2 Peake 2001, p. 13.
  10. ↑ Raymond Oppenheimer RAFGS.
  11. ↑ Peake 2001, p. 16.
  12. ↑ Peake 2001, p. 17.
  13. ↑ Peake 2001, p. 19.
  14. ↑ Peake 2001, pp. 20–21.
  15. 1 2 3 Taylor 1995, p. 25.
  16. ↑ Taylor 1995, p. 24.
  17. 1 2 Duff 2011.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.