SPORT 



three sides. Lord Avebury and others were 

 instrumental in founding this club in 1903, 

 and the course, which is to be lengthened, is 

 on good down turf with chalk subsoil. Play 

 is possible all the year round ; but the best 

 time for the game is the spring and early 

 summer. Bogey is less deadly than usual with 

 his 79, and the amateur record is held by 

 Mr. J. A. Harrison, who has done a round in 

 75. J. Higgs holds the professional record 

 of 73- 



The youngest of these semi-seaside courses, 

 if we may so call them, is that of the Leysdown 

 Golf Club, which is at Gosbee, in the Isle of 

 Sheppey, 8 miles from Sheerness. This club 

 was founded in 1904, when an interesting 

 course of 18 holes was laid out by Mr. J. R. 

 Divett, with the assistance of J. H. Taylor, 

 on'a space of some 200 acres on the Leysdown 

 and Shelbess estate. The club-house, which 

 is a comfortable old farmhouse, is a quarter 

 of a mile from the sea, and the links, which 

 lie to the south of Leysdown, are on good 

 pasture intersected with ditches and bounded 

 by the seashore. 



Of inland courses the most remarkable is 

 that of the venerable Blackheath Club, which 

 is just 300 years old. There are only 7 holes, 

 one of which is the longest hole in golf ; and 

 these are played three times round in com- 

 petitions. For many years Mr. F. S. Ireland's 

 loi stood as the amateur record. Harry 

 Vardon and J. H. Taylor had each been 

 round in 98 ; but these fine scores w-ere all 

 defeated on i October 1907, when Mr. A. S. 

 Johnston, playing for the Glennie Medal, 

 returned a wonderful card of 95. A player 

 with a strong sense of humour has spoken 

 not, perhaps, unjustly of Blackheath as a 

 course whose hazards are nursemaids and 

 lamp-posts ; but the historic associations of 

 the club, the good feeling of players which 

 absolutely prevents friction with the public, 

 and the excellent golf which, considering all 

 things, is to be enjoyed on Blackheath, 

 surely entitle this ancient club to the grate- 

 ful recognition of all true golfers. There 

 are five meetings a year — in February, April, 

 June, October and December, and among 

 the trophies of the club are the Bom- 

 bay, the Glennie and the Photographic 

 Society's Medals, the Adam, the Knill, the 

 Singapore, the Calcutta and the Penn Cups, 

 the Diamond Jubilee Cup and the Great 

 Yarmouth Challenge Prize. 



Golf had been played for 280 years on 

 Blackheath before the county saw the institu- 

 tion of its next oldest inland course at Folke- 

 stone, where in 1888 a 9-hoIe course, about 

 2,700 yards in length, was laid out over the 



5 



meadows of Broadmead about a mile from 

 the town. The greens are good, and there 

 are plenty of hazards. The club possesses 

 two valuable prizes in the Filmer-Bennett 

 Cup and the Hong Kong Cup ; the Captain's 

 Gold Medal is offered for winners of the 

 monthly medal. 



The Barham Downs Golf Club, instituted 

 in 1890, with a ladies' club attached, has 

 its 9-hole course on the high chalk downs, 

 where once stood Ingoldsby's gibbet, 4 miles 

 from Canterbury, and half a mile from 

 Bishopsbourne. It was founded by Captain 

 Tattersall of Charlton Place near Canter- 

 bury, and has a length of about 4,800 yards. 

 The hazards are made bunkers and a road 

 which is crossed at the first three holes. 

 Bogey for two rounds is an easy 77, which 

 score has been beaten by Messrs. E. F. Morris 

 and A. C. Edwards in 70 strokes. Harry 

 Vardon h.-is been round the 9 holes in 32. 

 The club holds three meetings a year — in 

 April, when the Style Challenge Cup is 

 played for; in May, when the Captain's 

 Prizes are the principal object for compe- 

 tition; and in September, when the Burdett 

 Challenge Cup is offered. 



The links of the Lamberhurst Golf Club, 

 also instituted in 1890, are in the park at 

 Court Lodge, 7 miles from Tunbridge Wells. 

 The 9-hole course is about ij miles round, 

 and the best months for play on this pasture 

 land course are from March to June. 



Sidcup has a 9-hole course opened in 1891, 

 in which year the i8-hole links of the 

 Rochester Golf Club were made on meadow 

 land of sandy loam at Oakleigh, about 3^ 

 miles from the cathedral city. The hazards are 

 water, banks, fences and trees. The Rochester 

 Club is rich in prizes, which include the Silver 

 Iron, Lord Darnley's Cup, the Winch, the 

 Oakleigh, the Atkin and the Royal Navy 

 Cups, the Royal Scots Medal and the Royal 

 Marine Shield. The professional record of 

 71 for the green was made by James Braid 

 and R. F. Walker. Mr. W. A. Henderson 

 and Mr. A. E. Bewes hold the amateur record 

 of 74. 



The year 1892 was the date of the founda- 

 tion of the two powerful clubs of Bromley 

 and Eltham, whose respective courses are on 

 Bromley Common and in the park of Eltham 

 Lodge. The Eltham course, where the 

 hazards are artificial sand bunkers with a pond, 

 hedges and ditches, has a length of 5,230 

 yards. It has been greatly improved of 

 late years by an elaborate and costly system 

 of drainage. The club-house is a magnificent 

 old mansion, built in the reign of Charles II, 

 formerly the residence of the Wood family. 

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