A HISTORY OF KENT 



Tonbridge Golf Club, instituted in October 



1893, has a sporting course of 9 holes situated 

 between Tonbridge and Hildenborough. The 

 dub prizes include the Bent Cup, the Floyd 

 Bowl, the Furley Cleek and the Lucas Iron. 

 The President's Prize is played for in 

 November. 



The Chislehurst Golf Club, founded in 



1894, has a somewhat short course in the 

 park of Camden Place, where a record of 64 

 for the 18 holes has been established by Mr. 

 O. C. Bevan and Mr. C. E. Dick. ' The 

 beautiful and historic house of Camden Place 

 is the club-house. 



At Culverden and at Tunbridge Wells two 

 courses were opened in 1896, that at Culver- 

 den being of 9 holes on high ground 500 feet 

 above the town, while the links of the Tun- 

 bridge Wells club, also of 9 holes, are on 

 quick-drying pasture with s.nndy subsoil close 

 to the common. The ladies of the Tunbridge 

 Wells club have a club-house of their own. 



At Bearsted is the l8-hole course of the 

 Maidstone Golf Club, instituted in 1897. 

 Tickle's record of 73 and Mr. F. G. Stenning's 

 of 75 for this undulating course testify to its 

 sporting character. The Maidstone Ladies' 

 Club, founded a year later, is a branch of the 

 men's club. 



The Dartford Golf Club, instituted in 

 1897, has a 9-hole course at Dartford Heath 

 which has been greatly extended of late 

 years. It is on old pasture-land with gravel 

 subsoil, and has natural and artificial hazards 

 of various kinds. The length is if miles 

 with a par score of 39. The ground is never 

 muddy, indeed it is apt to bake in hot and 

 dry weather. 



The Sundridge Park Golf Club has a fine 

 inland course on Sir Samuel Scott's estate 



close to Bromley, which was opened in 1901. 

 It is a long i8-hole course laid out with 

 excellent judgement over ground of very 

 undulating character. The holes are of good 

 length, and if there is a certain sameness 

 about some of them the fine large greens, 

 most of which are natural, the beautiful lies 

 and the variety of the hazards more than atone 

 for this. 



Yet another of the many golf links in the 

 neighbourhood of London is that of the 

 Barnehurst Club. This is a somewhat short 

 i8-hole course laid out by James Braid in 



1903, in \vhich year 9-hole courses at Ashford 

 and Gravesend were opened. The Graves- 

 end links are on the marshes between Graves- 

 end and Higham, and are shortly to be 

 lengthened to 18 holes. 



The Eltham Warren Golf Club greatly 

 enlarged its sporting links of 9 holes in 



1904, and as the soil is dry and sandy the 

 course is improving rapidly. 



Youngest of Kent golf courses is the excel- 

 lent one belonging to the Wrotham Heath 

 Club, founded in 1906. The links are on 

 Highlands Farm, Wrotham Heath, nearly 

 400 feet above the sea-level, and though there 

 are only 9 holes, they are planned with such 

 skill and are of such good length, the natural 

 hazards are so interesting, and the turf, being 

 on undulating ground throughout the course, 

 is of such fine quality, that the club may be 

 congratulated on its really fine course, which 

 has every promise of becoming the very 

 best of the inland courses in the county. 



The Editor desires to express his cordial 

 thanks to the secretaries of many clubs who 

 have kindly supplied much of the information 

 that is incorporated in these notes on golf in 

 Kent. 



ATHLETICS 



The historian who sets himself the task 

 of recording the story of Kent athletics finds 

 at once that he has to deal with a county 

 possessing peculiarities of its own with 

 regard to this branch of sport ; indeed, in 

 one particular respect, Kent stands almost, 

 if not quite, in a class by itself. Other 

 counties have their amateur and their pro- 

 fessional side of athletics, but in Kent the 

 latter feature predominates to a much greater 

 extent than can be found, probably, in any 

 other part of the kingdom. Athletic sports, 

 promoted under the laws and regulations of 

 the Amateur Athletic Association, are com- 

 paratively few and far between, Avhereas 



meetings of the unregistered type are numer- 

 ous in almost every part of the county. 

 The athlete who indulges in sport for 

 sport's sake, which, as all must admit, is 

 the healthiest form of recreation for mind 

 and body that can be devised, would expect 

 to find that in this part of England as else- 

 where amateur gatherings held under the 

 auspices'of the A.A.A. were on the increase; 

 but such unfortunately is not the case. 

 It is to be noticed, indeed, that a num- 

 ber of meetings which were once of the 

 unregistered type, and whose promoters 

 tried the experiment of holding their sports 

 under the aegis of the * Three A's,' found 

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