Edgbaston Golf Club Review

Imagine my delight at being offered the chance to experience playing golf at Edgbaston Golf Club in Birmingham. Located around a mile from the city centre, this golf course could not be more centrally located, being situated close to a university campus, it offers an oasis of nature and green within a major city centre.

I knew that Edgbaston was a Harry Colt original and that it had been created by him in 1936 towards the end of his active design career. The course benefits from the years of experience and canny creation skills from a man who is acknowledged to be the father of the science of golf course architecture and design. His books are still followed today and his design principles still apply.

I had researched a report created by the EIGCA (European Institute of Golf Course Architecture) at the venue following the discovery of an original Harry Colt plan for a novel new design. He had suggested having a tee box situated upon a dam wall at the venue to utilise the existing lake into his design. 

This was a highly unusual feature as both Colt and his business partner Captain Hugh Alison had previously avoided forcing a golfer to play over water as the cost of a lost golf ball was so penal. His designs were for all standards of golfer from rabbit to scratch and they avoided this type of layout until the cost of golf balls had reduced considerably.  

This discovery of the plan and the concept was of sufficient interest to support a comprehensive report by EIGCA.

My recent efforts to save Allestree Park in Derby, another original Colt design from 1930, led to the discovery that he had in fact created a globally unique tee box situated on an island in the middle of a lake accessed by a footbridge. 

This was the only known example anywhere in the world out of around 420 designs that included many of the world’s top 100 layouts. Many of these are now Open standard courses in the USA, UK and Europe.

This wasn’t just a design as it was built and in play in major competitions from the May of 1930. It attracted much press interest and some criticism as so many golf balls were being lost in the lake by top golfers in county and regional events.

Local press reports criticised the "penal" nature of this new style of layout, even detailing the value of the lost golf balls during a major women’s competition.

Colt was deliberate with his concept wishing that players learn a new style of "aerial game and shot making" rather than the "scuffling type of Scottish shot" that was sometimes used on links golf courses. 

This forced innovation and a style of play for the whole sport of golf started in Derby at this now defunct and abandoned municipal golf course.

I still visit the site regularly and walk on its previously manicured fairways and I wonder what could have been if its owners had understood what a globally unique sporting asset they owned. A community owned asset of considerable monetary value simply abandoned and left to its own devices.

Edgbaston Golf Club History

Edgbaston is a golf course I have wanted to play for several years. I knew of its Colt pedigree and I was intrigued by how a golf course could thrive in such a city centre location. It is a mile from dead centre of the UK’s second city and it is a remarkably tranquil setting despite its near neighbours.

There is a wealth of Colt memorabilia on display at the venue, with much more secured away. Original hand drawn plans adorn a dining room created by Colt. They are golfing works of art. 

I knew that the club had a dining room with its own bespoke golfing library and that it had a very active historian and archivist in the form of Peter Heath in place ensuring that its history was recorded to be understood and enjoyed by future generations.

I recommend his book (Edgbaston Golf Club: 125th Anniversary: 1896 to 2021) on all things Edgbaston Golf Club wholeheartedly. His past captaincy and many committee positions help give a unique perspective on the internal operations of a major golf club and its community.

In correspondence with the then club Secretary, a Mr. Lunt, Harry Colt wrote on 20 May 1936:

"Will you kindly make enquiries and see if I can purchase for my own consumption several dozens of that excellent sherry which you have at the Union Club. If you can arrange this for me I will work myself to the bone for your Edgbaston Golf Course. But kindly note that it will not be shortened by one single yard under my advice. Your members need never play off the back tees, but it is essential to have them for big competitions."

This is a perfect example of Colt's understanding of how golf would develop after his passing and ensuring that developments in equipment would not make his design redundant.

I knew that Edgbaston merited a significant entry within Peter Pugh & Henry Lord’s book Creating Classics: The Golf Courses of Harry Colt.

This classic book offers an insight into some of his most attractive and considered designs around the world.  

"Edgbaston Golf Club is only two miles from the centre of Birmingham, but from playing there you would hardly know it. Set in mature parkland, the course greens are small targets and the tree-lined fairways require straight hitting if a good score is to be achieved on this tight par 69 course."

The clubhouse is a magnificent, listed mansion, built by Sir Richard Gough in 1717. This building was created in a similar but slightly less grand manner than Stoke Park that has recently reopened for play. The professional shop is a bright modern facility carrying everything a golfer would require and yet is sits easily within the heritage buildings and facility. 

Edgbaston Golf Course

The opening hole is a relatively straightforward par 4, something Colt often used to get games moving away quickly from the first tee. There were few practice or warm up facilities conceived in his day so the gentle opener par 4 was a useful tactic to set the pace of play. The camber of the fairway tends to draw a ball towards the overhanging trees on its left-hand side blocking direct access to the green with the second shot.

The second hole is another requiring strategic placement. Dogleg left with the landscape falling towards the green, there is a bunker placed centre fairway with out of bounds left again providing another challenge. Formidable bunkers offer extra protection to the green.

I loved every one of the short holes at Edgbaston. Each offered a visual challenge from the tee requiring accurate placement of the tee ball to have any chance of a par score.

The seventh is a real beauty with a subtle but challenging green structure. One of the few times you can see a building from within the golf course. There is a valley between tee box and the plateau green sentried by trees on three sides with bunkers set to trap any short ball. This is a cracking hole, probably the signature one for the golf course.

The 11th appears innocuous through its length but it still has teeth requiring a well-positioned drive and equally well struck pitch into a hog’s back green with bunkers on either side, while the 12th keeps the lake to its left-hand side for its full length, which was exactly like the 11th hole at Allestree, designed by Colt in 1930. 

I could not help myself on the 13th and went for the ‘hail mary’ drive over the trees rather than the sensible conservative play of a shorter club to the dogleg, leaving a long iron into the green. I was pleased to say that I achieved my goal of a birdie here as my drive was perfectly positioned on the fairway allowing a pitch to the heart of the green. Elated by the drive, the putt seemed to be on rails and threw itself into the hole. This is a shot I could execute one out of every ten times so it was not a sensible play.

I failed to photograph the 14th due to my excitement, but it is of an equal standard to all the other short holes on the course. The green undulates with bunkers covering anything wayward left or right.

The 15th is known locally as ‘Thrombosis Hill’ due to the gradient towards the elevated green. A ha-ha protecting the house from grazing animals is still evident at the rear of the green. The green structure is unusual as it seems to have two distinct parts. This is thought to be connected to ground movement involving a subterranean ice house that was built to service the house.

An elevated tee box with the entire hole offering itself in front of you is the view from the 16th. The green is 280 yards away but is protected by a necklace of bunkers and swales and rises that offer it protection. A risk and reward hole of the finest quality.   

The 17th is another sweeping hole to a well-protected green complex. The finishing hole is another beauty requiring accurate placement off the tee and decent judgement of distance due to the gradient back up the hill towards the clubhouse and home. 

Verdict

Edgbaston is an exemplary golfing experience situated in the heart of England’s second city. At no point during the round was I distracted by its city centre location and the abundant wildlife and excellent sustainable practices lead you to the thought that this is in fact a rural idyll.

We enjoyed a superb meal in the library/dining room surrounded by one of the best stocked golfing libraries I have ever seen. The clubhouse is an historic building and the memorabilia on display is simply stunning. If you are a fan of the work of Harry Colt then this is a course that has to be placed on your bucket list for play.

His work here is clear and remains mainly as he designed it.

Don’t take my word alone as to the quality of this venue, check out the reviews by other visiting golfers on the Golfshake website, as it merits the award of our Highly Recommended status.

I struggle to find any constrictive criticism for the venue even noting that it is obvious that sustainable management practices are high on the day-to-day agenda. 

How many golf courses do you know where even the litter bins offer a full range of different recycling options? 

I loved the entire experience of visiting and playing at Edgbaston Golf Club. If you can visit and play here, please do so. I can pretty much guarantee that you will not be disappointed.