This article appeared in the Autumn 2006 edition of the Newsletter.

For photo of the Bowl Barrow, click here

The most historic patch of Liphook Golf Course is the Burial Mound between the 14th tee and the 11th green. It was built in about 500 BC when a Saxon chieftain was buried below ground level in the centre of the mound (or ‘tumulus’). This was towards the end of the Bronze Age, a period during which copper, lead and tin were mined and converted into bronze for tools and ornaments. Artefacts of the period were almost certainly buried with the chieftain. It is located just inside the Hampshire border on land now owned by Richard Northcott.

According to the Hampshire Treasurer’s records the mound had not been disturbed from that time until the Club placed a Ladies’ Tee on it.  Elsewhere, many barrows have been quietly excavated in an attempt to learn more about the chieftains and the articles buried with them.

In about 1900 thirty Douglas Fir trees were planted round the top of the mound; strong winds and thinning have reduced this to twenty. Very few barrows have trees planted on them, and special permission must have been obtained by the then owner, Mr R Lee, but there is no record of this. The records state that in 1929 the mound was surrounded by dry stone walling; in 1949 the stone wall was removed and shallow ditch dug round it. The mound is now well maintained by David Murdoch and his team. 

 

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#Date Of Event:500bc#
#Date Item Created:October 2006#
#Author:Tony Rudgard#
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For photos click here

This painting of the 11th green is owned by Lt Col and Mrs Stephen Gurney who live in Titchfield and are members at Lee-on-the-Solent. Stephen Gurney was related to Katharine Anson who was Tom Simpson’s secretary when he was working in Liphook. In 2001 the Gurneys answered a notice in Hampshire Golf News which asked for historical information about the Club; we are very grateful to them for getting in touch. Stephen knows Liphook well; he used to captain the RAGS team in their annual match here against the Royal Navy.    

Tom Simpson was an artist as well as a golf course architect and exhibited his paintings in London. This painting shows four bunkers round the 11th green, (the 2nd green on the original course); there are now three bigger ones. Incidentally, the green was a little wider in the early days. The Douglas fir trees were planted on the Bronze Age bowl barrow in about 1900, and most are still growing strong. There are more bowl barrows in the area and this one is registered with Hampshire County Council. 

As described in ‘The Liphook Story’, Tom Simpson’s partner Arthur Croome designed Liphook Golf Course in 1922; Simpson continued to develop the course when he joined the Club in 1924. He had design experience as a member of Woking where he re-designed the 4th hole. He went on to design and re-design courses in the UK and Europe and also visited the US. His technique of using plasticene modelling (seen in the photo, left) for course design was unique to Tom; it helped the design process, and enabled him to explain his ideas better to others.

and since then ...

by David Murdoch

We decided to remodel the bunkers at the 11th this year and carried out historical research to get a feel for how they first looked when they were first designed and how they had evolved. I worked with course architect Tom Mackenzie, a member of the Tom Simpson Society. We looked at old photographs, sketches and wartime aerial photographs. Originally there were four bunkers, including two to the left of the green which have since been amalgamated. The photographs confirmed how much the bunkers on each side had encroached over time. The middle section had become much narrower than it had been and the banks had grown significantly higher from sand splashing out of the bunkers.

On the basis of this information we decided to retain three bunkers instead of reverting back to four, to reduce the height of the bankings, to move the left bunker back slightly from the green and to plant heather sporadically on the front bankings. The front bunker is close to the original design, apart from the addition of heather, and we have made it possible for golfers on the tees to see the sand in all three bunkers. We made our alterations in sympathy with the original design whilst being mindful of the demands of the modern game. I should pay credit to our local contractor/shaper David Tull whose skill and understanding of the requirements was exceptional.

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#Location:Hampshire Records Office#
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#Date Item Created:October 2009#
#Author:Tony Rudgard & Jess Stiles#
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This article was published in the Newsletter, October 2006. A subsequent article about work done on 11th Green was published in Autumn 2009 (click here).

To see Tom Simpson's painting of 11th green, click here

The Liphook course was designed during a golden age of golf architects, some of them as famous as the great professional golfers of the time including James Braid and Harry Vardon.

Liphook is the only course designed by Arthur Croome, founder of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society; he died relatively young in 1930. His mantle was taken over by Tom Simpson, a partner in the same firm and considered one of the greatest golf architects. He was also a great friend of Liphook.

Simpson was a lawyer and learned his golf at Woking. He fell in love with Liphook and moved home to ‘Quinces’ in Bramshott. Croome and he shared the new philosophy of ‘strategic’ design which he had introduced to courses such as Sunningdale, Woking, Lytham & St Annes, Carnoustie and Rye (read more about ‘Strategic’ course design in The Liphook Story).

He was elected Manager of the Green in 1933 (his own version of ‘Chairman of the Green Committee’) but he was no ‘committee man’. On one occasion, when he thought the Committee was discussing proposals he had made, he drove his Rolls Royce slowly back and forth outside the Committee Room window. He resigned two years later.

Simpson made many improvements to Croome’s design including the mound (known as “Simpson’s Folly” right, top picture) to the left of the 9th green, intended to make players think where to place their drive in order to put their second on the green. He also introduced slopes in front of the bunkers on the 11th green (below, right), keeping the straight shot on the green but punishing approaches from the side.

He gave what may have been the only radio broadcast of the period on the subject of golf course architecture. When he died at the age of 87, the notice in The Times stated only: “Simpson – On 10th May, 1964, Tom Simpson late of South Warnborough. No flowers, no letters, no mourning.

 

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#Location:Website#
#Date Of Event:1880- 1957#
#Date Item Created:2006#
#Author:Tony Rudgard & Jess Stiles#
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This article appeared as part of a compilation of articles in the Newsletter of Autumn, 2010, revisiting the history of Irrigation at Liphook and reporting on the effects of dry summers in 2006 and 2010. For photos of Irrigation work on the course, click here

I hope I have made clear to members the current situation regarding the installation of fairway watering and our negotiations with the Environment Agency.  

It is vital we move forward from a position of knowledge and strength. As I write this, we still do not know the results of the essential pump tests which will decide our options. We will not rush into any commitments until we know the facts and can make the informed decisions you would expect of us. 

As originally planned, the project will start in the winter of next year. Please be assured that we will aim to achieve the best possible installation at the best possible price in the shortest possible time!

 

 

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#Date Of Event:October 2010#
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#Author:Ian Hewitt#
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This is an extract from the Course Diary written by Course Manager David Murdoch and appeared as part of a compilation of articles in the Newsletter of Autumn, 2010, revisiting the history of Irrigation at Liphook and reporting on the effects of dry summers in 2006 and 2010. For photos of Irrigation work on the course, click here

The winter was one of the harshest that we’ve had for years – I never thought I’d see so much snow in this part of the country. It can act as an incubator for snow mould or fusarium on the greens; luckily, we escaped these diseases. Winter projects and the installation of the new irrigation system finished late and I hoped for a nice spring which would kick-start new growth and allow us to present the course properly. In the end we had one of the driest springs on record with very cold temperatures in the evening and warmth during the day. This was then followed by very hot and dry weather throughout June and July. Bye bye fairways!! 

Between 6th April and 13th July we had an accumulative total of 46mm of rainfall. Then, between 6am Sunday 22nd and 6am Monday 23rd August we had 48mm of rainfall. We had more in one day than in fourteen weeks. ‘It never rains but it pours.’In 2006 our fairways were saved in the nick of time by heavy August rain.  Another serious drought occurred this year. Once again, in July, our fairways were bare and brown. David Murdoch’s 2010 Course Diary reports on the situation.

“Following excellent results from the previous two years of late verti-draining the fairways, we repeated the procedure, hoping to break up compaction from winter play and encourage fresh, new roots down the verti-drain holes, which would be better able to cope in the event of a dry summer.

Talk about a plan backfiring! Following the extreme winter, the dry spring with no growth ensured that the verti-drain holes remained open, not only making the fairways unsightly but also encouraging some very strange bounces. As the hot, dry summer continued, many areas developed hydrophobic soil, leading to chronic dry patch, while many other areas of turf reached and went past permanent wilting point leading to dramatic loss of top cover. Many of the top surface leaves had lost all turgidity and simply sheared off from the plant crown.

The wetter weather in August revealed the full extent of the damage; we’re currently left with patchwork quilts of grass and bare patches. At least now we should get a fair bit of recovery – I dread to think what the outcome would have been had we not had this wet August. The root systems are all alive and operational again and the dreaded verti-drain holes will now aid the recovery – it just remains to be seen how much regeneration from the crown we will get over the next month or so. We face another battle with moss and weeds colonising the bare patches. “

 

 

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#Date Of Event:2010#
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#Author:David Murdoch#
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This article appeared as part of a compilation of articles in the Newsletter of Autumn, 2010, revisiting the history of Irrigation at Liphook and reporting on the effects of dry summers in 2006 and 2010. For photos of Irrigation work on the course, click here

July 2006 was the driest on record. Our Head Greenkeeper has not been alone in facing the challenge of near-drought conditions. The Open at Hoylake confronted the world’s best golfers with brown fairways and fast-running greens. They had to adapt their play to the conditions. “I think it’s a fantastic test.” said Tiger Woods. “With the golf course being this fast, it lent itself to just amazing creativity. This is the way - how it all started and how I think that it should be played.”

David Murdoch wrote in the 2006 Newsletter about the effect of the drought on the fairway grasses.

The grasses considered most sustainable in cool season temperate zones like ours are Browntop Bents (Agrostis tenuis/capillaris) and the Fescues Chewings fescue (Festuca rubra commutate) and Slender creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra litoralis). Fescues thrive in harsh environments – particularly on links courses which are free-draining, windy, often cold and have high salinity levels.

“Annual meadow grass (Poa Annua) is the least sustainable of all turf grasses (it’s regarded as a weed by many); once established it requires more water and nutrient than other grasses in order to survive It is also very prone to disease, particularly Fusarium. However, it is also the most opportunistic of all grasses; it has a prolific ability to produce seed, even at the closest of mowing heights, and has an amazing ability to invade closely mown swards. That is why the battle against annual meadow grass is a never-ending one.

 

 

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#Location:Website#
#Date Of Event:2006#
#Date Item Created:October 2010#
#Author:David Murdoch#
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This article appeared as part of a compilation of articles in the Newsletter of Autumn, 2010, revisiting the history of Irrigation at Liphook and reporting on the effects of dry summers in 2006 and 2010. For photos of Irrigation work on the course, click here

Two issues began to press on the Club. First, that the fairways were increasingly at peril from long dry periods during some summers. Secondly, that the existing irrigation system was coming to the end of its natural life. Chairman of the Green Committee, Ralph Carver, summarises the work done to upgrade course irrigation in the first decade of the new millennium.

David Murdoch and the committees of the day have known for many years that the Liphook system is reaching the end of its useful life.  Rather like a motor car, you can continue to service it and make it run, but the breakdowns increase in severity and fear grows of the dreaded day when the problem is so serious that one of our beloved greens dries out

So we asked Roger Davey of Irritech to come to Liphook. His initial report  confirmed most of our fears about the Liphook system.Davey reported that the central plant was severely corroded; the pipework was worn out and ruptures are increasing; the sprinklers themselves His report suggested that a new system might be researched and specified. He recommended the addition of an off-site reservoir which could hold sufficient water during winter months for summer usage. It would also make full use of the current extraction licence. As members know, the new irrigation system was introduced during the winter of 2009/10, despite vicious winter weather.

The new pipes provided the Committee with the option of watering fairways as well, “not in order to change the character of the course” stresses David Murdoch “but as an insurance policy against drought and damaged fairways”

 

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#Date Of Event:2006 - 2009#
#Date Item Created:October 2010#
#Author:Ralph Carver#
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This article appeared as part of a compilation of articles in the Newsletter of Autumn, 2010, revisiting the history of Irrigation at Liphook and reporting on the effects of dry summers in 2006 and 2010. For photos of Irrigation work on the course, click here

When the course was first built, its greens were watered by  a thousand-gallon tank hauled round the greens on a trailer pulled by the Club’s black mare. This proved to be inadequate in hot weather and in 1924 negotiations started with Blake Bros of Accrington, to provide a piped system to the 18 greens.

By 1928 a sump was installed near the Links Hotel and water flowed in to it from drainage ditches, the Wheatsheaf pond and a smaller pond on the other side of what was then the A3. A pump was installed in the 10th Tee car park, with a suction pipe under the road to the sump. Pressure pipes were then installed to valves beside each green and hoses were taken round to each green in turn. The pipes were laid in galvanized wrought iron and whilst some corrosion took place, it was not until 1970s that leaks began to appear in the suction and pressure pipes.

Dry summers demanded more water on the greens and some on the tees. In the 1980s a water storage tank and mains water supply were installed in the 10th Tee car park, and a new plastic pipeline system was laid round the course. In the 1990s the ponds and drainage system were drying up, and a bigger tank was installed near the clubhouse, together with a bore hole, sump pump and a re-vamped green and tees watering system.

 

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#Date Of Event:1921 - 2000#
#Date Item Created:October 2010#
#Author:Tony Rudgard#
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Includes: Winter Programme, 2000-2001; Green Survey report; list of winter work, 1999-2000; 1998 Course Report; winter programme, 1998-1999; draft report of Course Improvement; Captain's letter, May 2000.

41A08/D17

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#Date Of Event:c1995-2000#
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#Author:David Murdoch#
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Some coring and overseeding work will be taking place on the green surrounds during this week. This work is important in order to get some grass established on bare areas before the onset of winter.

Drainage work on the 11th and 12th greens will commence on Thursday 5th October. The work is scheduled to take two weeks provided we get good weather. If there are no mishaps or holdups I'm hoping that we can have the greens back in play before the end of the month and in time for the Elders Open.

David Murdoch

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#Date Of Event:11 Sep 2006#
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#Author:David Murdoch#
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