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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.

/-- Liphook Archive Information --/
#Medium:Photograph#
#Location:Hampshire Records Office#
#Date Of Event:#
#Date Item Created:October 2009#
#Author:Tony Rudgard & Jess Stiles#
#Copyright:#