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THE 18 HOLE COURSE
In 1978 The Club negotiated with Esso for the use of 81 acres of land in the Gelliswick area at an annual rental of £1,260 for a period of 21 years.
The course was designed by a professional course designer by the name of David Snell and is little changed from its original design. The 18 hole course was officially opened in 1980 by the professional Brian Huggett who was very complimentary about the course. Mr. Huggett stayed with Jean and John Winter at their home and signed a copy of the official handbook which is the only document that can be found from the event. Some of the pages of that document are reproduced below together with a copy of a letter.
The 10th hole 'Docs' was originally a par 4 hole with the tee being situated in the area of the present 8th tee. Golfers would drive off over the road onto the fairway. This involved driving the ball past the houses with the inevitable unfortunate accidents occurring, until eventually a person in one of the gardens was struck by a golf ball resulting in an expensive court case.
After this the hole was reduced to a par 3 with the tee being situated on the other side of the road which put the houses out of play.
Seventeen years later in 1995 the club again negotiated with Esso. This time it was to purchase the land that they now rented. The cost of this was to be £125,000 and included the farmyard and buildings of Gelliswick Farm. An application was made to Sportslot for a grant to help pay for the land. A grant of £20,000 was given and the purchase went ahead. The balance of the purchase price was made up with a bank loan from The National Westminster Bank.
Not everyone was pleased with the fact that the club had had a grant from Sportslot as was evident by the comments of ‘Old Grumpy’ a columnist who wrote for the Milford Mercury Newspaper. This item appeared in the newspaper under the heading of “Dooh Nibor” on the 7th of July 1995
Ken Read winning the rover golf challenge
The 16th referred to here is actually the church hole the 17th which is in play as the 16th when the normal 16th The Pit is out of play for various reasons. It could be that the oil company was working on their pipeline in the area or it could be because of the green being out of play because of the extremely wet conditions of the green which was often the case before the green was rebuilt and drainage installed in the year 2000.
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