Golf
T
he course at Kedleston Golf Club opened for play in 1947, having moved from the Markeaton Golf Club, which is now the site of Derby University, Kedleston Road Campus.
The expansion of Derby during the 1930s led to its closure in 1938 when the area was earmarked for development. The Markeaton club had been formed in 1895 and was one of the founding clubs of the Derbyshire Union in 1913. When closure was imminent, the club commissioned respected course architect, James Braid, to design a course over mature parkland in the grounds of Kedleston Hall, 820 acres of parkland designed by the then little known architect and landscape gardener, Robert Adam, and now managed by the National Trust.
James Braid was a Scottish professional
golfer and a member of the ‘Great Triumvirate’ of the sport alongside Harry Vardon and John Henry Taylor. He won the Open Championship five times between 1901 and 1910. He is sometimes regarded as the “inventor” of the dogleg. The onset of the Second World War, during which time Kedleston Hall formed one of the Y-stations used to gather Signals Intelligence via radio transmissions which, if encrypted, were subsequently passed to Bletchley Park for decryption, meant that construction could not begin until 1946. By this time, Braid had retired, so John Morrison and Harry Colt were invited to prepare a new course design. Two companies were approached to construct
the course, J R Strutt Ltd (whose proprietor, John Strutt, was an old colleague of Braid) and Frank Harris Ltd. The machinery to maintain the course was obtained from the now defunct Markeaton Club. The course was one of the first to be created after the end of the war. Kedleston Park has been further
developed over the years whilst keeping its original layout. It is a respectable 6920 yards in length with a par of 72 from the Championship tees. The feature holes are the 151 yard, par 3, 7th and the 358 yard, par 4, 10th. The 5th green is protected to the left by a large copper beech tree, with the lake behind. A Robert Adam designed bridge provides a backdrop. The 7th again features the lake which guards the front of the green.
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