GOLF
once we get it in a state where they can use machines to trim it, which we will invest in when the time arrives. I would also like to point out that lowland heathland is in decline across the whole of the UK and there are only two heathland courses in the whole of Devon. We are not prepared to lose one of the unique qualities we have, alongside being on top of a cliff overlooking the coast and being a Harry Colt golf course. Our uniqueness comes from having that heather and the pine trees and, if we were to lose that, we just become another parkland course on top of a cliff. Heather is in decline, and we need to ensure that we keep these different ecologies and biodiversity. That’s all part of it; it’s exciting.”
Paul remembers starting a similar project back in the nineties, after they were given the same advice, so began to clear areas. But they then started to get a lot of grief from the membership and the pressure to stop was overwhelming and the areas just went back to gorse. “We are now fortunate enough to have a great team of people
behind us who are all singing off the same hymn sheet. So, as we are doing the work and clearing new areas, we are also spraying off the gorse that has grown back in the past, killing it off. This is allowing the heather to come back naturally, as well as planting new brushes we have been provided from the RSPB. We are really pushing to get back to as pure heathland as we can. We know we are going to have some gorse, but the plan is to stop the scrub trees coming up.” Helen explains: “The board wants this to happen, we want the course to be here in another hundred years. So, we are backing Paul and the team to do it. We have a plan and a vision of how it should look and, alongside the experts, I’m sure they will deliver the end result. As Paul said, we have tried before and it lost momentum, you need that long-term assurance and backing that it’s going to carry on.”
Paul adds, “I joined in 1975, and the gorse was very young, and it looked lovely when it was in flower, so I can understand that the golfers weren’t too
happy at the beginning. But, thirty years down the line, it is straggly, past its sell-by date and it’s turned into bracken. It then gets fertile; the trees grow up through it, and you start losing your heathland and, as we have been told, the heathland was turning into parkland. We decided it was time we did something about it.”
History
Golf has been played in Budleigh Salterton since 1894, with the original Budleigh Salterton Golf Club being a nine-hole course situated on the east bank of the River Otter. Although benefitting from similarly commanding views to those of the current course, there were problems with the location, notably, the lack of a full 18 holes and difficult access.
East Devon Golf Club as we know it today opened on 31 March 1902 on a moorland course laid out by Captain Robert Tosswill. The current course largely created in the 1920s by one of the most significant course architects of all time, Harry S. Colt. The famous James Braid added to the Colt design during his time as course advisor in the 1930s, his main legacy being
18 PC April/May 2020
the current 8th hole and 18th green and surrounding bunkers.
During its 120 year history, East Devon Golf Club has played host to Royalty, HRH The Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII) played the course in 1921; famous sporting names, including Australian cricketers Sir Donald Bradman, Richie Benaud, Greg and Ian Chappell; celebrities and golfing greats such as Peter Alliss, who considered the view from the 16th tee to be “one of the best views in golf”.
More recently, the club has become an England Golf championship venue, hosting the 2012 Ladies County Finals, the 2017 English Club Championship and the 2018 English Girls’ Open Championship.
In 2011, another big project was carried out to protect the club’s future and its identity. The sea is slowly eroding the coastline, so the club had to act. “The idea was to keep the course as close to what it has been for the last hundred years for the next hundred years. So, what we did was bring the sixteenth hole in, we moved the thirteenth sideways, and we swapped the seventeenth tee over to the other side of the sixteenth green. That has now taken everything away from the cliff and we feel we now have another hundred years of the golf course without change, and we have kept it as close to what it was before. The idea was not to improve the course, but to keep its integrity, as the thirteenth was already a nice hole and would have been difficult to improve on.” Finally, I asked Paul how far away from going into the sea, was it? “The coastal heritage path which was there in 2010 is now on the beach, and the old seventeenth tee is only fifteen paces away from the edge of the cliff now! So, yes, it was very close.”
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