405 - Course Diaries: Sunningdale New w/ Gil Hanse & Adrian Pepper

The interview is presented in two parts: historian and Sunningdale member Adrian Pepper discusses the club’s history, particularly the New Course, followed by golf-course architect Gil Hanse on the ongoing restoration work.

Pepper describes joining Sunningdale around 2000 and explains how he brought together earlier books, pamphlets, newspaper reports and archival material for his history of the club. Digitized newspaper archives, he says, made it easier to find historical details, including the first recorded hole-in-one on the New Course, made by club founder T.A. Roberts.

Roberts and his brother helped establish the club after building Ridgemount, where a few golf holes were laid out. The Old Course opened in 1901, followed by a nine-hole course for local villagers and chauffeurs, and then an 18-hole course for ladies. Pepper explains that Sunningdale’s sandy heathland offered a version of links golf near London. He contrasts earlier penal course design, focused on carrying hazards and hitting straight, with the strategic approach that encouraged golfers to make choices and use the land’s natural contours.

Pepper outlines Harry Colt’s role as secretary, course designer and later consultant. Colt refined Willie Park Jr.’s Old Course design, including reducing some greens and changing blind shots. The New Course was commissioned after the First World War as demand for golf grew. Pepper discusses Colt’s work alongside John Morrison and contractor Claude Harris, as well as Alister MacKenzie’s reported involvement. He also describes Tom Simpson’s redesign in the 1930s, intended to address changes in clubs and ball distance. Simpson’s work prompted disagreement among members; Morrison later rerouted parts of the course, and the club retained the Colt and Simpson layouts for a period.

The discussion traces further changes to the New Course, including repeated alterations to the first and 18th holes, the route through holes six to ten, and the growth of trees after the Second World War. Pepper attributes that growth to both planting decisions and reduced grazing and rabbit populations. He also names members and committees who helped restore and maintain the courses.

Hanse describes the restoration programme. The first phase included extensive tree removal, bunker and tee work, and a full rebuild of the fifth hole. The next phase is planned to expand greens and restore greenside bunkers, with further proposals for holes nine, ten and 18 subject to approval. The work uses historical photographs and Pepper’s book as references, with Colt and Morrison as the principal design guides.

Hanse says the New Course was originally more open, with features scaled to the landscape, and that restoration aims to recover that character while preserving its distinct contrast with the Old Course. He discusses specific holes, including the scale and setting of the fifth, the routing and landscape around holes 12 and 13, and design features at 14 and 16. He also explains how tee locations are being considered to offer suitable challenges for golfers with different abilities while retaining the courses’ design angles and character.

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