Rye

The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses: Volume 1, Great Britain & Ireland

So, what to make of Rye? Like most of the famous links in the UK and Ireland, golf started to be played here before golf course design was even a hobby, much less a profession, and the plan of the course has evolved through several iterations from a rudimentary start. The original layout was done by a young solicitor named Harry Colt, several years before he set out on his architectural career; but much of Colt's routing was tangled up with the busy public road to Camber, and the course has had to evolve away from it over time. Luckily, more good ground was becoming available for use, as the Rye harbor continued to fill up with sand deposits. The site of today's 13th green was part of the beach in 1894; today the same spot is 300 meters from the sea! This is the true nature of linksland, as
mother Nature can be unstoppable when she is in a creative mood.

The centuries of coastal winds formed a number of sharp dune ridges and valleys, and the routing of today's course tackles them from every possible angle. You play along the base of a ridge for the first three holes, then climb up and play atop the ridge at the long par-4 4th. At the short 5th, you leap from one dune ridge to another; at the 6th, you drive diagonally over a ridge, and then play up the back side. At the 13th, you play over a diagonal ridge for the blind second shot to the Sea Hole; at the 16th and again at the 18th, you drive from low ground up onto one of the ridges, on opposite diagonals. In fact, this wonderful routing is the product of several successive routings, each shaped by a subsequent designer who added at least one of the best holes to the course we know today: The fine green sites at the 15th and 16th are part of Colt's original plan, though both holes have been lengthened considerably, and the par-4 18th finishes atop the santeridge, although the tee shot over the "Soup Bowl" bunker was lost to a re-routing and to construction during the war. The green at the short 5th was put up on the ridgetop by the club's committee chair Clement Archer, in 1907. Tom Simpson created the short par 4 9th and the par-3 17th in 1932, when he was hired to eliminate the road crossings.

Sir Guy Campbell discovered the wonderful 4th hole in 1938, giving him more elbow room to improve the opening stretch. Last, but certainly not least, Major H.C. Tippet, who had a hand in designing several courses in America before the Crash of 1929, was appointed secretary to the club at the end of World War Il, and created the short 2nd and 7th holes in the process of getting the course back into play, just before his death in 1947. 

For me, it's a wonder that Rye isn't a fixture as one of the top 50 courses in the world, especially since it hosts one of the game's great competitions the President's Putter matches of the Oxford & Cambridge Golfing Society, played in the nastiest of winter weather. For years, I thought it must be held back because its par of 68 is too challenging to the establishment; but now I am starting to wonder if the inability to tag the design
with one famous designer's name is holding it back somehow - even if that is exactly why the course is so good. 

Tom Doak 

The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses: Volume 1 - Great Britiain and Ireland - 2014

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