Harry Colt | Dulwich & Sydenham Hill Golf Club

Stimulate the player to think strategically– severe for the scratch golfers, sympathetic for the bogey golfer.

Harry S Colt

Henry Shapland “Harry” Colt (4th August 1869 – 21 November 1951)

Biography

Harry Colt was a Cambridge University-educated Lawyer from the West Midlands in England. A proficient player, Harry Colt captained the Cambridge golf team. After graduation, Harry Colt lived and worked in Hastings, a short journey from Rye. As a member and capable player, he was given the opportunity to redesign the links with the help of Douglas Rolland. The same year he was appointed to serve as the club’s honorary secretary.

Harry Colt – Golf & Course Design

Colt worked predominantly with Charles Alison, John Morrison, and Alister MacKenzie, in 1928 forming Colt, Alison & Morrison Ltd. He participated in the design or redesign of over 300 golf courses (115 on his own) in all six inhabited continents, including those at Wentworth Club, Sunningdale, Muirfield, Royal Portrush, and Royal Liverpool.

Colt teamed up with George Crump in 1918 to design Pine Valley Golf Club, which is ranked as the #1 golf course in the United States, by Golf magazine (2017 – 18 ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the USA) and Golf Digest (2019 – 20 ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses). The classic Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Michigan, was designed by Colt and Alison in 1921. The course played host to the 1947 PGA Championship, the 1957 Western Open, and Ryder Cup Challenge Matches in 1943.

In 1897, he became a founder member of the Royal & Ancient Rules of Golf Committee.

Other Courses

Colt’s courses of note in the UK include: Tandridge Golf Club, which features Colt Corner, Oxford Golf Club, Ladbrook Park Golf Club, Denham Golf Club, St Georges Hill, Sunningdale (New Course), Belfairs Golf Club, Rye, Blackmoor, Swinley Forest, Brancepeth Castle, Brokenhurst Manor, Camberley Heath, Stoke Park Club, Calcot Park, Goring and Streatley Golf Club, Grimsby Golf Club, Hendon Golf Club, Tyneside and East & West Courses at Wentworth Club.

He performed extensive redesigns of Sunningdale (Old course), Woodhall Spa, and of Muirfield, Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, and Royal Portrush, three of the courses on the rota for the Open Championship. In Canada, his courses for the Hamilton Golf and Country Club and the Toronto Golf Club are highly respective. He also designed in 1914 the first Spanish course bigger than 4,300 yards, the Club de Golf Sant Cugat, promoted by the Barcelona Traction Light and Power Company Ltd.

Colt played in The Open Championship in 1891 and The Amateur Championship in 1895 – 1902, 1904, and 1906 – 1912. He also represented England in the 1908 England – Scotland Amateur Match.