Walton Heath Golf Club, Part 1: The Most Significant Clubhouse We’ve Seen

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Every good story is about the journey, and this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland in just 10 years. This is a top 100 in 10 golf podcast. Episode 84. The Walton Heath Review. So I’m going to try and do something a little bit different in this episode. We played Walton Heath in a back-to-back pair pairs competition. We played the new course, the old course the first day, the new course on the second day. And I was so taken aback in a good way by the clubhouse and the experience around Walton Heath that I’ve decided we’re going to do this review in two parts and not separated by the old and new course. We’re going to separate it by the clubhouse and all the facilities in part one. And part two is going to be about the golf. At Walton Heath, everything that surrounds the golf, the history on the walls, the way the club makes you feel, before you even put a T in the ground, I thought it was worthy of its own episode and its own feature and highlight. So that’s what we’re going to be doing today. The golf is absolutely the point of what we’re going to cover. Stay tuned for part two, because that’s where we’re going to do it. But the golf clubhouse is, in my opinion, so far on our journey, probably one of the most significant golf buildings we’ve encountered. And I think to understand Walton Heath is to understand the clubhouse, the history that’s involved. Yes, we’ve covered a lot in the preview. However, when you’re there and you actually walk through its corridors, you realise what it’s all about. But before we carry on, I’d like to ask you out there to give us a follow if you’re listening to this on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’re watching this on YouTube, give us a subscribe and hit the bell button. Those two actions do two things. Number one, it tells the algorithm that you like this kind of content and to prioritize that for you. Secondly, it finds people, if you happen to be new here, it finds people like you who would be appreciative of this episode. So it takes two seconds of your time and it really helps us serve a bigger and wider community. Now back to this great episode. So Walton Heath Golf Club. It’s a Heathland golf club just off the M25. It was founded in 1903 and the old course was opened in 1904. And I’m going to take you inside that facility and show you what I found and why I think it’s such a significant building in golfing history. So the first thing I want to address, because I think it’s really important, is the presumption that it could be an intimidating place to go in. Walton Heath has a very serious rep reputation. It’s been in the

– The Reputation: Royalty, a Ryder Cup, and “Intimidating” Surrey

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top world’s top 100 rankings since rankings began. It’s hosted a Ryder Cup, and membership has included royalty and prime ministers. And when you look up the address, it is situated in one of the most wealthy and affluent areas in the UK. So you know there would be a certain amount of anxiety about turning

– Busting the Myth: The Walton Way in Action

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up. I found that to be completely unfounded. Now, as I said, we played this on a pairs event. The pairs events are really good for you to get involved in if you are worried about the atmosphere in the club because essentially they take over the whole club for that day. So you’ve got loads of like-minded people who all want to play top 100 courses, everyone’s really chatty, and because the club haven’t got their usual members or anything like that to worry about, it’s all about you on that day. It’s a really nice introduction, and you probably get into bits of the clubhouse that you didn’t think you could get into otherwise. So I’ll give you an example. We played Ganton uh previously on a pairs event, and I got let into a couple of rooms that I would normally not be able to get into. Uh, but John, who was a steward at the club there, really helped me out and gave me a good tour, so it was absolutely fantastic. Um, Walton Heath, it is famed for its Walton Way hospitality anyway, and that was a really refreshing thing to read on the website and learn about. However, when I went there, they absolutely backed that up. Now, for me, it started out with a quick chat with the receptionist who was there, and I asked her if I was okay to take a few pictures. She said absolutely no problem at all, and she actually even got up off a chair, came round the other side, and kind of pointed out a few notable things. Like, for instance, uh Edward, Prince of Wales, was uh the first captain there. So, you know, those kind of things I thought were a really nice, friendly approach that they had that perhaps you would look at the address and you perhaps you would look at the reputation and think, I’m not really sure, is it going to be okay? Is it gonna be okay for me as a visitor? Totally unfounded that. So please go for it. There was no fanfare or anything about it, just really good, genuine hospitality. And I thought that set the tone for a fantastic day. Now, one of the things that Walton Heath is really famous for is a gentleman called James Braid. Now we cover this in the preview episode. James Braid is intertwined with Walton Heath. He was the first professional there, and it’s amazing how well the club have done in getting that through and getting that kind of reverential treatment that they’ve given him. So I’m gonna go a little bit deeper into James Braid, who he was, is a name that keeps coming up because there are a lot of golf

– James Braid: Five Opens and 46 Years at One Club

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courses that he has had his hands on. So I think if you’re getting into a top 100 journey, his name’s gonna keep popping up. If you are on a top 100 journey, his name will have popped up a lot, and you probably have a lot of favourite golf courses that he’s dealt with. And if you’ve completed a top 100 journey, well, I’d defy you to dislike any of the golf courses that he’s had a hand in designing. So a little bit about James Braid, he was born in 1870. Now he actually won the open championship five times. Now we’re talking about a time when it was probably done as match play, um, and he won it in those five opens in a period of 10 years. So when you start looking at stats like that and players that we’ve got now in the modern era, obviously Tiger Woods stands out, Rory McIlroy stands out, and you can see the struggles they’ve had in winning that number of major championships. Coupled with that, he’s done that between 1901 and 1910, logistics of travelling and things like that. It is incredible that achievement in itself, and he was in this amazing triumvirate of players with Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor, and they’re two absolutely massive figures in the world of golf. So James Braid became the professional at Walton Heath in 1904, and that was the year that the old course was opened, and he never left. He remained there until the day he died in 1950. So that’s 46 years at one club as the professional. Now, the important thing about this is that James Braid did not design Walton Heath, that was designed by Harry Colt, and he, despite his massive body of work, he never once touched or suggested improvements to the Walton Heath design because, in his eyes, he couldn’t find anything to improve or make better. And the fact that James Braid is so intertwined and so inseparable from the story of Walton Heath, the club have made a great effort to kind of push that out to you and understand that you know you’re almost in a walking shrine to James Braid. You walk into the Braid room, which is a proper dedicated room in the clubhouse. It’s not a tiny little corridor or a corner or anything like that. There are portraits of him, loads of things like cartoons and caricatures of him. There are photographs that span the decades, memorabilia from his career, and everyone in the clubhouse is welcome to see that and experience that. There is a reviewer online who put it quite nicely, and I’m going to read this, so please forgive me. James Braid in Oil, the former pro and five-time open winner, appears on every corner. Now, I really didn’t find that to be an exaggeration at all. It was absolutely spot on. You cannot escape James Braid at Walton Heath. What’s perhaps a little bit less known, and I nearly missed this as well, despite all the research I’d done into the club, is that there is actually a museum dedicated to James Braid in the club, and it’s not actually in the clubhouse. So we were quite fortunate because we did this over two days. On the first day, we’d arrived and we were kind of maybe an hour short of our tea time. So we did all of our warm-up and practice and all that kind of thing, headed out, played the old course, and by the time we finished it was starting to get a bit dark, and

– The Hidden Museum Behind the Pro Shop

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we just went home. When we came back the next day, as we were heading towards our tea and the new course, we walked past the James Braid Museum. And honestly, it’s worth five minutes of your time. So where they’ve put this museum is also really, really clever. So it is actually situated behind the main pro shop, and it’s his original workshop where he used to basically handmake golf clubs and golf balls and things like that for members and visitors, and that building is still standing there on the Walton Heath estate. They’ve used that and they’ve turned that into the dedicated museum. So there’s a sign outside saying this is his original workshop, and all these things, if you’re into if you’re a top 100 buff, which you will be if you’re on this journey, it’s really cool. Like it’s really, really cool. I’m not sure if anybody’s ever described that as that to them, but I found it fascinating. I was really nerding out on it, and I’m not really a massive architecture buff, but I found it so so so cool that it was there. Now, one other thing about that pro shop, it is considered when it was opened in 1922, considered to be the world’s first purpose-built pro shop. Now let that sink in for a second. The world’s first purpose-built pro shop. It’s amazing. We take that for granted now that there might be a separate building and it’s a pro shop and that’s where it all happens. But I think it’s amazing that that was the first one. And it’s amazing that it’s available for everybody to view and go into and visitors to experience. Now, one thing I picked up on a review, it wasn’t the case for us, but one thing I did pick up on another reviewer online was that if it is closed when you arrive, please speak to the amazing team at Walton Heath because this reviewer, not me, this reviewer that I read about, said that he turned up and it was closed, spoke to somebody, and they actually opened it up for them to have a little look around. Because it’s not big, but there’s some nice displays on the wall and things like that, and they gave them a personal tour. Now that again speaks volumes to Walton Heath’s hospitality, but also the fact that they’re so proud of that link with James Braid, it’s well worth asking. And I love that kind of little detail that if you’re a visitor and you’re just taking in the golf course and you’re not trying to take in the surroundings, you can miss that detail. However, and this is a great thing about doing what we’re doing as a pair, Chris can sometimes focus on the golf. I do tend to take all the other stuff in as well, and between us, we do cover all these things, and I suppose it’s the purpose of doing the podcast, it’s just to uncover those for you because again, those things are really cool, and you’ll come back and you’ll go, I’m really glad that I did that. Now, beyond the braid room, which has, and I’m going to choose this word very, very carefully, it has basically a gallery towards to James Braid, but in the rest of the clubhouse, you can’t walk away from the shadow of James Braid. That’s really not any kind of hyperbole. He is absolutely everywhere. So take your time, get your phone out, and just kind of drink it all in. It’s well worth doing. Now, beyond Mr. Braid, and I probably have monopolized a lot of time talking about him, but there are some incredibly notable captains and members, past members, past captains of Walton Heath Golf Club. And that’s the thing that perhaps could lead you to, if you’re a casual observer and you didn’t go into any detail, it could lead you to think this could be quite an intimidating place to go into. So I’m here to tell you that take those preconceptions away, but let me tell you about some of the people that have been a past member or a past captain of this place. The first

– A King, Four Prime Ministers, and the 1981 Ryder Cup

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one is royalty, and that was the Prince of Wales, Edward, who would later become King Edward VIII before he abdicated. He was the club’s first captain. In the braid room, as you’re looking at the braid display, if you turn around, there is a board on the wall, it’s really highly lacquered, it’s a past captain’s board, and you will see the first name on there is HRH, Prince Edward. Well, I think it would have been King Edward VIII at that time, but his name is right there at the top, and it sort of sets the tone for the rest of the information that you’re gonna find out later. And the thing that’s remarkable about the king at that time, he’s the it’s the only time that a reigning monarch has served as both a club captain and obviously as the monarch. So you’re looking at a little bit of history straight away. Now, when you come in to Walton Heath, there are two entrances you can potentially use. There is the entrance from the car park, which I would probably class as the main entrance. There’s a lovely Walton Heath sign at the top, there’s some flowers around it, it’s everything you expect, and all those feels you get from a Surrey golf club. And when you walk in on the right hand side before you hit reception, you will find, and maybe ask the receptionist to point this out to you, but you will find four portraits of past members of Walton Heath Golf Club, and they are four former prime ministers who have been members there. Those names are David Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour, Bonar Law, and Sir Winston Churchill. Again, I defy you to go past that and not think that is cool as and take a picture of it. Now, another thing we can’t escape is that Walton Heath has actually hosted a Ryder Cup. It was the 1981 Ryder Cup. We probably don’t remember it that much because actually we got a bit of a pasting by the United States. However, it is written all over the walls of the clubhouse. Now, one of the things I noticed when you go into the visitors’ locker room, and I wasn’t expecting this there, usually they’re a little bit more plain, but that’s where they had a lot of the pictures from the match, they had flags from the match, uh pictures of the American team, pictures of the British team, or the sorry, the European team, and it was it’s great when you’re in there that you just you kind of feel a little bit starstruck because you know there are names like Nicklaus, Watson, Trevino, Floyd, Crenshaw, people like that who were like real behemoth of the game. Those names and those faces are on the locker room walls. Now, one of the things to note is that 1981 Ryder Cup was the last Ryder Cup before Continental Europe got added, so it was Great Britain and Ireland. I was right before. Um, but that’s quite significant because then everything clearly the focus changes and it becomes a more European style event. Now, one room I didn’t actually go into because on the first day we were late, on the second day we played with an absolutely fantastic pair, and we ended up having some food with them. But that is the more formal braid room where they do the presentations, the prize giving, and the sheer volume and number of trophies that they’ve got is absolutely astounding. Had a little peer-in from the outside, that looks like an amazing place to be doing your club prize giving. So if it’s closed, you know, just have a look from the outside through the windows. That’s my top tip. Or if you get a chance, you’re in the braid room, sit at the bar, just turn left a little bit, and you’ll see that, and it’s a beautiful room. And the thing that I like about the way this clubhouse is laid out, and it’s a pretty big clubhouse, is that I feel like they’ve layered everything so that you can discover it, and you can discover it at your own pace. So you’ve got the braid room with all the braid stuff in there, you’ve got an area where in the locker room you’ve got most of the Ryder Cup stuff, you’ve got that area in reception where you find out about the famous um past prime ministers who’ve been members, then you’ve got the more formal braid room where you’ve got all the trophies. It’s really nice that it’s segmented in that way,

– The Terrace and the Giant Putting Green

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and you can just take your time, you can have a drink in one place, move on to another place, have a drink in there, and that’s a lovely, lovely pace to discover the clubhouse. Now, one of the things I wanted to also talk about was the Walton Way. We talked about that in the preview, and that’s how Walton Heath described their hospitality. I have to say, every person that we encountered who was uh a member of Walton Heath’s staff, you know, either they’re trained in this or whatever, but they all delivered on that. They all took the time to talk to us. You know, sometimes again with these pairs events because he can take over a bit, they don’t have the normal members around. It’s an opportunity for standards to slip. There was none of that. They were so great in the Pro Shop, they were so great behind the bar, always courteous, always kind, always polite, and it didn’t feel like it was just marketing copy and a way to differentiate themselves, but actually it’s not. It was in practice, it was day-to-day, it was real life, and we got that over two days, so it’s really, really worth noting. And then there’s the terrace. Now, the terrace is something I really wanted to talk about. I’d seen a couple of pictures of it, and I thought, oh, that looks nice. It’s got a kind of safari tent kind of vibe to it. There’s a big modern roof jutting out, uh, big covered area, there’s some beautiful covered seat uh seats on the on the terrace. It’s a lovely place to either have breakfast, have lunch, or post-round meal. And it overlooks an amazing 18-hole putting green, which is massive. It’s almost like a little sort of bowling green, crowned bowling green square. It’s that big, and you can we there wasn’t a time we walked by where there weren’t people on there just playing the course and just having a putt. And it’s just such a lovely peaceful place. If you’d go into Walton Heath, it would be remiss of you to just not sit there and either have a bite to eat or have a drink. It was just a lovely, lovely place, uh, and I think it will be a memorable thing that you will do on your visit to a very famous Surrey Heathland course. Now, that putting course in front of that terrace, a lot of reviewers have actually flagged that up specifically and described it as one of the best, smoother sort of putting surfaces they’ve played on. Um, it was great, and it was so big that you could you know be on there with 20 other people and you wouldn’t get in other in each other’s way. And obviously, because you’re in the shadow of this terrace this whole time that is is modern but tastefully modern, uh it just gives you all the feels that you want, and you’ll you’ll have a wonderful time and a great vibe going on there as well. So, a few other things about the clubhouse were the Pro Shop, they were all brilliant in there, they were rushed off their feet that day. It was a boiling hot day, so everyone was buying water and things like that. Probably couldn’t stop the water up quick enough. Uh, but they took the time to talk to everybody, they were really courteous. The head pro was in, he was chatting to people who were members who were playing maybe after the pairs event, um, and it just had a really nice club vibe to it. And again, it’s another thing you sort of expect that it might be a bit snooty, unwelcoming. There was none of that. You just got the feeling that there was a really good golf club that you were in, and you were welcome there as a visitor for the day. Also, that club shop is superbly well stocked, so there’s lots of great souvenirs and things like that. It’s probably one of the best ones that we’ve seen in terms of amount of stuff that you can get in there. So, obviously, that’s the place to pick up your um your branded Walton Heath items. And I did something quite rare. I picked up a bag tag because I just love that place so much, and I have this soft spot and admiration for James Braid and the quality of courses that he’s designed. I was like, I need something like that on my bag to remember the journey. So, practice and warm-up facilities. This is where we found something a wee bit odd. It was a bit strange. So, you obviously you’ve got this putting green that’s outside the terrace, and that’s lovely. As you walk up to the first Tee, they’ve also got another practice green. There’s actually that’s a short game area you can chip from the side of that one, and that’s next to the first Tee for the old course. The driving range is an odd one. So for the driving range, if you want to go and and you’re getting out there, it’s a good solid 10-minute walk to get to the driving range.

– The One Odd Thing: The Driving Range Trek

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You have to cross the main entrance road into Walton Heath. So it’s a busy A road that you cross. You then there’s another car park there. So if you wanted to warm up first, you can do that because you can actually use card to pay for golf balls. But then you walk across a football field. Now, at the time that we went, it was bone dry because it was so parched, we’d have not had any rain for like a couple of months. But you walk across that football pitch and then it opens up and it’s massive this driving range. So it’s well worth it, it’s well worth the effort, but just bear in mind you probably need that 15 minutes to walk there and back to do your driving range warm-up. Um please be warned. It was it took us aback, we weren’t expecting that. It’s not something that we’d we’d picked up on in our in our preview. Um, but you know, it’s no it’s no worse for it, it’s just a bit of an odd thing uh to pick up. And another thing I found cool about Walton Heath was the signage. I think they’ve done really well to lean into that history, but it’s also quite modern, like the logo’s quite modern, um, and they’ve got loads of nice little touches, you know, and T markers and things like that. You know you’re somewhere special, you know you’re in a nice top 100 place. Again, like I said, it’s not been out of the world, top 100 ever. So 1938, those rankings began, and it’s always been in there, it’s been an ever-present, and you can see that the club take that seriously. So that’s the Walton Heath Clubhouse experience and the facilities around it. It’s I feel that it’s the one clubhouse we’ve been to that’s been deserving of its own review, and it’s allowed us to do a slightly different format to how we’d normally do it. I would bear in mind we have two golf courses to talk about, two high-quality golf courses to talk about. It would have done the clubhouse an injustice, and it also would have been probably a bit too long as a segment on its own, right? So please listen to part two, that’s due out in a couple of weeks. Um, but every

– The Verdict: The Best Clubhouse So Far

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good round of golf and every good golf course, the experience starts at that clubhouse and the little things that they’ve got around it, and I think Walton Heath do that exceptionally well, and it will put you in a good frame of mind for your round of golf. The history in there is exceptional, the photos are genuinely interesting, the memorabilia is just cool as fuck, if I’m honest, and with museum quality displays, you really will learn something about James Braid, the golf club. There is no way that you’re not going to walk away with a ton of pictures of that clubhouse. Um, and I think it’s just a place to absorb some golfing history. So I said at the outset that it may be one of the most significant historical golf buildings, and I do stand by that. There’s very few places that have blended a lot of hospitality, memorabilia, coolness, service, all rolled into one. So far, I would say out of the 27 and 28 courses that we’ve played, it’s probably been the best clubhouse that we’ve been into. So please make sure that you experience it and take all these bits in. Until next time, on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcasts.