GWD_MAY_16

former president of the club), and golfing
royalty in Henry Cotton and Jim Barnes –
in being captivated by this section of
England’s coast that is reputed to have
hosted golf for nearly 130 years.
It’s suggested undergraduates played
golf in the area around the church
overlooking Daymer Bay – the northern
end of the property – as early as 1888. A
year later holes were more permanently
laid out further south in the huge dunes
around Rock and by the start of the new
decade a fledgling club had been formed;
thus, St Enodoc has just finished a year of
125th anniversary celebrations.
Extra land was secured as the new
century dawned and in 1907 James Braid
laid out the full course, the majority of
which remains in place today.
Just shy of a century later, Peter
McEvoy, the amateur icon and course
designer, undertook a subtle review of the
links to tighten the test, with new fairway
bunkers and additional tees created along
with new greens on the 13th and 16th.
“We didn’t want to be prisoners to
length, so many of the changes are subtle
and strategic,” says secretary Tuck Clagett,
‘St Enodoc does memorable
holes of diverse character
better than most... a quality
that is evident immediately’
a friend of Watson’s from their prep
school days. “It was vital we retained the
characteristics that have made St Enodoc
famous around the world but we must
also appreciate technological advances had
blunted the teeth of some of the holes.”
Two of the Church’s holes usually
receive more attention than the rest, with
the St Enodoc experience often defined by
the 10th – and if not it, then the 6th.
The former winds towards the
eponymous 11th Century church and
requires an accurate drive followed by an
even better second, gently drawn off the
church spire. Watson took six (3-wood,
4-wood, SW, SW, and two putts) here.
The fame of the 378-yard 6th,
meanwhile, emanates from the Himalaya
bunker, which is touted as golf’s biggest
sand trap and to the naked eye certainly
seems to dwarf other notable candidates.
It used to be bigger, too.
At driving distance it turns left and the
enormous sand crater sunk into a dune –
like a scoop of ice cream out of a tub –
obstructs the view to the uphill green.
A hidden fairway bunker can snare
longer players seeking a view for their
approach unobstructed by Himalaya,
108 Golf World May 2016