In this third and final instalment of podcasts about the life of James Braid, we finish up at Walton Heath talking about his life as the club’s professional, a position he held for nearly 50 years.
Braid took up the role in 1904 when the club was only just starting off, and continued in post until his death in 1950. We couldn’t think of anyone better than Philip Truett to help us bring this season to a close; A lifelong member of Walton Heath and one of the most passionate historians in the game, Philip has spent countless hours in not just researching Braid’s involvement at the club but also in helping to preserve his legacy which can be seen in the James Braid showroom, only a short chip from where we recorded this podcast. .
For further reading on James Braid:
“Advanced Golf” – James Braid
“The Divine Fury of James Braid” – George Payne
“James Braid” – Bernard Darwin
“The Long Golden Afternoon” – Stephen Proctor
“The Great English Golf Boom” – Michael Morrison
“James Braid and his 400 Golf Courses” – John Moreton & Ian Cumming
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cookie-jar-golf-podcast/id1493651992) or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2RhNTEu1xA3I4QpUlHBt8H) !
You can follow us along below @cookiejargolf
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/cookiejargolf/?hl=en) / Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cookiejargolf/) / Twitter (https://twitter.com/cookiejargolf?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) / YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTMcSQBY7eIq1q9DTC50QoA) / Website (https://cookiejargolf.com/)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast brought to you in partnership with FootJoy. This is the third and final installment of podcasts about the life of James Brad where we fittingly finish up at Walton Heath talking about his life at the club where he served as the club professional for nearly 50 years. Brad took up the role in 1904 when the club was only just starting out and continued in post until his death in 1950. Our guest for this episode, Philip Truit, who will be known to many of you, was a very popular guest in an episode last year, number 198, is one of the game’s great historians. And as a lifelong member of Walton Heath and a huge admirer of the work of James Brad, he was the perfect person to help us bring this season to a close. After traveling around the country, visiting courses for 5 years now, his impact on the British golfing landscape is simply enormous. And we’re hugely grateful to both Philillip and Simon for their contributions in each of these episodes. And for any further reading on Braid and his work, we’ve also added some further reading into the show notes below. We really hope you’ve enjoyed this miniseries and if you do have chance to leave us a review or share this with some friends who might enjoy it, then that would really help us out, guys. So without further ado, our final installment on the life of James Brad, a club professional with Philip Trout. Watch this. No way. [Music] [Applause] Uh it’s lovely to be back here. possibly one of our well certainly one of our favorite episodes from last year. Philip Truit, welcome back onto the podcast. I think you’re flattering me. No, it’s certainly my favorite podcast studio. It’s one of the finest environments. I can understand that you your episode went down remarkably well, Phillip. People were people were writing in saying some very lovely things. And you’ve been spotted like a celebrity. Yeah. So, that’s good. And you’ve been you am I right in in thinking you’ve done a few more podcasts since? I’ve done one other Shane Derby F and Fast in popular demand now, Philip. So, but we thought um we thought we’d get you on. We we we touched upon it a little bit in the last podcast, but we thought you’d get you on to discuss the great man James Brad who obviously worked what 50 yards from where we’re sat over that fence. The the roof there that you can see is James Bray’s pro shop which he occupied when he arrived here in May of 1904 upon the opening of the golf course. And that little building is an absolute gem and it’s pretty much exactly as it was 120 years ago. And uh it’s it’s it’s remarkable this this architect who came down and visited who an Australian architect who was doing some sort of further course at Cambridge University PhD or something and he was writing his thesis on golf clubouses. So that’s why he came down to Walton. But when he saw this little building, he went into the realms of almost complete ecstasy about it because um this is a vernacular building as he calls it. And he said vernacular buildings just do not survive like this because they they’re there built for a purpose and they will be very quickly repurposed. So it’s a lovely lovely little building and in it we have the James Bade exhibition which uh the captain of the RNA back John Whitmore back in 03 when we were celebrating our centinery he came and opened it and it’s entirely photographed. There was a time going back many many years I got actual approval from the the then committee that we could have a museum in there but common sense prevailed because to have valuable stuff in there would it would have been an awful issue. So we finished up with a photographic exhibition. Uh the captions are very brief because people don’t have that much time for captions and it just takes you through his life and um and how long did it take you to curate because you did all you pretty much did that. Yeah. yourself. How long did it take to curate the exhibition? Well, I mean, you know, I had all the stuff. We have a photographer as a member of the club and he took charge of that and um I just did the captions. Yeah. Yeah. I I don’t think it took a lot quite a long I don’t think it took a great deal of time to be honest. So rewinding a little bit, what can you tell us about sort of James Brad’s life leading to to Walton Heath? Because you’ve obviously had Herbert Fowler that kind of laid out the first first holes here and pretty much straight away Brad is in. Yeah. Well, and very unusually so. Uh he wrote to us. Okay. You know, I think you would expect well today, you know, the business about jud judging what has happened historically on by today’s standards. And you would think if somebody was developing a a nice a modern golf club uh had ambitions for it, they would seek somebody who had won the open for the first time just about that. He won it in 1901 for the first time. But no, he wrote here. I think the feeling is that he might have been prompted by JH Taylor because I think there’s evidence that JH Taylor might have walked around with Fowler or right given him a bit of help or advice something like that. So he wrote a note saying that he was available and you know it very much more resembled however nice Romford might be it didn’t really resemble his the sort of courses that he’d been used to playing up in F and this was the nearest to seaside golf links golf in land you know it was wide open expanse no trees fine grasses a running ball and everything that he was used to rather than the rather clay conditions in Essics. And he gets here um upon opening of of the course. And what was he kind of he I suppose the strange thing for me in terms of braid is he’s achieved this incredible architectural career but based around a playing playing career here well playing career at the open and working here like he didn’t have much time off at all in the first few years of being here did he no he was he was allowed off um and this would have been presumably I mean he he’d had a little bit of a go at the golf course architecture because I think most pros did because I think when he arrived at Romford, he’d been he’d been an assistant pro for a very short period of time down in Hastings. Um, you know, one of the duties of the the newly appointed golf club pro would be amongst other things dealing with the golf course as well as maintaining the golf course. So, he was doing maintenance and things as well. Yeah, just just pretty well everything. But certainly when he came here he he the maintenance of the golf course or the green keeping if you like that that was not included that that was handled by by other people. Um but I think there’s evidence that he had a bit of a go at Romford making some changes or making some alterations. So that was I think that was was that 96 that he went there. So in that 8 years between then and coming here, he he might have had a bit of experience, but there’s no doubt that he never got involved with the golf course here. Yeah. Which is strange because he’s known as a revisionist. I know we touched on this in the previous podcast, but Nona is making quite a few revisions to to golf courses, but left left F. Well, I I suppose it was F the Fowler’s domain and I think he was such a sort of respectful guy that he had um huge amount of regard for Fowler and uh just let Fowler get on with it here and he went off elsewhere. I think there was something in his contract actually that he couldn’t do any work within a 10 or 20 mile radius of here. Oh, really? Although having said that, he did Tier’s Wood. I would think it’s it’s one of those contracts that you would have uh when somebody starts off, but then when the reality of the the relationship sets in, then I’m sure a blind eye would have been turned because there was a lot of mutual respect by that stage. How do you think James Brad is seen today? Is he appreciated perhaps for the the impact he’s had on the game? I mean, or do you think he’s perhaps, you know, just give me a sense of that? Well, on the game or are we talking about the game or golf course architecture? Well, I think everything maybe I’m sort of trying to tear you up a bit, but when you think of the number of golf courses he’s had a hand in designing and there’s such and they’re all sorts. They’re not, you know, he didn’t he wasn’t really just poaching the great sites, was he? Like he was putting down golf courses in some pretty odd spots and and doing it very economically. Yeah, I feel like he’s he’s pretty responsible for making it the everyman sport in this country that it you know that it is perhaps you know I think you know he’s a did well I think in the most general sense um I was going to say you cannot escape well one’s always be doing one’s very best to make sure that people don’t escape the fact that the tri had a huge impact huge impact on the development of the game you know when when three players dominate in the way that they did and you for instance, just setting up the PGA, uh it was elevating the status of the of the professional golfer, whether it was in a sense of um being at home at his club or out and about playing tournament golf. They they set the standard, you know, when it comes to behavior and all of that. And and I’d like to think that sort of perk through. Okay, it’s gone through another lots of other very good responsible hands, but they must be given the credit for sort of actually setting the original standards. And I think when it comes to his golf course architecture, all the early golf course architects are brushed out. If more fashionable people, because you know, if you as a golf club have just spent a packet on some well-known celebrity golf course designer, the one thing you’re going to talk about is is employing that chap. But the fact that Fowler or Braid or whoever did the really serious work of the the rooting or the routing as they say then then um that’s that’s sort of stuff that shouldn’t be lost but it but it is lost. It is lost. I think James Brad uh there’s a marvelous association all started at Henley Golf Club by somebody whose name I should recall but he had the idea of an association of James B golf clubs. I mean I don’t I don’t know if you’ve come across it. Yeah. Still still going, isn’t it? And that must mean I and I think we’re talking about hundreds. I mean we we we’ve had the the book I think that was the 500 golf course. 500 I believe. So an awful lot of those have joined because it suits the members of all those clubs because they get reciprocal deals. And I think at a time when okay all the golf clubs are now full and not really seeking more people playing at their on their courses but at a time when it wasn’t like that I think to be able to say well if you join this James Bray design course you can have reciprocal rights at two or 300 other courses it was a tremendous advantage when sort of selling the idea of joining this club rather than the one down the road. Yeah. Uh so so that must mean that all the members of going back to your question uh all the members of those clubs would know a lot about James Brad where perhaps they wouldn’t have done otherwise. Do you think Brad’s legacy is um undersold or or under represented in terms of if you talk about historic court architects, you know, old Tom Morris and at a much later date we talk about Alist McKenzie and Tom Simpson and the rest of it. It seems to me that Brad’s work goes a little bit unrecognized. Would you say that’s fair or would you I would think it’s fair. I would suggest that most most of them are okay. Yes. Yeah. Clearly some are better known because Kate McKenzie it’s sort of Augusta and um so on so forth been talking a lot about Colt recently and Colt when he died in the early 50s because more and more people know about Colt now but by the when he died in there was no bitter in the times there was no there was nobody at the funeral really. Yeah. Yeah. because he’d completely forgotten about because I suppose that was sufficiently close to the time that they’d actually done the work and the the the thoughts about this being a bit special and so on so forth. They people hadn’t sort of latched on to that because I think it’s only with the passage of time that something gets really interesting. History really I mean that’s one of my many shortcomings. You know, I find it something that’s really only interesting when it’s no longer obtainable and it’s no longer there. I mean, I can give you all the dates at Walton Heath up to and including the war years, but you know, when I Well, I do remember the date I joined and that sort of stuff, but but events that have taken place at this golf club, changes to the golf course, I wouldn’t be able to quote you the dates. No, there’s something with that, isn’t there? like you say I I can see it, you know, when you look at it and think we were lambasting some stuff at a Blackwell recently that about something that probably happened in the 70s or 80s, but that that’s only like us undoing something that happened in the 80s now at Blackwell, you know, and because it would it would have been fairly fairly recent, you know, when people like people are inheriting these golf courses in the 60s and 70s from that were designed maybe 40 years earlier. It didn’t feel that special. And it’s only if it had happened in the 1880s, you would know chapter and verse about it. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. What’s um what’s Brad’s legacy like here? I mean, do you think the club were aware? Obviously, he was an open champion, but you think the club the club was aware of what they had when when he was actually here speaking about, you know, recency and how we don’t notice these things. Oh, I think so. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was he was definitely definitely a hero. And you know when he you know living just up the road as he did he was everybody’s confidant you know whether it was the prince of Wales playing down here or the local village people they they always spoke to Mr. Brad about everything you know he was a very wise wise old bird. Am I right in thinking he kind of at the time where perhaps not all professionals were allowed in the clubhouse and things like that he kind of transcended that role a little bit. Yeah, he he did because after all he got on honorary membership. Mind you, his son Harry Murefield braid. The Murefield being significant because he was born in ‘ 01 and was named after the uh golf course where dad had just won the open. I always say to people how fortunate was that he didn’t win his first open at Roly and [Laughter] Sans. Um yes. Where were we? Yes. So he was a very good amateur golfer and he went up to Muerfield to play in his first amateur championship. So being born in 01 so let’s say he was 20 so let’s say the early 20s and who does he play so he travels the length of the land and in the first round he plays against Sir Ernest Holdness who was of course a member here. Yeah and I think got beaten by Ernest Holdness. Uh but they he was a he used to play out of the artisans club but they made him an honorary member of the club years before they made his dad an honorary member which is an interesting thing but he not only did dad James become an honorary member. He he became a board member. He was on the board here and of course as you now expect in in in his last year in 1950 he had his birthday on the in March 1950 he was 80 and it was the first time he hadn’t played to his age really. So that was a significant just when he was 80 that was the first time he hadn’t played to his age. He hadn’t played to his age. Yeah. So that got that was in the press. They used to, you know, thinking about your previous question about how well known was he? Well, he pen sakes the press used to gather down here every March really to to see what Mr. Pra went around in. And um that was the first time he hadn’t broken it. And then he died in that uh that November. Heartbroken from not breaking his age. He was when you think of what he would have been exposed to as well because you know the first 50 years of history at Walton Heath is particularly interesting isn’t it because of all the you know the wartime stuff and and parliamentary folk that would have been kicking around here. He would have been privy to some pretty exceptional stuff I would have thought you know through those years. Oh yes. And he would have been tremendously discreet you know he wouldn’t have had any gossip from from braid. No, because he he he didn’t doesn’t at all straighten as a loud mouth or anything. He would have been completely It’s amazing how he must have got on well with the people because um I mean we haven’t rehearsed this but it’s a marvelous opportunity for me. This is a recent addition to my library and I I have been fortunate enough to have signed copies by braid. Um not just signed but if you can get them inscribed as well then that’s make adds even more interest. But this book I’ve only recently purchased. And when I saw the inscription, I could not really believe it. And I mean, nobody else seeing this book would have any idea of the significance of it. So he’s inscribed to to G. Redell. So this is George Redell. R I D E L who became Sir George and then who became Lord Redell of Walton Heath. And this don’t forget this was published in 1906 I beg a pardon 1908 first edition published 1908 so he would have only known braid for four years so and he was his boss because although I mean I’m forever telling people George Redell not did not start this golf club he took it over two years into its existence it was Cosmo Bonsza who was the great landowner who’s had a brother-in-law called Herbert Fowler and they got together and Bonsa was more interested in getting people on his railway line and he he he he wasn’t a golfer. Um but so it’s G Red Riddell from his friend Jazz Brad. I mean that’s absolutely astonishing for for the for the the the employed professional to refer to his having the confidence of referring to his boss as my friend. M so I mean finding this I’ve really had to sort of almost rethink the whole thing about because he was he Redell was a seriously ambitious aggressive um autocrat and I think it’s just wonderful to think that the local pro felt sufficiently confident to refer to his boss as my friend. M you would have thought it was an era when it was you know tugging for locks and all that sort of stuff and being completely differential to for someone like that but there was clearly a friendship there and do you think there’s a possibility that we overplay the pro member relationship in general that you know the pro is a a member of staff they do make clubs and make balls and do whipping or whatever they do. Is it possible that we’re overplaying that now and there was more of this relationship between or think this is a special case here? I would have thought it’s a bit special. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think it’s it’s it’s I think it’s a tremendous well I suppose it’s a reflection on both of them but I think it’s a tremendous reflection upon braid because however he conducted himself it must have been in a way where he was getting on with Redell being able to refer to him as my friend. M um yeah, delightful. You’ve got a few books there, Mark. What uh is there some other I haven’t I haven’t been rehearsing this, but I thought I mean getting on to the business of signed books. Um you know, to me it’s it’s so many people come here and they say, I suppose you just collect first editions. And I have to let them down gently by telling them that the vast majority of golf books never go beyond a first edition. But of course there are a few exceptions and the art of golf is one of them. But of course the classic one is how to play golf by Harry Varden and that was published uh for the first time in 1912. Indeed September the 26 1912 and okay I suppose publishers are always careful about not publishing too many books because they don’t want to get landed with them. But they got this seriously wrong because the second and third editions were issued the next month. Oh wow. So you went into three editions within within within a couple of months or within six weeks. They massively low bought the demand. So, so this is a very modest uh third edition, but it comes with the most remarkable um association and it’s inscribed to James Bradqua ESQ to my great friend off the links but enemies on the golf links with Harry Van’s compliments. Wow. I mean to think that this book has been written up by one of them Vardarden and given to another one of them being braided and it’s gone through those those pairs of hands. I just find it quite extraordinary isn’t it? Quite breathtaking actually. So and that’s I think that’s again a suggestion how they all got on because they were all very different types but they must have spent an awful lot of time together. Would they have traveled together? Oh yes. Yeah. Well, because you know if you were they had all these before the tour, they had all these um these challenge matches. That’s really where they earned their money. Um Brad never owned a motor car. He he suffered from travel sickness. So he went by train everywhere. So I mean the amount of travel he must have done. Well, this is in this first couple of pods is it’s crazy to think the play cuz he was going to some really odd places and they were always by train. I found that staggering. Yeah. And he had apparently he had a well obviously because I mean and he would have his house just up the road here named Ferry still there with Ferry and there’s a there’s a there’s a blue plaque above the door referring to the fact that James Bra lived here and he lived there all his time from ‘ 04 to and it was a new house in ‘ 04. Um and he was still there he lost his wife just before the the Second World War. So he he lived there by himself. Um actually I think he they he had a housekeeper because I think when Mrs. Brad was not well uh she looked after Mrs. Brad and I think stayed on subsequently um and he would have been able to walk across the common. I mean it’s a 20-minute walk from here. From there it’s sort of 10 minutes or so. And he knew that he knew the train network intimately apparently wherever he went because he was you know a celebrity every station master in the country knew who he was and the porters and everybody and there was one famous occasion when his death was reported. So this is I think just before the great war um the fact is a Mr. J. Brad fell under a train somewhere I think outside Waterloo station and it was announced that Mr. Brad the golfer had been killed. Now they were able to rescue I think in some of the papers and who was it? JH Taylor had been asked to write an appreciation and as it says somewhere that Jay Brad is one of the very few people who were able to read his own abitery. Yeah. So you’ve got to be careful. So he traveled so much time and they were they were very different personalities because I mean Braid and Taylor were pretty straight down the middle and but but Varden was definitely a ladies man. You know he was the only one who wore the fancy plus two suits and he always had the button hole and everything but you would never see the other two dressed up like that really but he was I’m sure always out to track the ladies ven. But they must have had a huge amount of respect for each other. And as we’ve got on to it, I mean the the other now this is a this is a rather poor copy of Sir Walter Simpson’s Art of Golf, one of the classics of golf published 1888, but on the half-title page and how JH Taylor came to be writing in this book. Goodness knows um one just doesn’t and we’ll never know what the circumstances were. Let now just listen to this. Let me say without equivocation, well, that’s not a bad word for somebody who left school at 12. I mean, I I would hate to have to spell that myself, that I consider Harry Vardon to be the best player I ever saw. Allied to his great skill as a golfer, he was the most generous opponent, giving to his adversary full praise for his efforts, which more often than not were waged in vain. JH Taylor. Wonderful bit of writing. Wonderful bit of writing. And he he did write I mean I’ve got a number of letters. I got the letter that he wrote to Mrs. Horris. That would be Horris Hutchinson’s wife when Mr. Horist died. Wonderful letter. Two sides of immaculate English. But there you see that’s that’s the sort of respect that they had for each other. Yeah. Um it’s a shame. is I’ve got a little bit written there by Varden, a little bit well a nice chunky bit written by Taylor. Um I’m not sure how much Braid would have written along those lines. But um no, he was perfectly I mean we got lots of stuff that he did write. His his book when you have you I’m assuming you’ve read the stuff that Brad wrote. Um his his book there, the black one is that’s advanced golf. That’s his that’s his main sort of publication. the main that is the main book. Yeah. Is there anything when you read that that you sort of glean from it in terms of what you can kind of learn about everything’s in there because a lot of it’s quite practical stuff, isn’t he? He’s like a fairly practical guy. Well, it’s it is sort of the original compendium. It’s got um there’s bits on golf course design and there’s lots of lots of photographs and we do we all those photographs came up for sale. the original photographs came up for sale and we were able to so we’ve got quite a lot of them in the clubhouse and I’ve there’s one up there that I’ve got. Um yes, so it’s uh it covers every every aspect of the game and will certainly yeah I mean okay a a lot of it is uh is instructional but towards the end you get the character and placing of tea and grounds bunk. Oh, that’s more so then you get on playing championship courses. Chapter 18, chapter 19, some personal matters. Chapter 20, championship experiences and th those are the bits that I would have read. Yeah. Quite honestly, when it a lot of when it’s instructional stuff, it’s Yeah. Am I right in thinking Darwin Braid was the only person that Darwin wrote a biography about with the exception of Grace the cricketer or something? Is that right? I guess another kind of and played played played with Grace because WG Grace was a member here was he? Yeah. All right. Yeah. And the very first team, they had an away match at Home Park, which is the course just by um Hampton Court Palace. And I think it was only a team of six. And it was all the sort of household names at the time, Hamro and um uh C Dick and Being Too early for Holden. All you know, well-known scratch golfers. And then at the bottom playing off a sort of 18 handicap was WG Grace. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So that must have caused a bit of amusement at home park arriving. Yeah. And break and and Yes. Darwin Darwin talks about coming down in Redell’s open top car. Whatever the weather, right? So I wonder why he did that. And they had to wrap up. But of course it meant that all the local at the you know with the people that they passing on the road could all see who WG Grace was there. So it was like sort of traveling with royalty. Yeah. One of the bits that I when when I think about braid that I find difficult to kind of wrap my head around is his manipulation of time because for his first for for a long portion of script and I think you’ll know much much better than I but I think he had something like 40 days off a year maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Something and in that time he’s managed to play championship golf. He’s managed to play exhibition golf. He’s designing golf courses. He’s writing books. Um do you think maybe with the course design bit how involved was he in the process of those what would have been the Oh well that’s that’s extraordinary I mean um these 500 golf courses very often he would have made one visit amazing ability to okay I’m sure this one visit would have been much more to do with making changes to an existing course how you could lay out a a completely new course with just one visit. I think that would be even beyond braid. But you see, you’ve got to remember he was very much in demand whereby the original golf architects so often the pros uh those courses have become sort of more and more obsolete by the by the years leading up to and beyond the great war. So he was in demand you know as others were to sort of if you like modernize those courses and you can imagine him descending on a place and in a day being able to leave sufficient sort of instructions as to how they could dramatically improve their course and then he left it to the to the um to the the builders to the constructors to comply with his his his plans. Because there’s other places he would have been a little bit more involved with like the likes of Glenn Eagles maybe where he goes and Yeah. And well I mean he must have must have spent you can’t design two courses like that. Yeah. Just by a single visit. No but it’s remarkable. But no you do raise an extremely interesting point. Um, and uh, I think he must have been with the passage of time that I would guess the more and more he got himself established here, the more and more he was sort of free to do what he wanted. Do you think you think it Yeah, it wasn’t I think so. I think but having said that, I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that he sort of abused his position because there’s no doubt, you know, you talking about going into the clubhouse. Yes, he could go into the clubhouse, but invariably he went round to the back of the clubhouse and entered v, if you like, the tradesman’s entrance and yes, and he was at perfect liberty and I think he to have a drink in there, but I think he only ever went in there with with a member because that’s he’d feel more comfortable and I think he took his lunch um in the perhaps in the secretary’s office. Yeah. Yeah. And would you have done dayto-day professional kind of activities? Well, yeah. I mean, coach, I mean, you see these I mean, he see these pictures of him starting off the societies. Uh the most marvelous what in a really late picture of him in a clearly a terrible terrible day. So, he got all his Macintoshes and on and everything and there he was just sitting there beside the to see them away. And people used to come here knowing that he would be there to start them. I think that was part of the part of the attraction. You know, Mr. Bra will be in attendance. Quite nice, isn’t it? That just that certainly doesn’t answer your question about how on earth did he because you know, spare the time as I’ve just introduced a completely new pastime of his look looking after the societies and Yeah. Yeah. Was he much in terms of club club technology and club building and and all that sort of stuff? You won’t come across many fancy braid clubs. There’s only one. There’s the Orion putter uh which has got yes a very straight face and a sort of fancy back to it. Couldn’t be on my powers of explanation. But I think in in the book we illustrated that as being the one the only one that could be sort of referred to as a patented club. Yeah. The rest of it was more sort of Yeah. as he was exposed to and just sort of simple replication. Yes. And he used to you know I always explained to people that the the heads would be made up in five to to his specification. So Gibson’s of King Horn, Anderson’s of Anstra, Nickel of Leven, and the heads would come down and his chaps, he had six club makers working over there. Uh they’d assemble them and of course then sell them. But and you know, you could have a very whippy shaft. So a very whippy shaft, you just had to plane it down and sand it down. Sand it down. The narrow it got, the more whip it would be. Yeah. Take the speck on cleaver. I mean, there’s one club that I had where sadly the shaft broke. I mean, it was such a solid stuff. It was a a nibick, so it was used to get out of the particularly out of the heather. And this club head would not twist. However hard you hit it through the heather, it would stay rigid because this thing was like a telegraph pole, you know. Even I got it out pretty well with that one. So you’ve got have you got some braid hickories and bits and pieces or anything? One only plays one likes to support the local pro in the grand grand tradition. I I play with braid clubs. Yeah. Are they are they plentiful or are they hard to get hold of? They’re still amazingly plentiful. I mean it is extraordinary. You you know you go to some of these auctions and they still have bags of hickories and they’re still going actually quite cheaply. Wow. But, you know, but on the having said that, a nice braid, playable wood in good condition, I think we’re talking about up to a couple of hundred quid now. Yeah, very nice one. But the irons, you know, nicely restored. You got to be very careful. You, you know, you can go on to some of these websites um and get bundles of clubs. And it’s definitely the case of let the buyer beware because very often they you you actually won’t be able to play with them cuz you know if they’ve been up in an attic for the last 70 or 80 years um and they’ve dried out and they just break and twist. Is that right? So they get very brittle then and they they just become well they’re just going to snap. Yeah. And what was the story with the putter? The braid mills putter. Is that is that a Yes. That wasn’t his patent in it but that was the alum the aluminium headed putter. D-shaped if you can remember and you well perhaps you don’t see many of them around but certainly when I started there were a lot of lot of those hugely successful putters but this man Mr. Mills who was a great industrialist working a lot in aluminium and he was up in Sunderland I think it was then subsequently moved down to Birmingham but he was a golfer and he worked in aluminium and in fact you could buy the whole bag full of clubs full of aluminium headed clubs so the whole range I’ I’ve avoided the word set because the set didn’t really come into the the golfing thing by until about the 1920s. So, you don’t you shouldn’t really ask somebody about their set of clubs unless you can be certain they and they become more obviously 1920s because they are plated. So if you see a chat with a bag full of shiny clubs, you can almost get away with call referring to your set of clubs because they’ll be shiny and they will also be numbered. And sort of perfectly obvious things that would occur to us now. They hadn’t thought of the set of club. You bought clubs individually. So you went into braid shop, you picked up a club and you waggled it and if it fell to nights and you think, “Yes, well, I’ll have that one.” But it might bear no resemblance to the other clubs in the back. Yeah, because the regulations on club numbers have changed. Used to play with hundreds, didn’t they? Some of them had did they used to play with hundreds of clubs. They used to Well, yes. I mean, that’s in the end. I think somebody like because I suppose you get to the stage where if a if a manufacturer was sponsoring you to carry a club, well, you weren’t carrying the jolly things. It was the caddy. So, these poor caddies, it was up to 30 clubs in a bag, I think. hardly get the thing off the ground well before the buggy or the trolley. So they So why they why they uh um thought of 14 as being a maximum number? Goodness knows I don’t I’m not sure if anybody knows the answer to that. I’ve certainly never it would be do a podcast on why why 14 clubs. It’d be a good podcast. Um I I know we’ve talked about this a little bit in the last podcast, but I think it’d be good to touch upon. Um Brad played played here a little bit. Oh, a huge amount. Yeah. No, that’s again this this is how he got his diary sorted out. Played a huge amount and there’s reference to him. He tried not to play more than two rounds in the day. Yeah, seriously. There were times Yeah. He’d he’d go out for a third round. I mean, okay, he I’m sure he’d all definitely always have a caddy. Um, but yeah, one got gets the impression that he was really quite well available. And I think this must have been towards the end of his life because some of we had an American visitor and he hadn’t got a game. They said, well, you know, go down and I’m sure they said see Mr. Brad. Anyway, um clearly Brad didn’t sort of tell him who he was or anything because the the American arrived back and said, “Gee,” he said, “that chap in the little old shed down there can certainly play a bit, you know, and and that must have been in his in his sort of doage in his older days, elder days, braid. So, he was still playing with people, still being available to play with people.” I love that. just American just playing with a five-time open champion member of the Tumbra. I can really play. I had no idea who he was. And I mean when it come to his playing, you know, he was sort of quite late onto the they were all born two of them were born in 70 and I think was Varden 71, but they were all born within a year of each other. So same age but I suppose because his parents you know he was son of a plowman and I suppose they were proud proud people and they wanted their son to have a proper profession. So he was an apprentice um carpenter and learn important to learn a trade. So when all of this was going on there were um Varden and Taylor were literally straight onto the golf course weren’t they? I mean, Varden was the the gardener in the big house in in Jersey and wanted to get away from all of that. He’d got a bigger brother who’d been over here already. He was a pro golfer and and we know that JH Taylor left school at was it 12 and went and worked in the Hut Hutchinson household. Uh but Brad was a bit different. So that’s why he started off. He, you know, um, Taylor, Taylor must have seriously set the cat amongst the pigeons in in 94 because one thing was all the Scott first time it came down to England and all the Scottish pros having to come all the way to Kent to play a game of golf. I mean, the Scots are pretty even today pretty reluctant to come down here. Don’t quote me. It was unheard of. they came down here and then to be beaten by this Englishman, English pro. We got to remember that um Ball and Hilton as amateurs had already won, but that’s another that’s for your Royal Liverpool podcast. Um and then the next year even he he then JH Taylor went up to defend his title in 95 and then won it up at St. Andrews and then I think Vardarden won the first one in in 96. So they’d all got going before uh before braay got cracking with his first first I mean he’d competed before 01. And I think I think he’d come quite high up one year but it wasn’t until 01 but then having burst upon the scene he totally and utterly dominated the next 10 years. And this I mean I know we’re talking about his relationships here, but this must have had a huge impact on the membership here. Can you imagine? Yeah. Having a pro local pro golfer in 10 years he he wins it five times. He’s he is runner up three times. Yeah. And the two other years he had poor years. Once he came fourth and once he came fifth which is extraordinary. There’s only a handful of people And actually to prove to prove the point that they wanted to celebrate, you know, in in 1910, he was the first one to win it five times. So the the members here and his and his friends put together a collection and he he would have won his £50. A200 pound check was given by this admiring group of friends and supporters with this amazing illuminated address which hangs in the clubhouse which is a sort of work of art in itself because all the way around you’ve got original uh portraits of all the previous Open Champions and then the most fascinating thing I find is that it records the scores of his five championship championships. So, records the scores of his 20 rounds of championship golf and they add up all the holes. You’ll be able to do that very quickly. Divide it by that that number and what is his average score per hole starting from 01 using a gutter perch golf ball and then going through to 10. What is his score per hole? You’re going to say it’s something like four, aren’t you? It’s 4.2. It’s four and 1/5. You can do the sums. It’s all there. Which is astonishing score. Yeah, it is when you think the, you know, not that long before then, you’ve got scores in the 80s that were sort of very common. You very rare to see ending in the 70s and he’s averaging. Yeah. I mean that was because he would have hopped over to the is it the the Haskell ball or whatever in 02 03 whenever that was herd was the guy that won it in O2 with a Haskell ball wasn’t he and I suppose by 03 and subsequently they were they were all on to it but but to have the pro as you say just going on such a tear for such a strong for such a long period of time would have been do you think that would have put Walton Heath a little bit on the map as well in Oh, hugely so. It’s okay. We got all the, you know, we’ve got the four prime ministers and we’ve um the the king, the Prince of Wales, became our first captain because Riddell didn’t feel the need. There was no need to have a captain in his day because why have a captain? You don’t need if you’ve got somebody like him around, you didn’t need any supporting cast. And when he died, 34, um it came into the car family, the um the next owners of the News of the World if you like, and they could see that the club needed a um a captain. So they asked the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were both honorary members here, having joined in the 20s. So they asked the Prince of Wales, and he was happy to become captain. And then of course January 36 his dad George V died and it was a matter of the king is dead long live the king and the new king was became George V 6 a big upon Edward VII Edward VII became Edward VII and very interestingly that year in 35 he also became captain of the Royal Burgess Golf Society and equally interesting is that upon his becoming king in January 36, he resigned as captain of the Burgess. So that is why I’m able to say until somebody proves me wrong that we are the only club ever to have a reigning monarch as captain. In your unbiased opinion, do you think Braid Do you think I have an unbiased? I’m not sure. Steady. Do you think Braid was the greatest of the greatest player of the triumph? I think one has to defer to Vardon in my unbiased view. You think Vardon took it? He made the travel to America, didn’t he? And play Yeah. And you know, and he won it six times. Yeah. And the amazing thing, he wasn’t a fit man, was he? You know, he he had um lot of time in a sanator. One of the things Braid did 18 holes in one, which seems quite remarkable. And also even more remarkable, he did a two at every golf hole at Walton Heath. On all 36 holes, he had a two at some stage during his career here between 1904 and 1950, which is incredible, isn’t it? You’ve got to remember, going back to what we’ve just been saying, he did play a huge amount of golf. Yeah. But to score twos on the on the par fives, even just the par five is that even the par threes. Yeah. I mean I Yeah, we’d never get past the threes. But the but the thing is that the golf course was not a short golf course, wasn’t it? When it was 603 was it or something? Yeah. and Fowler made it tough with the bunkering and so I was always pleased secretly pleased when people think of this m this exhibition across there opened open 20 years ago now when people used to query that you know where’d you get that from it well it appears in Darwin Darwin’s book and Darwin knew him very well he would have got that information straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak I remember Tom asking you that I I think it might have been we might have been off air when we did our podcast last year and I think you said yeah I said is that right it’s made a two on every hole and I think your response was really hope so because I’ve written it in a book I think so just what do you think it’d be interesting to get your your your view on this what do you think his greatest achievement was across maybe course design or playing or what did you think it was? Well, surely the greatest achievement of all just thinking of this lowly plowman’s son from F being elected an honorary member of the RNA in his 80th year. I mean, can you imagine, you know, I’m just thinking of putting myself in the in the position of his parents. Obviously, they would have long since died by then, but I mean, isn’t that the absolute ultimate achievement? M and okay, we know that that is because he’s done all those achieved all those other things in his life. It’s recognition, isn’t it? It’s recognition. You almost transcended the the sport at that point really. And very interestingly, he in his will he left because they struck a special medal for his for what was it? Yes, it was his fifth win, but it was also the 50th anniversary of the first playing of the of the Open, you know, 1860 to 1910. So, he won that special medal as well as the medal that you win as the winner. And he left that special medal to the RNA and I think it must have been the family that subsequently left gave gave the medals to the RNA because the RNA does have all six medals. And it’s I mean just to for our listeners that may be unaware of the significance of being um elected as normal member of the RNA originally you know days of old Tom and that sort of thing the professionals would there is no way you would have been in the RNA is there in terms of a member. Good question. Now, who I wonder who who was the first professional golfford to be elected an honorary member of the RNA? I I don’t know the answer to that. I mean, must be something. It would have been quite some time after after 1869 or 1870. It would have been quite some time after that. It’s fascinating insight. I think it’s just really interesting to pick it through here and obviously a stones throw from, you know, where Brad spent so much of his life really. It’s just it’s really interesting and it it’s it’s strange. I mean, maybe it’s a bit of like roast tinted spectacles looking back through history, but I sense that he never really lost his game ever. Like he was he was a really great player. Yeah. And and having worked here 50 years, sounds like his game never really took much of a dip into in form or anything really. Well, yes. I mean, to shoot an 81 on your 80th birthday, I mean, it was he he found it disappointing, but can you imagine? Amazing stuff. Um, just as a a kind of a a final a final question, what do you think James Brad’s legacy is and what do you think it should be? And do they marry up? Well, I think yeah, I think his his legacy is the the the way not only what he achieved from the golfing sense and the golf course architecture, but I’m sure it’s as much to do with the the way that he conducted himself and in in this village. I mean, he’s he’s buried in the local uh churchyard at St. Peter’s. uh his wife died I think it was Mini Alice died uh as I say quite well before him and she is in the same grave and she was there first and then his name is added and it just gives his name there’s nothing about him being a golf or anything absolutely nothing at all and she’s rather nice to think that he’s a very short putt away from the twice winner of the amateur surrounding us. I mean, I wonder how many church yards there are in the same same, you know, it’s almost the sort of part that I give you. Yeah. You know, isn’t that strange? Yeah. So, that’s rather lovely. So, you know, his legacy here, uh, tremendous. I I’m I’m sure there are people still here, uh, who actually remember him. Some of the much much older. Well, I mean, if I’d been if I’d been born in this village, I I would remember him because I was born in 42. Um, and someone met him. Someone has definitely met him. We we I think we’ve met someone who’d met him. Yeah. Yes. It’s it’s not inconceivable. So, but his his his legend lives on. Mhm. And uh yes, if I if I may be so bold, I I couldn’t possibly remember this, but this is the final quote that I give in the exhibition over there. And it typically it’s from Darwin because Darwin sort of wrote so well. And if I may, I think everyone that knew him recognized in James the same lovable qualities, modesty, dignity, reticence, wisdom, and a deep and essential kindliness on these all would agree. But I think there is another epithet that would come to most people’s minds. They would call him almost instinctively a great man. Had a hell of a way with words, didn’t he, Darwin? Yeah. Very special there. Yeah. And I think that that sort of sums it up. Yeah. Just nails it. Um Yeah. and Walton Heath is, you know, one of the many reasons we are where we are is because of our first pro and actually we’ve been very lucky with our second and third pro because we went through I won’t talk about the most recent times. I mean they’re all lovely people but as far as our history is concerned and when we published our centinary history in 1903 it is still in print 20 odd years later uh because it is only the history of the first hundred years of the club and that’s what I’m talking about. So in that first hundred years we had Braid the absolute master golfer. We had Harry Busen who was the master club maker and then dare I say it we had Ken McFersonson another Scott who was the master club pro. So we’ve been blessed with our own triumvirate. So, you know, we are where we are because of that and because of the quality of the golf courses which is down to to to Fowler and um this is this is our inheritance and this is what we’re doing everything possible to keep going as custodians. Well, Philip Turret, we’ve taken up far too much of your time. Thank you so much for joining us to to talk about the great man and um hopefully maybe next year or two years time there’ll be another podcast. We’ll find something else to pick your brains on. Got to keep Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure seeing you again and I think if you’re talking about another couple of years, I might have run out of steam by then, but uh I shall try and keep cracking. Thank you very much and lovely to see you both again. Watch this. No [Music] [Applause] way. Wendy
