Not To Be Confused With… Golf Courses With Similar Names
Do you know your Fulford – one of Yorkshire’s best courses – from your Fulford Heath from your Frilford Heath? Or your Libbaton from your Liberton, St Mellion from St Mellons or Dooks from Dukes?
These, along with many others, are examples of UK&I golf clubs with similar-sounding names that could potentially trip up the unsuspecting golfer. But does it really happen? Not often, of course, but someone once told me of a mutual industry acquaintance who turned up for a golf day at the wrong, similar-sounding golf club a hundred miles away thus missing out on all the fun.
And back in 1937, the great Walter Hagen rolled into town for an exhibition match with Australian Joe Kirkwood on an island off the west coast of Scotland… but the wrong island! The course they had been recommended by Tommy Armour was The Machrie on Islay; instead, Hagen and Kirkwood, for reasons undisclosed, showed up on Arran at the delightful, but somewhat more modest nine-holer at Machrie Bay. The exhibition went ahead regardless as the pair took on and beat two no doubt slightly bewildered locals.
Hagen and co. turned up at Machrie Bay on Arran (left) rather than The Machrie on Islay (right)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The two Machries are far from alone when it comes to identical club names or spellings in the UK & Ireland. There are Blackwoods in County Down and Monmouthshire; Ashbournes in County Meath and Derbyshire; Roundwoods in County Wicklow and Yorkshire; Temples in Berkshire and County Down; and Groves in Hertfordshire and Bridgend.
Here, Rob Smith and I pick out five more matching pairs, with particular care required for the two Newports, which lie 109 miles apart in south Wales, and the two Heworths, which lie a mere 83 miles apart in the north-east of England…
Bowood
Cornwall and Wiltshire
Coincidentally, both Bowood in Wiltshire and Bowood Park in Cornwall were opened in 1992. Both are very attractive, both are parkland, both are in the west country, both are long from the back tees, and both are also home to a hotel. Thereafter, the similarities disappear. Wiltshire Bowood is the official PGA course in the area and it was designed by Dave Thomas. It is one of the best courses in Wiltshire and runs through gently rolling pastureland over part of an expansive estate where Capability Brown weaved his creative magic back in the 1760s.
Bowood, Wiltshire (left) and Bowood Park, Cornwall (right) have a fair bit in common with…
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