More

Olton Golf Club

A Place To Enjoy Good

Food

Club History

Mr James Power Heaton founded the Club on 9 November1893 originally in St Bernards Road Olton on rented agricultural land when Solihull was but a small village. The course was 9 holes expanding to 18 in 1901. The course remained at Olton until 1903 before moving to its present site. The whole of the playing course was now in Solihull however; it was decided to retain the name Olton Golf Club.

The clubhouse was initially a converted farmhouse in Dovehouse Lane before the building of a new clubhouse in Mirfield Road in 1935 where it is today. The Midland Counties Championship was the first major championship to be held at Olton in 1908. A professional tournament followed in 1910 the with many top players of the day taking part. These included Arnaud Massey, James Braid, Harry Vardon, Alex Herd, Tom Ball, Ted Ray, James Sherlock and George Duncan who between them won The Open Championship on 20 occasions. The top prize for the winner was £50, which in those days was quite a sum, the same prize money as for The Open Championship and won on the day by James Sherlock. A photograph of the participants is still displayed in the clubhouse. 

                                                                                                                      

Another memorable occasion was an exhibition match in 1954 with Bobby Locke, Bernard Hunt, Harry Weetman and Tom Collinge taking part.

Many other major Midland and national tournaments have been held at Olton notably the prestigious Boys Open Championship in 1960 and latterly Pro-Am tournaments with the one in the year 2002 being possibly the highlight when many top professionals took part. The total prize money of £44,500 made it one of the highest money events for 18 holes in the U.K. It was played for by such notable players as Paul Casey, Peter Baker, Paul Broadhurst, Nick O'Hern, Nick Dougherty, Alastair Forsyth, Richard Boxall the winner being Stephen Scahill of New Zealand .

In 2009, Olton Golf Club had the the unique honour of providing three of the top positions in Warwickshire Country Golf; Bev Belcher, Lady Captain, Louis Meryon, Men's Captain and John Duncombe, President of the WUGC.





Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.