We
are most grateful to Julian Hoppit, Department of History, University College
London, for this piece on Harry Vardon.
Few golf courses have
had a champion such as Harry Vardon as their architect. Indeed, Llandrindod Wells
golf course was designed not by a winner but by a legend. Open champion for an
unmatched six times and of the US Open once, between 1896 and 1914 he was the
leading member of the magical 'Triumvirate' of Vardon, Braid and Taylor who dominated
golf in its first age of widening public appeal. Today he is widely remembered
as the greatest advocate (though not inventor) of the Vardon grip and of the Vardon
prize awarded by both the European and US professional tours to those with the
lowest stroke average over a season. Llandrindod Wells particularly remembers
him as the architect of a delightful upland course that with the railway and the
spa made the town a complete late-Victorian and Edwardian polite resort.
Vardon was by all accounts a natural athlete with remarkable powers of concentration.
It will not surprise those who have played Llandrindod Wells that he played not
with fade or draw but 'with' straight. Length of tee shots unimpressed him and
putting was always the weakest part of his game (later he developed the 'yips').
What mattered was the almost impossible task of hitting a gutta percha ball straight
with hickory-shafted clubs. And no one did that better than Vardon. As his obituary
in The Times put it, 'He did what only a very great player can do; he raised the
general conception of what was possible in his game and forced his nearest rivals
to attain a higher standard by attempting that which they would otherwise have
deemed impossible.'
In the history of golf Vardon's achievements are
best compared to those of Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus. Llandrindod Wells may
not be Augusta or Muirfield Village, but like them it is a course and a club that
matches the peerless character of its creator: elevated, winning and full of charm.
