Seaton Carew Golf Club has held golf games since 1874, making it the tenth oldest golf club in England. The club is based in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool on the North Sea coast, north of the River Tees in North East England. When it was first established it was the only golf club in the English counties of Yorkshire and Durham, hence its original name Durham and Yorkshire Golf Club; the club's crest and badge retain the emblems of both the archbishop of Durham and the archbishop of York.
As more golf clubs were coming into being, particularly in North Yorkshire and County Durham, the club's committee and members decided the old title was no longer apt and the name of Seaton Carew Golf Club was adopted in 1887. By the end of the 19th century the links was already regarded as one of the English game's premier golfing locations. In the 1888-89 Golfing Annual the course was described as being of "sandy nature, covered with soft velvet turf that springs under one's foot and rejuvenates the aged". and was also featured in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News which even in 1894 stated that "in the opinion of visitors that between St Andrews and Sandwich there are few better rounds on the east coast than Seaton Carew." The course has since featured in many golf publications and reviews. Seaton Carew is frequently referred to as one of the most challenging links golf courses anywhere in the British Isles. In 2009 the "Sky News" reporter Graeme Bailey said of his visit to these links "Seaton Carew has everything any golfer would want, but most importantly it is a course which could stand shoulder to shoulder with anything in Britain."
Seaton Carew Golf Club was one of the earliest golf clubs in the UK to elect a lady captain of the club. Jane Longhorn was appointed in December 2010 and served the club as captain throughout 2011. Longhorn was the first lady to be elected as captain in the club's 136-year history.
Founding of the club This golf club's existence is due mainly to one man, its founder Dr. Duncan McCuaig, a surgeon from Edinburgh who moved down to Middlesbrough shortly after qualifying at Edinburgh University. McCuaig was a good golfer, winning the gold medal at St Andrews on two occasions, in 1867 and 1869.
On transferring to Middlesbrough to further his medical career Dr. McCuaig was dismayed to find there was nowhere throughout County Durham or North Yorkshire to exercise his talent for the game. So he set about finding a suitable place to play. As luck would have it he came across a strip of pasture land, known locally as The Snooks at Seaton Carew, where local people grazed their livestock. It was close to the mouth of the River Tees, running between the north shore and Seaton Carew village, and was owned by Lord Eldon. With Eldon's permission, and after some resistance from the stint holders whose sheep and cattle roamed the area, Dr. McCuaig and a few like-minded colleagues were able to rent a piece of land on which they established the Durham and Yorkshire Golf Club. The contribution that Dr. McCuaig made to the creation of Seaton Carew Golf Club is recalled every time anyone plays the Seaton links, a challenging par 3 surrounded by eight bunkers is named "The Doctor" in his memory.
Seaton Carew Golf Club historical records and archive The club has an extensive historical archive as a result of the association of the Bunting family. Today this archive is held by Mr. Edward Bunting whose grandfather, C. J. Bunting and father, G. Bunting, both served as officials of the club. The Buntings' continuous association with the club began before 1890 when the archive began. C. J. Bunting became club secretary in 1893 recording in his newspaper archive "Appointed Honorary Secretary of Seaton Carew Golf Club on the 8th November 1893 but did not take office until the 13th of November 1893 (my birthday)". Edward Bunting, a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews since 1991, was a marshal at three Open Championships in 1995, 2000 and 2005 and his father Gilbert Bunting was a referee at five Ryder Cups. Edward Bunting, who in 2014 was aged 78, during his amateur golfing career reached a handicap of 1. Bunting had the honour of scoring a "hole-in-one" on the Old Course at St Andrews which has been certificated by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. This was his only hole-in-one throughout a long amateur golfing career, not as you might expect on a par 3 but on the 307-yard par 4 9th hole on the "Old Course".
The Seaton Carew Golf Club archives held by the Bunting family have been used to prepare several unpublished papers about the history of the club, but two publications have used them extensively. Firstly, a book celebrating the centenary of the club was published by Derek Hornby in 1974 entitled "The History of Seaton Carew Golf Club 1874-1974". In 1999 Mr Ron Trotter produced a pictorial history of the club to celebrate the 125th anniversary entitled "125 years of Golf at Seaton Carew 1874-1999". In this latter publication many of the historical papers, photographs and score cards in the Bunting archive were reproduced. In Mr Hornby's book he makes a very appropriate dedication to the bulk of the golfing fraternity but is particularly pertinent to those such as the Bunting family "To all those ordinary club golfers who will never be champions but whose whole hearted enthusiasm for the game make them its backbone."
Course development Originally the course was laid out by Dr. McCuaig with 14 holes, four extra holes were added by the Club Professional James Kay and opened on 3 August 1891 by the club's first president Major Matthew Gray, but in the 1920s following a remark made by Bernard Darwin in his book "Golf Courses of Great Britain" that Seaton was "grand golfing country but there was not quite enough of it", the club's members decided to support the redevelopment of the 18 holes. This led the club to call upon the services of course designer Dr. Alister MacKenzie, who went on to create such masterpieces as Augusta National and Cypress Point. He advised the abandonment of some inland holes replacing them with new holes on sandier soil towards the coast, and it's that 1925 layout which forms the basis of today's Old Course at Seaton Carew.
In the 1970s the construction of the a cooling water pipeline tunnel for a nearby power station provided the club with a financial windfall and four new holes were added, under the direction of another great golf architect Frank Pennink. They became known as the "Brabazon loop" and now provide the club with twenty two holes offering a choice of five different course layouts known as the Old, Brabazon, Micklem, New and Bishop courses. (The Bishop Course is named after a Seaton Carew green keeper, Peter Bishop.) The five course layouts and cards from the championship (white tees) can be seen in the "Course Records" section of this page.
Always on the look out for innovations in golf course management, in 2012 Seaton Carew began renovation of all of its south facing bunkers using the "EnviroBunker" methods and materials. The technology eliminates bunker face drying and sand erosion. The work was completed in time for the 2014 Brabazon Trophy.
Notable golfers on the Seaton Carew Golf Links
"Where the Great Ones Trod" Many famous golfers have played Seaton Carew's links over the years, this includes the Great Triumvirate Harry Vardon, J. H. Taylor, and James Braid. Other notable players include Jack White, John Ball, and Harold Hilton. Most of the aforementioned players played in professional challenges with Seaton Carew's longest serving professional, Jimmy Kay. HRH Edward, Prince of Wales, played at Seaton Carew in 1930, and later that decade Walter Hagen and Joe Kirkwood stopped off during their tour of Europe. In more recent times Open Champion Sir Nick Faldo and current European Tour players Justin Rose, Graeme Storm, and Peter Baker have competed over Seaton's links as amateurs as this course is often a challenging host to many amateur championships. Rose went on to be the U.S. Open Champion in 2013. Nick Faldo played at Seaton Carew in the club's Pro-Am in 1976 winning the professional tournament with a 69 (par 72) on the Old Course. Peter Alliss, the renowned golf commentator, has created video flyovers of all of Seaton Carew's five courses and commented "The tenth oldest in England and a true championship links to challenge all levels of players."
Seaton Carew's Legendary Club Professional - James Kay (40 year's service 1886 – 1926)
The role of a golf professional has changed through the years and it has been described in many famous golfing texts from J. H. Taylor's comprehensive "Taylor on Golf" in 1902 (which lists Seaton Carew) through to numerous biographies of the modern day. However too few of the biographies of many of golf's earlier great players have appeared in print but for these players their records speak for them. In this regard few golf clubs can boast of a golfing legend as their long-term professional, an exceptional example is that of Seaton Carew's longest serving professional, James Kay.
Kay, born in Lieth, Scotland in 1855, was engaged by Seaton Carew as their professional on 1 May 1886 following the resignation of Tom Park a member of the famous Park Scottish golfing family. It was Kay's playing record that elevated him above his peers. Press reports of the time showed that Kay played in a total of 22 Open Championships, qualifying in 20 and twice finishing in the top six in the 1892 Open at Muirfield and 1893 Open at Prestwick. On 8 June 1908 he also represented his homeland when he played for Scotland in an international match against England at Prestwick Golf Club. In May 1909, at the age of 53, Kay won the Leeds Cup, a tournament for professional golfers; this is currently the oldest trophy in professional golf worldwide. It was presented to the Professional Golf Association on its formation in 1901 by Alderman Penrose-Green, Lord Mayor of Leeds and President of Leeds Golf Club to be competed for annually by professional golfers. The first competition was held in 1902 at Leeds Golf Club and Kay was one of its earliest winners. Contemporaries record that Kay was "a veritable demon on the green and extremely adept at laying a stymie and therefore as might be guessed was a very fine match player."