The story of Enmore Park Golf Club's expansion to 18 holes in 1971

The golf course moved from its original home at Cannington to the current location back in 1932 and was officially opened on Saturday, September 24.

Initially the course was leased from the owner of Enmore Castle, Mr H H Broadmead, but in 1960 the club purchased the land that the nine-hole course was situated on at the cost of £5,250.

During the following decade a number of improvements were made to both the course and the clubhouse, which had also been relocated from Cannington, and by late 1968 the club had reached its limit of 200 members - with 50 more on the waiting list.

At this point a momentous decision was made to extend the course from nine to 18 holes.

To enable this to happen a local businessman and member, Philip Pensabene, wanted to show his gratitude to the membership for the time he had spent enjoying the course by lending the club £73,000 (interest free) to enable this to happen.

Originally it was agreed that Enmore would repay the loan at the rate of £3,000 per annum over 25 years, but two years later at the club’s AGM Mr Pensabene agreed to make his loan into a gift to the club, something for which members then and now are forever grateful.

Thanks to this generosity plans were set in motion to expand the course, and the necessary additional ground was purchased.

During 1970 the golf architects Messrs Hawtree & Co were busy with the design and layout of the new holes, which included a new watering system for the greens and land drainage.

By November of that year all the new greens were in place.

In 1971 the main focus was completing the new course extension, and in June the contractors handed over the maintenance of the new nine holes to the club.

By late summer all of the new greens had been cut, and then the club set about naming the new holes.

From a nine hole course with a yardage of 3,027 and a par of 35, Enmore could now proudly boast an 18-hole of 6,431 years and a standard par of 71!