East Herts is the perfect venue for society golf days. Societies are warmly welcome on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays and Fridays. Our packages for winter 2008/09 and summer 2009 are great value for money (see below).
East Herts can offer a complete range – from a full day’s golf with bacon rolls or full English breakfast, lunch and dinner to 18 holes played in the morning or afternoon and combined with lunch or dinner.
If our packages do not suit your requirements we would be happy to put together a bespoke golf day tailored to your needs – please ring the Club Office on 01920 821978 to discuss your requirements.
GOLF SOCIETY PACKAGES
East Herts Golf Club welcome visitors Monday to Friday excluding Wednesday mornings, weekends and bank holidays.
To check on course availability please ring the Pro Shop on 01920 821922.
Our current Green Fee Rates are:-
East Herts Golf Club is renowned throughout Hertfordshire for its magnificent, ancient trees set in tranquil, rolling parkland around Hamels Mansion.
Hamels Park is situated on the northbound carriageway of the A10 between Puckeridge and Buntingford only 20 minutes from Junction 25 of the M25 to the south and 20 minutes from the M11 at Bishop’s Stortford to the east. Approached via an 800 yard private drive off the A10 between two lodge houses built by Sir John Soane in 1782, there is a large car park giving easy access to the golf course and modern club house.
The Par 71, 6440 yard course (Par 72, 5521 yards on the Ladies card) is laid out between numerous varieties of trees planted in the late 18th century and all waiting to catch the wayward shot. East Herts is an easy walking course, short between green and tee, rewarding the straight hitter and a good test of golf for the low and medium handicapper.
A private members’ club, East Herts welcomes visitors and societies to share the extensive facilities of a large dining room/restaurant serving snacks and meals throughout the day, two bars and a well stocked pro shop. A large balcony overlooks the Par 3 18th green and is a popular spot on warm days and evenings for that well earned drink.
There is a practice ground with yardage markers, together with nets and a chipping green. The putting green is conveniently situated outside the pro shop. Hamels Mansion itself provides a beautiful backdrop to the course and is a focal point on most of the holes. East Herts has a thriving membership and over recent years has produced 2 juniors who have represented England at an amateur level and a 3rd is currently playing in the U.S. Tour having previously played in the European Tour.
The Club welcomes new members and has vacancies for adults and juniors.
Members enjoy many social functions throughout the year all of which are well attended, plus a full calendar of matches, trophy competitions and the usual medals and stablefords all of which are well supported and competitive. The Club is host to an annual Pro Am, recognised to be one of the best in the region, plus a Charity Day when thousands of pounds are raised annually in aid of a local charity.
The Club is run by a board of Directors ably assisted by its staff whose aim is to maintain traditional values using the very best of 21st century technology, moving with the times.
East Herts Golf Club – A Brief History
East Herts Golf Club starts its second century with confidence. Its realistic hope is built on its impeccable pedigree. The original golf course, situated on the chalk hill between Hertford and Ware, was designed by two of the greatest golfers in the sport's history. They were J.H. (John) Taylor and James Braid. With Harry Vardon they became known as "The Great Triumvirate". Both won the British Open Championship five times. Taylor, born in Devon, was largely responsible for the formation of the PGA and the development of artisan golf. The long-time pro at Royal Mid-Surrey, he was interested in course design all his life and built what more or less corresponds to the present Chadwell Springs course.
The land - Lime Kiln Farm - had been bought by Albert Sandeman, a member of the port-importing family. He founded the club with Mr Basil Richardson. Subscriptions were three guineas for men and one for women. Visitors, if introduced by a member, were allowed to play free. The green fee was 1s. 6d. a day. Taylor figured in "a preliminary opening" by playing the club professional F. Weston on November 9, 1899, and ran away with the match 7 and 6. The course was formally opened by Arthur Balfour, later the first Earl Balfour, in April 1900. He was MP for Hertford from 1874 to 1885 and Prime Minister between 1902 and 1906. A golf nut, he regretted that the course had not been constructed when he was the local MP.
Progress was unspectacular until 1920 when the decision was taken to extend the course to 18 holes. Braid, son of an Elie ploughman, was asked to reconstruct the course in three loops of six holes. He put the cost at £200 and another £200 would have to be spent on labour each year. A special meeting was held at Hertford's Shire Hall and the proposal was given the go-ahead. Subscriptions were raised to five guineas and three guineas but the entrance fee remained at two guineas for men and one for women.
With five holes still to be built, the clubhouse was burned down on October 27 1922. It was completely gutted along with the records and the clubs in lockers went up in flames too. The average price for a wood then was 12s.6d. and for irons 10s.6d. A temporary clubhouse was set up in stables on the course and the club boldly decided to continue.
Members were offered the freehold of the course in 1925 by Mr Sandeman for £5,500. The club was in the red and had an overdraft. Not surprisingly they failed to raise the money. Mr Herbert Garratt, a big flour miller in Hertford, bought the land in 1929 and offered a 21 year lease at £289 a year. Up went the subs another guinea.
In 1949 with the lease about to expire, Mr Garratt offered the course and buildings to the club for £11,500. After a period of haggling a price of £9,500 was agreed and the club formed a company to raise £4,000 from members and £6,000 from other sources. It was far too much and, in 1950, McMullens, the Hertford family brewery, bought the land for the original asking price. They granted the club another 21 year lease which ran out at about the same time as the Ware bypass received the planning go-ahead in 1971.
The dual carriageway meant the course would have to revert to its former nine-hole size. There was chaos. A lot of members deserted to Brickendon Grange which had opened ten years earlier. The club received £25,000 compensation for the loss of the clubhouse but the future looked bleak. McMullens proved good friends by offering the beautiful Hamels Park, 129 acres of virgin parkland where nobody had swung a club since the Stone Age, on a 99 year lease after negotiations with 1968 captain Alf Hayes.
Livewire Hayes formed an action committee and his leading lights included Nick Nicholl, Stan Rippon, Jack Watts, Ray Yorke and secretary Jimmy James. The move was made on June 1 1974 and Don Dye had the unique experience of being captain of the club with six months tenure of office at each site. The official opening was in June 1976 when Eddie Adams was captain. The most remarkable achievement was the planning and layout of the course. The big name golfers of the day interested in course design asked exorbitant fees. The answer was DIY. A committee of John Bennett, Jack Watts and club professional David Lewis, advised and encouraged by head greenkeeper David Hunt, laid out 18 holes from scratch. The quartet performed a minor miracle. The course has been consistently improved by vigorous chairmen of the greens committee. The latest large-scale expenditure was on improving, re-siting and placing new bunkers.
The course has survived two natural crises. The first was the ravage caused by Dutch Elm disease - a fungus introduced by the elm bark beetle - and the next the Great Storm of October 16 1987 that ripped through the country uprooting trees, blowing away roofs and flattening buildings. All varieties of trees on the course - beech, oak, elm, chestnut, walnut, ash, poplar, birch, lime and sycamore - bent and broke before the gale. The course the following morning looked as if it had been attacked by an army of mad woodcutters. Among the established trees to crash was a giant Lebanon cedar, a twin of the remaining one on the left of the first fairway about 200 yards from the tee.
The contrast between the two homes of East Herts could hardly have been greater. The original course, perched on the hill overlooking the spring for the New River, was the highest point between there and Siberia. The cold wind, at times, made 18 holes a survival test. The few trees were stunted and twisted as if they bent to avoid the worst of the weather.
The rolling parkland of Hamel Park is paradise. The world is left behind when you turn into the entrance between the lodge houses designed in 1782 by the celebrated architect Sir John Soane. It does not matter what time of the year it is, it is wonderland. Perhaps the full splendour is in high summer. Autumn puts the celebrated Fall in New England in perspective. The original in the old country is better. The lowering sun rippling through a billion leaves is stunning, quite breathtaking. Winter presents a stark, compelling picture and Spring highlights the joys of a new year. Beauty, as always, is in the eye of the beholder but try and nominate a better-looking inland course.
The imposing Hamels Park mansion house dominates the sky-line and can be seen from most of the 18 holes. One of the turrets provides the perfect line for a drive from the 12th tee. It will feature in the conversation of any visitor and yet has nothing to do with the club. Hamels Park was mentioned in the Domesday Book but came into prominence when John Brograve, a wealthy Elizabethan lawyer, built his four-turreted mansion in 1580. It remained in his family for 130 years and then passed through many hands, including those of John Mellish, who bought the property for £38,500 in 1796 but lived only two years to enjoy his purchase. He was murdered by highwaymen at Hounslow.
His brief tenure was followed by the longest single occupancy. His daughter Catherine inherited Hamels Park at the age of four and lived there until her death at 86. She re-built it in 1834 and the outside remains the same. Five subsequent owners and the directors of Crofton Grange boarding school for girls carried out no major alterations. When the school moved to another part of the country in 1968, it became derelict and the club had no spare cash when they moved. It was magnificently refurbished as the headquarters of the Hubert C. Leach company. It would have made a majestic clubhouse but nobody can play East Herts without being aware and impressed by its presence.