Cavendish Golf Club in

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, opened in 1925 and was designed by

Alister MacKenzie Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War ...

. The course is long with a par of 68. It is consistently voted as one of the top 100

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

s in England. In 1923,

Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire Victor Christian William Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (31 May 18686 May 1938), known as Victor Cavendish until 1908, was a British peer and politician who served as Governor General of Canada. A member of the Cavendish family, he was ed ...

, commissioned Dr Alister MacKenzie to create and build an 18-hole golf course on moorland owned by the Devonshire estate in Buxton. The course was open to men and women from its opening in 1925. The Cavendish was one of MacKenzie's last UK course designs. He went on to design courses in Australasia, South America and the USA, including the world-famous

Augusta National Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...

golf course, which opened in 1932 and hosts

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

annual major golf championship. The Cavendish course was bought by the members from the 11th Duke of Devonshire in 1955. Although the course is under 6,000 yards long, the design of the sloping greens is acknowledged as its main challenge. The course record of 61 is 7 under par. In the 1990s, many native deciduous trees were planted around the course, funded by grants from the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

. This has changed the nature of the course from a windy exposed links-style to play more like a parkland-style course.

Buxton and High Peak Golf Club Buxton and High Peak Golf Club at Fairfield near Buxton in Derbyshire opened in 1887. The course is long with a par of 69. It is the oldest golf course in Buxton and one of the oldest in Derbyshire. Peak Practice golf driving range at Barms ...

was the first golf course in Buxton, founded in 1886 on Fairfield Common. In 1899, the Ladies Golf Club's nine hole course was set out on Temple Meads (which was developed as a housing estate in the 1960s). After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Canadian troops based in Buxton created a

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled traditionally used by children. It is also a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people (often children) down a hill o ...

run across the first three fairways of the Cavendish course. The toboggan run is still marked on the OS Explorer Map OL24. The

Peak District Boundary Walk The Peak District Boundary Walk is a circular walking trail, starting and finishing at Buxton and broadly following the boundary of the Peak District, Britain's first national park. The route was developed by the Friends of the Peak District (a ...

runs across the golf course.

References

Golf clubs and courses in Derbyshire Buxton {{England-golfcourse-stub