A letter received from Drayton Park GC

Dear Sir,

             I am President of Drayton Park Golf Club, Tamworth, Staffordshire and I thought that you might like to hear from us.

 On October 14 next year we will be celebrating 75 years of being on our present sight, the club is in fact 113 years old.

The services of James Braid were secured to design the course, which today is pretty close to the original design. Apart from altering a few bunkers as the course matured, and 7years ago when we had the clay based greens reconstructed to improve the drainage.  These new greens were kept to their original size, with just a few changes to improve walk on/walk off areas.

It was said that after visiting the site Mr. Braid would return home by train and draw an outline plan whilst travelling. Filling in all the many details later, these would be meticulously followed by John R. Stutt club architect of Paisley.  A contract was agreed verbally at an inclusive fee of £1,850. On the 28 May 1936 Mr. Braid gave his final approval.

Unfortunately we have very few photographs of this period. Although there is a written record of James Braid accepting an invitation to play an exhibition with Abe Mitchell and two top amateurs Stanley Lund and Eric Fiddian.

We shall be celebrating the anniversary with a dinner dance together with a competition which will be groundbreaking for us. This will be open to both men and ladies, with the ladies playing off their own tees and stroke indices. This will be commemorated with a new trophy which will be named the James Braid Trophy.

Congratulations on an excellent website and having myself played on many James Braid's course all around the British Isles and Ireland, it was a delight to find a society dedicated to the great man. 

My very best wishes,

John Hartley,

Drayton Park G.C.