Old Photograph Golf Course Peterhead Scotland

Old photograph of the golf course in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Peterhead Golf Club was established in 1841. The Old Course layout began as a 9 hole course in 1892, designed by Willie Park Junior a dual winner of the Open Championship. The Old Course was extended to 18 holes in 1908. Willie Park, junior, born 4 February 1864, in Musselburgh near Edinburgh, died, May 1925, was one of the top professional golfers of his era, winning The Open Championship twice. Park was also a successful golf equipment maker and golf writer. In his later years, Park built a significant career as one of the world's best golf course architects. He also worked as a golf course designer, with 170 designs to his credit in the British Isles, Europe, the US and Canada. Park entered this profession, while winding down his competitive play, in his mid-30s, just as golf was beginning an enormous increase in popularity in North America. New golfers needed new courses to play, and Park took advantage of the opportunities. His services were much in demand, and he became one of the first people, along with fellow Scot Donald Ross, to become a full-time golf course architect.



Park's first well-known design was the Old Course of the Sunningdale Golf Club near London, England, just at the turn of the 20th century. This club's brilliant success on heathland property, which earlier had been thought unsuitable for golf, brought him worldwide fame. Sunningdale Old has frequently been ranked among the world's top courses.

Other highly regarded Park courses include Weston Golf and Country Club in Toronto, Canada, host of the 1955 Canadian Open, Arnold Palmer's first professional victory), the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club in Ottawa, Ontario, host of the 2008 Canadian Women's Open, the Calgary Golf and Country Club in Calgary, Le Club Laval-sur-le-Lac in Laval, Quebec, the Maidstone Golf Club on Long Island, the New Haven Country Club in Hamden, CT, USA, Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Kensington, CT, and the North Course of the Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, host of the 2003 U.S. Open. Weston G&CC hosts an annual elite amateur men's Willie Park Jr. Memorial tournament, held over 36 holes in one day in late summer. It was started in 1925 to memorialize Park's passing.

Overwork on his design business led to a decline in health and his eventual death, at age 61 in 1925. His health had been in decline for some time; Park knew he was dying, and traveled home from the United States to Scotland, in order to die in his home country

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.