Huntercombe was where James Bond established his single-digit handicap, meaning he must have been one hell of a putter
In the famous golf match in Goldfinger, James Bond and Auric Goldfinger are establishing their handicaps prior to a game. Bond says his “…is a 9 at Huntercombe.”
Bond needs no introduction. Nor do Goldfinger and Oddjob. But Huntercombe Golf Club? It is a jewel in the Oxfordshire countryside, 10 miles from Henley-on-Thames, 40 miles west from the center of London, and 700 feet above sea level. It sits, furthermore, in an area designated as Outstanding Natural Beauty. Bond-creator Ian Fleming lived near Huntercombe and, like Henry Longhurst, the writer and television commentator, was a member of the club.
Willie Park Jr., Open champion in 1887 and ’89 and runner-up to Harry Vardon in ’98, designed the course at the turn of the last century and it remains much as he created it. Opening for play in 1901 on land that had springy turf, it quickly became a much loved, much respected inland course favored by undergraduates of nearby Oxford University. Walter Travis, the American amateur, described it a century ago “as easily the best laid out links I have ever played over anywhere.”
To describe Huntercombe as a throwback to a former time may sound like an insult, but is meant as a compliment. The clubhouse is modest, the course measures a yard or two more than 6,320 at its longest and has only 13 sand bunkers, and the men’s locker room is a place where a pair of golf shoes could be left and reclaimed a year later.
An air of old-fashioned politeness and sportsmanship permeates the club. A sign in the men’s locker room reads:
At Huntercombe,
Golf and gloating do not mix,
If you win by seven and six,
Apologise for what you’ve done
And write it down as two and one.
There are five par fours of less than 380 yards, only seven of 400 yards or more, and the longest hole, one of only two par fives, is 523 yards. Par is 70. Should any big-hitting golfer stand on the first tee and think “this shouldn’t be too difficult,” let them be warned. Grassy depressions that were once ponds or the result of excavations for the sand needed to build the course are a feature of at least four holes—the 1st, 9th, 16th, and 18th.
More than these, though, the course’s defenses are the trickiest greens in the county. Members often refer to “a Huntercombe turn” because just when they think their ball is going into the hole it takes a slight roll away from its target—and sometimes journeys on another two or three feet making the second (or third) putt as difficult as the first.
Getting on to a green at Huntercombe is barely half the battle. They are not only fast but they have considerably more movement than most. The 1st, for example, slopes quite sharply from left to right; the 3rd, which contains a ridge running from front to back, slopes from right to left; the 4th from left to right. The 8th green has two tiers. The 10th green has a distinct right-to-left tilt and is the green on which members’ lore is “never to give a putt.”
After his visit to Huntercombe, Travis wrote: “in order to negotiate the round properly, you must be a master in the art of both scientific slicing and pulling, and be able to get the full measure of every conceivable stroke that occurs in the game, or else be subject to some penalty—in short, every shot has to be played for all it is worth. That is golf.”
And that is golf at Huntercombe.
