This year saw the Golf Course celebrate its 25th anniversary of the official opening, following the expansion of the original three hole course into a nine hole course designed by renowned golf course architect Donald Steel.
A course that rewards straight hitting with deep rough and streams always eager to capture stray shots and demands that players have a precise short game around the challenging slopes of the greens, it remains one of the best on the school circuit, maintained par excellence by Head Greenkeeper Alec Horsburgh.
College Golf
Starting with the creation of the Golf Course, Golf at Bradfield has continued to grow over the last 25 years. A major step in this evolution was Simon McGreal starting as resident professional in 2013 enabling coaching to be provided to pupils throughout the week. Then, following the generous legacy of John Tyndall (H 57-62), the opening of the Golf Studio followed in 2017 which has considerably enhanced the coaching offering with detailed analysis provided by Trackman in two separate simulators. Mike Goodwin has now retired from teaching but has stepped into a golf coaching role to further enhance the support provided to pupils.
Golf’s popularity as a sport within the College continues to grow with well over 100 pupils being members and the course itself has been busier than ever in the past year. Whilst the 1st team are prioritised for coaching on a Monday and Wednesday afternoon, a key emphasis has been on golf being a sport for all abilities. The coaching programme has enabled all players to access high quality instruction on other afternoons with some pupils making rapid progress from beginner to competent team player.
The College continues to play regular fixtures with the likes of Charterhouse, Radley and Wellington at both 1st team and Junior levels as well as entering competitions such as the Swifts Foursomes and Strokeplay events, the Micklem Trophy and the West Sussex Invitational. Angus Flanagan (H 12-17) remains the outstanding golfer of recent years with his Walker Cup appearance and Killian McGinley (D 14-19) has performed successfully in the NCAA Division winning two titles in the States. Several other recent leavers including Patrik Wall (H 17-22), Nick Wall (H 18-23) and Luca Misra (E 19-24) have left as scratch golfers and should be valuable additions to the Halford-Hewitt team in the years ahead. Recent school successes include third place in the 2022 team competition at the HMC Strokeplay Championship at the Berkshire GC and victory in the 2024 Micklem Plate competition at Woking GC.
Another key fixture in the College golfing calendar is the annual match versus the Old Bradfieldian Golf Society. This year the match was held at Calcot Golf Club, for the first time since 1995, owing to the particularly inclement course conditions earlier in the year. A close match with some spectacular shots, the OBGS golfers used their experience to edge a 2-1 win.
