Northenden Golf Club

About the club

When the war finished the club prospered and a commission to redesign the course was accepted by Harry Vardon (he of the Vardon grip). Its completion was officially commemorated by the membership in 1922 and that course was then to serve the club for half a century. The Riverside Tea Gardens, however, served as the clubhouse only until 1935 when it was replaced by the original form of the recently destroyed building.The proximity of the club to the River Mersey caused persistent problems of flooding and these were certainly not helped by two bombs falling on the course in 1941. It was only in the mid sixties that reconstruction of the whole of the river bank adjacent to the course was completed. Unfortunately, this was not in time to prevent the massive flood of December 1964 when the Mersey breached an incomplete area of construction and put clubhouse and course under several feet of water. The course was not to reopen until May 1965 when all the silt deposits had been removed. If the flood was a big disruption to club activities, then the loss of land by Compulsory Purchase Order in 1969 to build the M63 motorway was even greater. The first five holes were lost but other land was secured resulting in a complete redesign of the course by Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas. After much improvisation during reconstruction, the new course was officially opened in 1973.