Huntercombe Artisans Golf Club

Wallingford is a market town on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, with a history going back to an Anglo-Saxon burh fortified under Alfred the Great and the remains of a Norman castle overlooking the river. Huntercombe Artisans Golf Club takes its course from land bought in 1900 by Willie Park Junior, twice an Open Champion, in 1887 and 1889, who purchased Huntercombe Manor and its surrounding 724 acres, later increased to 928. Park laid out the course in seven months, and the American amateur Walter Travis visited on 11 August 1901, shortly before the club opened for membership later that year. Early subscriptions were set at five guineas for both the entrance fee and annual membership, with life membership at fifty guineas and a green fee of half a crown a day. A new clubhouse was completed in 1964 at a cost of £22,100, part of which was destroyed by fire in April 1971. The club has always welcomed visitors throughout the year and describes itself as essentially a two-ball course. Membership is structured in bands running from full seven-day membership through country categories at increasing distance to overseas and young members aged eight to eighteen.