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""Over 100 Years of Golfing History""
In 1923 the club inaugurated the West of Ireland Championship. The first winner was Larry Vernon, husband of Amy Ormsby, the most celebrated Co. Sligo lady golfer who won the Irish and South African ladies championships. The West of Ireland brought top golfers from Ireland and overseas to the club to compete for the championship. It was considered that the links did not offer a stern enough challenge to these top players, so in 1927 the committee decided to upgrade the course. The services of the renowned golf course architect Harry Shapland Colt, whose repertoire included the design of courses such as Sunningdale, Wentworth, Royal Lytham & St Annes, St Andrews Eden and Pine Valley in the US, were recommended.
Shortly afterwards the club received an offer from the course design company, 'Hawtree & Taylor, quoting a lower design fee and the committee offered them the commission stressing that an early start date was essential. When 'Hawtree & Taylor' were unable to meet the requirements, the firm of 'Colt, MacKenzie, Allison & Morrison' was appointed. Harry Colt started work in June of 1927 when he pegged out the location of tees and greens. Work started immediately on the construction of the new course. He proposed a radical change form the Campbell course favouring an anti clockwise layout similar to his designs at Royal Lytham and St Andrews Eden course. He is reputed to have been influenced by the layout of St Andrews Old course and his design at Co. Sligo is uncannily similar.
Colt was a strategic designer who used the natural contours of the ground rather than move large amounts of earth. He had an artistic flair, had an aversion to straight lines and abhorred blind shots. He also favoured subtle changes in direction so that as you leave a green the next hole takes you on a different orientation. These design characteristics are subtly incorporated into the design at Co. Sligo. Colt's greens were contoured to facilitate natural drainage, a feature that caused much concern for the members of the time when first introduced. Not being accustomed to putting on undulating surfaces the members lobbied the links committee to reduce the contours to more manageable proportions.
The seventeenth green presented special problems due to the large amount of excavation needed in the days prior to mechanical excavation. So what we now know as the treacherous seventeenth green did not come into play until 1931.
Thus the development of the new course was completed (in 1931) and at this time Harry Colt was contacted to provide a bunkering plan. Having agreed the fee the committee were surprised when Captain Hugh Allison arrived with a letter from Colt stating that, as he had no engagements in Ireland at that time, he was sending his assistant to carry out the work. This created a unique design situation with Colt responsible for the course layout and Allison taking credit for the bunkering arrangement. Allison was noted for his deeper bunkers and with a high ridge line to be negotiated for a successful exit. Colt, on the other hand, favoured shallow bunkers. Hence Allison was known as "humps and bumps" by his colleagues for his tendency to incorporate mounds in the centre of greens he designed.
