James Braid
James Braid was one of golf's great champions, but he is probably better-known today as a seminal course designer and one of the game's important modernisers.
Playing Years
Born in Earlsferry in Fife on 6 February 1870, Braid was a golfing prodigy who won five British Opens, and was a member of the 'Great Triumvirate', with J.H. Taylor and Harry Vardon. A powerful hitter with a gift for straight iron play, Braid's game reached it's peak at the turn of the century. In 1901 he won his first Open. Within 10 years he became the first man to win the event five times (1901, 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1910). He was also runner up in 1897, 1902, 1904 and 1909.
As with other prominent golfing champions of his time, after retiring from golf competition in 1912, Braid was asked to consult on many of the new courses popping up throughout England and Scotland. Thus Braid began to develop a style that was to usher in the era of modern golf course layouts.
Design Years
Braid used established architectural techniques and topographical analysis. Previously, most course designers had relied on visual judgement, and stuck strictly to the terrain at hand. Braid realised that whilst the natural terrain was useful for certain holes, it could be radically altered to create new and more imaginative designs, based on shot strategy.
Braid worked on a number of links courses, but his best courses tended to be inland ones. Amongst his more famous designs are the King's Course at Gleneagles, Blairgowie's Rosemount, the East course at Dalmahoy and Boat-of-Garten.
Many of these inland tracks are dominated by possibly the first known doglegs. While dogleg holes are rare on links courses that hug the coast, Braid found them to be ideal for inland layouts that very often wound their way through trees and around hillsides. Braid also formalised the practice of positioning bunkers specifically to establish landing areas from the tee, and also developed the plateau green, along with sophisticated drainage systems. These improvisations soon forced players to position their drives and then fly their approaches into the greens. There are some very good examples of this at Lothianburn, notably the 5th, 8th, 9th and 14th holes.
While his contemporaries Alister MacKenzie and Harry Colt were drawn to other countries, notably the USA, Braid's fear of flying limited his ventures. He designed only one course in the United States, and that was purely on paper - he never visited the site.
In addition to his skills on the course he proved a very successful president of the PGA. His contributions to the game were rewarded as one of the first golf professionals to be inducted as a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
A much admired pioneer of golf, James Braid died in London in 1950.
