Frank Pennink

In the early 1970’s the excavation of a cooling-water tunnel for Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station provided the Club with a financial windfall and four new holes were added, under the direction of another great golf architect, Frank Pennink. The Club had also been told at that time that it might lose land at the Southern end of the course, which it rented from Tees Port, although thankfully that never happened. The four new holes became known as the Brabazon loop and now provide the Club with twenty two holes offering a choice of five different course layouts, the Old, Brabazon, Micklem, Bishop & New, although only the Old, Brabazon and Micklem are regularly played. The Brabazon Course, which includes all four Pennink holes, has twice been used to stage the English Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship, for the Brabazon Trophy. The Micklem layout, which has three Pennink holes, came about after the then President of the EGU, Gerald Micklem, suggested it would provide a stern test for the youngsters participating in the English Boys Championship, for the Carris Trophy, and is slightly shorter in length than the more demanding Brabazon Course.