Leading teaching professional Simon Holmes explains why he became involved with the new pan-European Pine Hill Club, a golfing society that aims to highlight classic, architecturally-important courses

“I meet a lot of kids on driving ranges as part of my coaching work – ambitious, enthusiastic golfers – who have never heard of Ben Hogan!” says legendary English golf teacher and Sky Sports swing analyst Simon Holmes. “I used to find that shocking, and it still saddens me. Golf’s history is such a huge part of its appeal.”

During his long career, Holmes has coached the winners of more than 50 professional tournaments, with names such as Faldo, Els, Goosen and Darren Clarke on his resume. But it’s his love for the history of the game and its venues, that persuaded him to get involved with running Pine Hill, founded by Belgian golfer Olivier Daelemans, a former staff member with golf architecture firm Hills Forrest, as was Quentin Lutz, one of the creators of the successful Outpost Club in the US.

Outpost provided the initial inspiration for Pine Hill, but Holmes accepts that the two are rather different organisations. “The barriers to access are way different in the US as compared to over here,” he says. “Outpost’s success has come as it provides a way for golfers to get to play some of America’s top private clubs, places that would be difficult for them to get a game otherwise. Over here in Europe, the vast majority of clubs are happy to accept visitors. So we see our role more as a traditional golfing society – an opportunity for like minded people to get together at great venues and learn more about the history of golf courses. We’re a golf society with a strong interest in tracing back through the history of golf architecture.”

“If you read most golf magazines, or some of the golf sites online, the courses that are pushed to you are typically the big money modern developments,” Holmes says. “I’ve nothing against those places, but our goal is to bring people back to the classics and to extend their awareness of some of the classic courses that fly a little under the radar. Yes, the big name courses of Scotland and Ireland get a lot of visitor traffic, but there are many wonderful courses that people who go to the UK or France to play golf won’t necessarily be aware of. Countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have fabulous classic-era golf, but you don’t see a lot of people coming from a distance to play those courses, because they’re not aware of them. It would be a shame for all of this history to be pushed aside because it doesn’t have the marketing clout to compete with new destinations. Golf has been polluted by real estate development. Back in the day, people built golf courses because the land was suitable. Nowadays, location is more important, because the goal is not necessarily to build the best possible courses, but to attract resort visitors and house purchasers. Inevitably a lot of the courses built in recent years are compromised as a result.”

Pine Hill founder Daelemans is Belgian-based, and as a result the club’s first significant cluster of members comes from that country. But since Holmes, and third partner Ollie Dury became involved a year ago, the organisation has begun to spread, with members from across Europe joining. “Almost all our members are also members of a place you’d like to go and play, and that’s an important part of defining our ethos,” says Holmes. “We have a pretty loose structure, and the members take it on themselves to host – and in turn, be hosted. We’d like to expand that – to have a more international group of members, based around the classic golf courses, who are eager to show their courses off to the rest of us.” The club held meetings at courses including Royal St Georges, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal Zoute and Morfontaine in 2014, and has a two-day Surrey meeting at Sunningdale and Swinley Forest planned for later in 2015.

“We want clubs to be totally comfortable that we are there – so there’s a lot of work to do to prove that we’re good citizens,” says Holmes. “We want the clubs to welcome us, to show us their story and for us to be able to promote their story to our members and beyond. Obviously, some of the places we visit are among the most famous in golf, but it’s not just a question of the biggest names. We want to be guardians of these key pieces of our golf history, especially the ones that are a little off the beaten track. Everyone knows that golf clubs have been under pressure in recent years, and even some of the classics are finding life tough. If we can help to create a community that has more awareness of lesser-known classic courses – places like Silloth-on-Solway in England for example, a fantastic golf course that doesn’t get anything like the attention it deserves because of its location – then we believe the clubs will be better off. We’d like to be a part of helping those clubs – those that are historically important but perhaps don’t have a huge marketing budgets – stay in the public eye and stay successful.”

Back to those dedicated young golfers who have not heard of Ben Hogan. Holmes says he believes all those who love golf and its stories history of players and venues have a responsibility to share their passion with the up and coming generation, and that Pine Hill is keen to play its part. “We put a lot of energy into educating our juniors into where they are playing – why this particular piece of ground became this particular golf course, who was responsible for making it look as it does and what parts of golf’s history were played out there,” he says. “For me this is part of becoming a fully rounded golfer. The game’s history is too long and too fascinating to be lost.”