Thank you!

80 years at Piltdown!

It’s not every day that a golf club gets to celebrate eight decades of loyalty, but this year Piltdown Golf Club is proudly doing just that. Long-time member Mr. Gordon Hawes has very nearly reached the remarkable milestone of 80 years’ continuous membership, having first joined the Club in 1946, the very first year after the Second World War. He recently had some health issues, but we were delighted to see him back in the clubhouse this week.

At 93, Gordon remains as sharp, good-humoured, and full of stories as ever. We had a chat with him recently to ask him how it all began.

“I had my first golf lesson in 1946 on the Eden practice ground at St Andrews,” he recalls. “There were no mats back then, you just hit off the grass! Equipment was hard to come by because of the war; the pro used to bring a dozen practice balls, I’d hit them down the range, and then we’d go and collect them again before I could carry on.”

It was after returning from that trip that his father enrolled him as a junior member at Piltdown. The professional at the time must have seen potential. “He obviously gave a decent report,” Gordon chuckles, “because my father joined me up right away.”

At that time, Piltdown’s membership was small and the junior section even smaller, just two “cadets,” as they were then called. “There were only two of us,” Gordon smiles. “Myself and Michael Carver. It didn’t make for much of a competition!”

The Club he joined in 1946 was a very different place to the one members enjoy today. The Blunden family lived in the clubhouse, with Ted Blunden, the professional, his wife, and their daughter Olive, who later became the club stewardess. There was no mains water, no heating, and certainly no showers.

“We had a corrugated iron shed next to the clubhouse with three peat buckets for the gentlemen,” Gordon recalls with a grin. “If you wanted to wash, there was a shelf with a china bowl, a jug of cold water from the well, and a bar of soap. That was it. You couldn’t complain about the hot water, because there wasn’t any!”

The clubhouse consisted of two small changing rooms (“if four went in to change, it was full") and the rest of the building was still the Blunden family’s home. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that mains water and proper plumbing were installed, when the Club also bought a house in Uckfield for the Blunden family and expanded the clubhouse into what members recognise today.

“It’s funny,” Gordon says thoughtfully, “everything’s changed at the back over the years, but the front of the clubhouse is still exactly as it always was. I rather like that. There’s continuity.”

Through all those years, Gordon has been part of the very fabric of Piltdown. He played regularly through the 1950s and beyond, and became a familiar face at weekend roll-ups and club events. He’s seen generations come and go, countless Captains, and more course changes than most can remember.

When asked about the course itself, he smiles.

“The course has matured beautifully. It’s still the same wonderful heathland character, with those natural fairways and tricky greens, but it’s far better maintained now. We didn’t have the machinery or irrigation back then. You learned to play with what the weather gave you.”

As the Club raises a glass to celebrate Gordon’s 80 years, it’s clear that his story is more than one of longevity: it’s a living link between Piltdown’s post-war past and its modern future. Here’s to Gordon Hawes: 80 years a Piltdown man, and still with a swing full of character and a story for every occasion.

(Thanks to Céline for this excellent interview and article)