Coombe Hill has always attracted larger than life characters. But not all of them have come for the golf.

Coombe Hill has always been dedicated to the very highest standards of golf. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the exceptional pedigree of the Club Pro's over the years, which include three Open winners in their number.

Sandy Herd,  Coombe Hill's first Club Pro and winner of the 1902 Open, was an uncompromising and supremely self-confident character. he was also a magnificent golfer and achieved no fewer than thirteen holes-in-one at Coombe Hill...dream on.

Well known for his champagne lifestyle. Henry Cotton was the Coombe Hill Pro just after World War Two. By then he had won the Open three times. A fabously gifted player, Cotton was also the ultimate showman and even topped the bill in a variety stage show with his golf act.

Brave, tough and totally lacking in caution, Dick Burton won the Open in 1939. As Club Pro he had akeen eye for promising talentand helped develop many outstanding golfers. Burton was also a compulsive gambler and once bet he could beat him using only a putter. Burton lost his bet  - but not until the 18th hole.

Many of the members and guests who've played at Coombe Hill could equally be described as flamboyant characters. None more so than Edward VIII who knew how to live the 'the good life'. Golf was one of his passions and he forged a long friendship with another Coombe Hill Pro, Archie Compston. While on a Mediterranean crusie together, the pair of them drove 3,000 balls into the sea. History does not recall whether or not royalty 'ruled the waves' in that particular driving contest.

But long before it was a golf course, Coombe Hill was the haunt of highwaymen. Many of these villains met their maker on the scaffold built on Coombe Hill and business was so brisk that it became known as Gallows Hill. It seems people were working on their swing even back then.