Tehidy Park’s original 1922 course was laid out with the help of Jim Barnes, a Cornish-born golfer who won four major championships. It was later redesigned and lengthened by the respected post-war architect C. K. Cotton, whose work gave the course much of its modern shape and length.
Jim Barnes, the Cornish major champion
Jim Barnes was born at Lelant, on the north Cornwall coast. He went on to win the US PGA Championship twice, the US Open in 1921, and The Open in 1925. When a course was planned in the parkland below the Basset Estate in 1922, Barnes drew its first lines. No other Cornish club can claim a founder of that standing.
C.K. Cotton and the modern course
After the Second World War, the architect C. K. Cotton reworked and lengthened the layout. Cotton was one of the notable British course architects of his era, and his redesign is the course members and visitors play today, refined further by a century of green-keeping and, since 1999, an extensive tree-planting programme.
Design philosophy: accuracy over power
Both hands left the same instinct on the ground. Tehidy asks a golfer to place the ball, not simply to hit it hard. Streams, lakes, and out of bounds on nine holes reward the player who thinks a shot ahead. That is the course’s identity, and it has held for a century.
Common questions
Did Jim Barnes design Tehidy Park?
He advised on the original 1922 layout. The course was later redesigned by C. K. Cotton.
When was the course built?
1922, in the grounds of the Basset Estate.
Who was C.K. Cotton?
A respected post-war golf course architect whose redesign gave Tehidy its modern length.
Read more about the club’s history, or explore membership.