Mid Ocean Club original hotel building

The Mid Ocean Club is a private 6,520 yard, 18-hole golf course in Tucker's Town, Bermuda. Designed by Charles Blair Macdonald in 1921, and originally built in collaboration with the Furness Bermuda Line (part of Furness Withy.

After the First World War, Bermuda's tourism industry went through considerable change as Prohibition led to a flood of affluent middle class visitors seeking sun and alcohol, and Bermuda became a summer rather than a winter destination. The large urban hotels were replaced by resorts sandwiched between private beaches and golf courses, such as the South Shore Hotel, now called the Elbow Beach Hotel (which had been completed immediately before the war, in 1913). The Mid Ocean Club had been developed in connection with the construction by Furness Withy (in partnership with the Bermuda Development Company) of the neighbouring Castle Harbour Hotel, built near Paynter's Vale in Tucker's Town and completed in 1931. The development of the hotel and club had required the forced removal of the existing population of Tucker's Town.[1] The Castle Harbour Hotel was one of three Furness Bermuda Line hotels in Bermuda (the other two being the St. George's Hotel and the Bermudiana) as the company sought the lion's share both of the passengers carried to and from Bermuda and of guests at Bermuda's hotels.[2][3][4]

During the Second World War, Tucker's Town (an area with a long military history, as indicated by the name of the harbour) was garrisoned as the site of the Cable and Wireless transatlantic telegraph cable hut and the Castle Harbour Hotel was used by the United States Army to accommodate personnel during the construction of Kindley Field on the other side of the harbour. Following the war, the Mid Ocean Club struggled financially, and in 1951 it was sold to its members. Golf course architect Robert Trent Jones was hired to redesign the course in 1953, which he modified to its current design though he made few changes to MacDonald's design.

It is consistently placed highly among world courses and is ranked 45th by Golf Digest for courses outside the United States.[5] The Mid Ocean Club hosted its second PGA Grand Slam of Golf in October 2008. Previously, the tournament had its home at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii.

The Mid Ocean Club has hosted George H. W. Bush, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and the Duke of Windsor.[6] Some of the more well-known holes include the par-3 "Redan" 17th hole, the par-4 18th hole, as well as the signature par-4 5th.

View of the 17th hole and the 18th tee to its left
1925 invitation to a dance

Ian Fleming mentions the club in his James Bond short story Quantum of Solace, describing the course as a "fine links where all the quality play and get together at the club afterwards for gossip and drinks".

References

  1. ^ "An exercise in muscle, money and power". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 11 December 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2023. The Land Development Act 1920 which enabled the expropriation of Tucker's Town lands cited tourism development as its stated goal. The Act was exceptional because Furness Withy, a private foreign company, was given permission to take land forcibly by expropriation from the lawful 502 Bermudian owners. Consequent to passage of the Land Development Act, approximately six per cent of Bermuda's total land mass was given over to foreign control and ownership. The former owners were removed, some, like Ms Dinah Smith in 1923, forcibly and were then barred from returning to Tucker's Town even as visitors unless they were given permission to enter.
  2. ^ "Exhibit fails to capture Furness link to tourism glory days". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2023. After the First World War, Sir Frederick Lewis (later Lord Essendon) of Furness Withy visited Bermuda, and his immense vision for the potential that Bermuda offered soon became reality. Furness purchased two ships for the Bermuda Trade and invested heavily in local hotels, building the first Bermudiana, Castle Harbour Hotel, Mid Ocean Club and renovating the St George Hotel. As Bermuda tourism grew, Furness expanded their shipping capability, building first the ill-fated motor vessel Bermuda, followed by the revolutionary Monarch of Bermuda in 1931 — and followed by her near-sister Queen of Bermuda in 1933. In the 1930s, Furness Bermuda Line, as it was known, brought thousands of wealthy visitors to Bermuda and the island prospered. Unfortunately, the Second World War brought an abrupt halt to all of that in 1939.
  3. ^ Forbes, Keith Archibald. "Bermuda's History 1900 to 1939 pre-war: Island's role before and after Great War 1914-1916 up to World War 2". Bermuda Online. Bermuda Online. Retrieved 31 December 2023. 1920. The Furness Withy shipping group from the United Kingdom began to invest in Bermuda's tourism industry. It did so by taking over the old Quebec Steamship Company and calling its new service the Furness Bermuda Line.
    1920. Legislation was enacted for creation of the Bermuda Development Company, thereby also making provision for the compulsory acquisition with compensation expropriation of certain then under-utilized but much-needed tourism development land at Tucker's Town to be used for the building by Furness Withy of the Mid-Ocean Golf Club and the development of Castle Harbour Hotel. Mostly black home and land owners were to be dispossessed by compulsory acquisition but legal provision was made for them to be fully compensated by standards prevailing at the time. Following expropriation of the land in Tucker's Town on which it sat, Marsden Church, built in 1861 for its mostly black community, announced its relocation to the South Road, Smith's Parish.
  4. ^ McDowall, Duncan (15 October 2023). "he Brethren: Bermuda's Musical Talbot Brothers". The Bermudian. Bermuda: The Bermudian. Retrieved 31 December 2023. In the early1920s, life in Tucker's Town changed abruptly. The English steamship company, Furness Withy, won the blessing of the Bermuda government to develop tranquil Tucker's Town into a posh enclave for American plutocrats (see "Creating Paradise," page 70). To succeed, the development had to be exclusive: that meant exclusively white. The Talbots and their neighbours would have to move, expropriated by order of the Assembly. Osmond resisted, signing a protest petition. But Mamie liked the prospect of the land offered by Furness Withy in adjacent Smiths Parish with a small packet of cash. In the end, the Talbots went peaceably and soon had a larger home by Harris Bay in Smiths.
  5. ^ "The 2007 PGA Grand Slam of Golf - News". www.pga.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  6. ^ "MOC_maincontent copy". www.themidoceanclubbermuda.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2022.

External links

32°19′52″N 64°41′38″W / 32.3311°N 64.6940°W / 32.3311; -64.6940


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