THESE nostalgic photos show the day that Belfairs Golf Course in Leigh was officially opened- teeing off its 92 year history.

It was September 11, 1926 and the green had been designed by renowned golf course architect Harry Colt.

A crowd of more than 500 men, women and children, flocked to the 266 acre course to watch as Southend’s mayor Alderman Herbert Arthur Dowsett officially opened the Belfairs Park Golf Course making it the first municipal course in Essex.

A fourball exhibition match then followed between local golf pro Harry Crook, James Braid - the five times Open champion- , JB Batley - a professional player from Thorpe Hall Golf Club and JH Taylor, also a five times Open Champion.

The Southend Standard newspaper was there to cover the off. “Baptism of Belfairs” was the headline as the report told how the mayor took the first swing to open the proceedings with a special silver cleek which he had been presented with.

The action then turned to the exhibition match which saw James Braid making the spectators “gasp’ with the quality of his driving and and the crashing power of some of his cleek shots.

The straightness of John Henry Taylor’s tee shots was also singled out as a highlight of the day’s play.

“Not once did his ball turn off to right or left,” reported the Standard.

“The veteran of 55, lashed the ball with all of his might yet managed invariably to keep a perfect line.”