John Jacob Frank Pennink (1913–1983) was a British amateur golfer, sports journalist, and golf course architect.

Life

John Jacob Frank Pennink was born in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, Netherlands, in 1913. His father had a strong interest in sports, which Pennink shared. He attended

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

in Kent, an independent boys' school, where he played in the school's cricket first eleven in a match against

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. He then attended Magdalen College, Oxford University, and played on the university golf team from 1933 to 1935, serving as team captain in 1935. After graduating from university, Pennink worked for an insurance company based in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

but continued to play golf as an amateur. In 1937, he won the

English Amateur The English Amateur is the national amateur match play golf championship of England. It has been played annually since 1925 (except for war years) and is organised by England Golf. The English Men's Amateur Championship is contested through tw ...

, the Royal St George's Gold Vase, and the South of England Amateur. The English Amateur that year was held at

Saunton Golf Club Saunton Golf Club is a private golf club in England, that is located about to the west of Braunton, Devon. It was founded in 1897. During the months of May and June 1944 the United States Army used the links as a camping area for the 771st Tan ...

. He won the English Amateur again in 1938 at

Moortown Golf Club Moortown Golf Club is a golf club located in Alwoodley, near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1909, and the championship golf course was designed by Alister MacKenzie. In 1929, Moortown hosted the second Ryder Cup matches, the ...

, with the match decided on the 19th hole. He also played alongside

Leonard Crawley Leonard George Crawley (26 July 1903 – 9 July 1981) was an English sportsman and later journalist. He was most accomplished at golf and cricket, but also played tennis to a very high standard and was an excellent ice-skater, a good rackets pla ...

in the winning British team for the

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland featuring players from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup ...

in 1938. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Pennink joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, eventually reaching the rank of squadron leader. After his discharge, he worked as a journalist covering golf for the ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'' and later for the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''. In 1962, he published the book ''Golfer’s Companion''. In 1954, Pennink partnered with Charles Kenneth Cotton and Charles Lawrie to form Cotton, Pennink and Partners Ltd., a golf course architecture firm. Later,

Donald Steel Donald Maclennan Arklay Steel (born 23 August 1937) is a former golfer and is a noted golf course designer, as well as being a writer and journalist. Educated at Fettes College and Christ's College, Cambridge, he has designed a large number of g ...

joined the company. Pennink designed numerous golf courses in Britain, Europe, and the Far East. Known for his architectural style, Pennink favored simple but effective greens, often on plateaus with steep run-offs, and used limited bunkering on fairways. A distinctive feature of his designs was planting a tree in the center of the fairway. Some of his most acclaimed courses include the Olgiata Golf Club in Italy (1961, co-designed with Ken Cotton), Oceanico's Old Course (1969), Lisbon Aroeira I (1972), Palmares (1975), Oceanico's Pinhal in Portugal (1976), and Noordwijk Golf Club in the Netherlands. In 1967, Pennink became president of the English Golf Union and served as a selector for the Walker Cup team for several years. He died of cancer in 1983.

Notable courses

Notable courses designed by Pennink in Europe included the Vilamoura Old Course in

Vilamoura Vilamoura is a coastal luxury resort in the Loulé municipality in Algarve, Portugal. It is one of the three corners of Algarve's Golden Triangle (Algarve), Golden Triangle. Vilamoura comprises one of the largest single tourist complexes in Europe ...

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

, Portugal, which opened in 1969. Known for its parkland style, the Old Course winds through gently rolling terrain lined with large pine trees and has been called the "Grande Dame" of

courses. In 1996,

Martin Hawtree Martin Grant Hawtree is a golf course architect, and director and chief architect at Hawtree Limited which is a family owned nationally known golf course architecture company. He has been head of Hawtree Limited since 1985. Hawtree worked wit ...

undertook a major renovation of the course, maintaining its original layout. Originally named Oceanico's Old Course, it is now called the Dom Pedro Old Course and is considered a classic example of the English course design style. Pennink also designed the Dom Pedro Pinhal in the Algarve, which was renovated in 1985 by

Robert Trent Jones Robert Trent Jones Sr. (June 20, 1906 – June 14, 2000) was a British–American golf course architect who designed or re-designed more than 500 golf courses in 45 U.S. states and 35 countries. In reference to this, Jones took pride in saying, ...

. Additionally, he created the course for the Royal Country Club de Tanger in

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

, Morocco. Other European courses designed by Pennink include: * Clube de Campo da Aroeira I & II,

Charneca de Caparica Charneca de Caparica () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Almada, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Charneca de Caparica e Sobreda Charneca de Caparica e Sobreda is a civil parish in t ...

, Portugal * Drentse Golfclub 'de Gelpenberg', Aalden, Netherlands * Golf Club Castell' Arquato,

Castell'Arquato Castell'Arquato (; Piacentino (dialect), Piacentino: or ) is an Italian town located on the first hills of Val D’Arda in the province of Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna, approximately from Piacenza and from Parma. Places nearby include Bacedasco ...

, Italy * Golfclub de Haar,

Vleuten Vleuten is a former village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. Today, it is a neighbourhood of the city of Utrecht, and lies about 6 km west from the city centre. Vleuten has a railway station on the line between Utrecht and Woerden Woer ...

, Netherlands * Golfclub Ostfriesland e.V.,

Wiesmoor Wiesmoor is a town in the Aurich (district), district of Aurich in the northwest of Lower Saxony. It lies on the Nordgeorgsfehnkanal and is the youngest town in the East Frisia area having been bestowed town rights on 16 March 2006, two days lat ...

, Germany * Golf de Nantes, Vigneux-de-Bretagne, France * Kokkedal Golfklub,

Hørsholm Hørsholm () is an urban area on the Øresund coast approximately north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers most of Hørsholm Municipality and straddles the borders neighbouring Fredensborg Municipality and Rudersdal Municipality. Hørsholm proper ...

, Denmark * Noordwijkse Golf Club,

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the f ...

, Netherlands * Osnabrücker Golf Club e.V.,

Bissendorf Bissendorf () is a municipality in the Osnabrück (district), district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 9 km southeast of Osnabrück. Population 14,700 (2020). It is divided into Bissendorf proper, Schle ...

-Jeggen, Germany * Palmares Club, Meia Praia,

Lagos, Portugal Lagos (; ) is a city and concelho, municipality at the mouth of Bensafrim River and along the Atlantic Ocean, in the Barlavento region of the Algarve, in southern Portugal. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 31,049, in an area of 212.99 ...

* Stora Lundby Golfklubb,

Gråbo Gråbo is a locality situated in Lerum Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway ...

, Sweden Pennink also designed several notable courses in Britain: *

Conwy Golf Club Conwy Golf Club in Conwy, Wales was officially opened as Caernarfonshire Golf Club in 1890. The links course on the Morfa Conwy peninsula was designed by Jack Morris (nephew of Old Tom Morris). The championship course is long with a par of 72. ...

* Frilford Heath Golf Club – Red Course *

Ganton Golf Club Ganton Golf Club is a golf club in Ganton, North Yorkshire, England. It has an 18-hole golf course that has hosted many major tournaments, including the 1949 Ryder Cup. Ganton has been widely rated as one of the best golf courses in England a ...

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

, UK * Goswick Golf Club (Berwick Upon Tweed Golf Club) * Gullane Golf Club No. 2 * Lamberhurst Golf Club,

Lamberhurst Lamberhurst ( is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish contains the hamlets of The Down and Hook Green. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 1,491, increasing to 1,706 at the 2011 Census. ...

, Kent, UK * Littlestone Golf Club – Championship Links *

Royal Aberdeen Golf Club Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in Aberdeen, Scotland, was founded in 1780 and claims to be the sixth oldest golf club in the world. It was founded as the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, and became the Aberdeen Golf Club in 1815 subsequently receiving ...

– Balgownie Course * Royal Cromer Golf Club *

Royal Liverpool Golf Club The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of Prince Arth ...

(Hoylake) *

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England, is one of the courses in the Open Championship rotation. The Women's British Open has also been played on the course five times: once prior to being designated a major ...

Royal St George's Golf Club The Royal St George's Golf Club is a golf club located in Sandwich, Kent, England. It is one of the courses on The Open Championship rota, and the only one in South East England. It has hosted 15 Open championships, the first in 1894 when it b ...

* Royal Wimbledon Golf Club *

– West Course *

Seaton Carew Golf Club Seaton Carew Golf Club has held golf games since 1874, making it the tenth oldest golf club in England. The club is based in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool on the North Sea coast, north of the River Tees in North East England. When it was first ...

(Durham & Yorkshire Club) * Tewkesbury Park,

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town grew following the construction of Tewkesbury Abbey in the twelfth century and played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses. It stands at ...

, Gloucestershire, UK *

Woburn Golf Club Woburn Golf Club is a golf club in England located in Little Brickhill, near Milton Keynes within the county of Buckinghamshire, about northwest of central London. There are three courses at the Woburn property: the "Duke's Course", w ...

– Duchess' and Duke's Courses

Tournament wins

*1935 West of England Open Amateur *1937

*1938

, Royal St. George's Gold Vase *1952 Sussex County Championship Source:

Team appearances

(representing Great Britain and Ireland):

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

(winners)

Publications

* * *

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pennink, John Jacob Frank 1913 births 1983 deaths British male golfers People from Delft People from Forest Row Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force squadron leaders