A WORK OF ART

Graeme Baxter might just be the greatest golf painter in the world. The Scot’s work hangs in some of the most famous clubhouses across the globe, from Pebble Beach to Augusta and St Andrews. Sir Michael Bonallack, the former R&A Secretary, encouraged the fine art dealer to pursue a career in golf course painting after being wowed by his depiction of the Road Hole.

Baxter has spent almost three decades as the Ryder Cup’s official artist and has also been the official artist of The Open, the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Here, the Scot talks us through his ten favourite paintings...

Royal Aberdeen

My family live in the Aberdeen area and it’s a course I’ve been out to many times. One of the things I love to do with my paintings as a bit of fun is to try and birdie said hole. I’ve played it twice and birdied it twice. I played with my friend against Alex Hay – the former pro and commentator who has sadly passed away – and one of his friends and we were 3up after nine, but they ended up beating us 2&1. I think this is one of the great unsung courses in Scotland. This view really shows what a links course looks like, with all the undulations and the view of the sea – I just think it’s fantastic. It’s one of my favourite courses and not many people get to play it.

Pebble Beach

I was commissioned by the Pebble Beach Company as one of the first artists to do a painting of the famous course. There are lots and lots of Pebble Beach paintings out there and each artist pays a royalty to be allowed to do that. I didn’t, though, as they’d actually commissioned me for two paintings – this one and the par-3 5th, which was re-designed by Jack Nicklaus. He received the original painting as a gift.

The view from behind the 8th is one of the most spectacular on the course. I’m actually stood on a ladder on the 9th tee in order to get a little bit of elevation and more definition in the bunkers. I took this photograph quite early in the morning and you can see there’s a little boat in the background that’s not under sail because of the lack of wind and waves.

All of these details are very accurate when I do the painting because I’ve got to capture the atmosphere. The original hangs in the clubhouse to this day, so if you’re ever at Pebble Beach, you’ll be able to see it.

Augusta National

I turned up to take the prepainting photographs and had a golf cart set up for me for two days to drive around. For me, the 11th hole with the 12th in the background and the 13th tee is one of the best views in golf.

Two years ago, I got to play Augusta for the first time with Gavin Hastings, the former Scottish rugby captain, who’s one of my best pals. We ended up staying in one of the cabins, next door to

Rory Mcilroy and his dad! Rory and Gavin know each other quite well and Rory said he’s got some of my paintings.

The next day I remember standing next to Rory on the driving range and I was hitting my ball quite well, but the sound of his ball versus mine was night and day! We played Augusta and I went round Amen Corner in level par. I birdied 11, bogeyed 12 and then parred 13 to go round the back nine in one-over, so I was mighty pleased.

Royal Mid-surrey

To me, this is one of the great unsung courses in England. It’s got an incredible history and I had to include several aspects in this painting. I wanted to show the new clubhouse, because the old one burnt down, I wanted to show the amazing bunkers and I also had to include the pagoda, which is actually in Kew Gardens next door. It was built for the Princess Augusta in the 1700s.

They’ve done the most spectacular planting and garden around the back of 18 and you can see all the different colours. There’s also a little fox in the painting – I didn’t do that just for fun, it followed me down the 18th. For one painting I’d do up to 1,000 photographs to see what type of birds and trees are there. I think some of the trees and plants have made their way over from Kew Gardens.

When I do a painting I’m recording history. The big oak tree you see next to the clubhouse, they just managed to save it during the fire – it might not be there in 100 years. When I was an artist for The Open for 27 years, this R&A member said to me, “You’ve been recording golf history”. That was a eureka moment.

Old Head

This is the most incredible place I’ve visited to do a painting of a golf course. This painting was commissioned by General Heres, who fought in the first Gulf War and was the chairman of a small airline company in the United States.

This was his most spectacular vision from his trip around Ireland. He said he wanted a view of the 12th at Old Head because he remembered it being just the most incredible view of the hole and the stone keeps in the background.

I took my father with me to do the photographs and I was standing on a ladder at this very point, basically looking down on to the rocks as my dad was hanging to it as tightly as possible. The wind was really blowing!

People ask me what is the most spectacular golf course I’ve painted through the years and I always go back to Old Head.

St Andrews

This was the first painting I decided I’d create in a large size – 7ft by 11ft. Before starting it, I made the statement that I’d be the first British living traditional artist to sell a painting for a six-figure sum. In the painting, which took me six months, my mum and dad are walking down the road at the back of the 17th green. I’ve actually included 72 people in it, including me, my wife and my friends.

We auctioned the painting on the Monday of the 1995 Open in the Old Course Hotel and it was unveiled by a good friend and five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson. It was sold to the owners of the hotel for an undisclosed sum of over £100,000. I was the first living British traditional artist to sell a picture for a six-figure sum, which was kind of cool.

It hangs in the Old Course Hotel to this day and there are more photos taken with that painting than anywhere else around the hotel. It’s a real honour – every great golfer in the last 25 years has seen that painting hanging on the wall. It’s just an incredible thing for me to know that it’s still there.

The Belfry

The Belfry is one of the holy places for the Ryder Cup. A couple of my original paintings hang in the PGA headquarters there. The clubhouse is gorgeous – I love the ivy that runs up it, it’s beautiful.

We did a print run of this to commemorate the 2001 Ryder Cup – 1,250 copies – and we got the European captain to sign them. I brought all the prints in a big van down to London and when I put them out, the pile was huge. I thought, if Sam [Torrance] sees that, he’s not going to do it. So I stuck half of them under the table and a friend kept feeding them out. Sam signed them all in two hours and 35 minutes!

For more on Graeme and to browse his shop, visit graemebaxter.com