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Scottish golf club history on the west coast of Scotland began with the Glasgow Golf Club, which was founded in May 1787 by wealthy Glaswegian merchants and serving army officers. They played initially on Glasgow Green. The club virtually disbanded in 1794 when the Napoleonic Wars took many of its members away to fight and play on Glasgow Green became crowded. The crowding was compounded by a municipal drainage scheme in 1813 that apparently made the area ‘unpleasant’. Below is the view the golfers might have seen at this time, as the Nelson Monument, shown in the picture, was begun in 1806 and is the first civic monument to the Napoleonic War's great maritime hero. Only four years after it was built, the monument was struck by lightning, breaking 6m (20 feet) off the top. Even today the damage is still visible.
Nelson Monument on Glasgow Green There was a temporary
resuscitation of Glasgow Golf Club between 1809 and 1835, but the club did not really revive
until 1870, when it moved to Queens Park and fresh blood set up a new club
after consulting with key clubs such as Prestwick, Musselburgh and St
Andrews. The Killermont course was designed by Old Tom Morris from St Andrews. The clubhouse is a former stately home built a hundred years earlier, at the beginning of the 19th Century, seen below.
Glasgow Gailes On 19th May 1892,
prior to moving to Blackhill, the
Glasgow Club members opened the Glasgow Gailes course at Irvine,
as they wanted a coastal links
which are more suited to play all the year round, including
the winter season. This makes the Glasgow Club unique in having two courses
thirty miles apart.
Further details are available from the official website of the Glasgow Golf Club. |
