Golf on The Curragh Since 1852

Golf on The Curragh Since 1852

Ireland’s Oldest Golf Course & Golf Club

By

Colonel William H. Gibson (retd.)

THE FIELD 12th September 1875

This article shows that the game of golf was revived at the Curragh Camp by the 91st (Argyllshire) Highlanders in September 1875. The writer states that “Many years have passed since the national Scottish game of golf has been played on the beautiful plain of the Curragh of Kildare.”

Clearly, “The Caddy in Scarlet” had previous experience of the game being played on the short grass of the Curragh and he gives some vital clues that prove the existence of the game here in 1852. This vital piece of evidence has been akin to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in helping to trace the story of the development of the game in the area that was to become the major military centre – the Curragh Camp.

Major Alexander Cunningham Bruce was the only officer of the 91st Highlanders, pictured above, who had served in Ireland previously in 1852. Golf was played at the Curragh by the Earl of Eglinton and Colonel William Campbell of the 2nd (Queen’s Bay) Dragoon Guards in that year. The Queen’s Bays regiment was based in Newbridge in 1852. Further evidence for golf on the Curragh in 1852 is given hereafter.

Major Alexander Cunningham Bruce was the only officer of the 91st Highlanders, pictured above, who had served in Ireland previously in 1852, when golf was played at the Curragh by the Earl of Eglinton and Colonel William Campbell. Further evidence for this earlier date is given hereafter.

Golf on the Curragh in 1857

David Ritchie was a member of the Musselburgh Golf Club (later Royal Musselburgh) since 1845, who migrated to Ireland in 1851. He left a Gutta Percha golf ball, which disappeared ‘mysteriously’ from the Clubhouse at Royal Dublin before 1939.

Attached to the ball was a certificate: “This ball was played by me in a match with the late Mr. Alexander Love, on links near Donnelly’s Hollow, Curragh on 15th July 1857.” Signed: “David Ritchie”

Ritchie laid out the first course on the Curragh in the early 1850s. His son Thomas stated that he often caddied for his father in many of his matches with his friends on the Course. It will be seen later that Ritchie had many eminent golfers playing on the links near Donnelly’s Hollow, including the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and many of the officers of the nearby Curragh Military Camp that was constructed in 1855.

The Golf Match at Donnelly’s Hollow on 15th July 1857

Writing in the Irish Field 11th November 1942, J.P. Rooney incorrectly gives the date on the ball as July 15th 1852. He also states that he ‘naturally’ handed the ball, which had a dated certificate attached, to the Royal Dublin Golf Club (he should ‘naturally’ have returned it to the Curragh Golf Club).

Rooney further stated that he had been contacted by Tom Ritchie, David’s son, who was able to say that he “frequently carried his father’ s clubs on that course, and was delighted when he was rewarded with a ‘ fee’ of a few pence, which he always spent on sweets.”

Earlier in his ‘Irish Golfer’s Blue Book’in 1939 Rooney stated“in 1857 a Mr. David Ritchie played a match with a Mr Alexander Love‘onthe links near Donnelly’s Hollow, Curragh’in July of that year. The ball with which Mr Ritchie played in that match, together with is signed statement, was enshrined in the clubhouse of the RoyalDublin Club at Dollymount until some vandals picked it to bits with penknives. They were, apparently, ‘curious’ as to what it was made of.

Thus, the Gutta Percha ball, played by David Ritchie in a matchwith his friend Alexander Love on the Links at Donnelly’s Hollowin July 1857, was‘naturally’handed over to Royal Dublin. There it was picked to bits by the members!

Curragh Golf Club 125th anniversary of Match at Donnelly’s Hollow

Discovery of David Ritchie’s granddaughter 13th July 1982

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the match that was played at Donnelly’s Hollow, the Committee of the Curragh Golf Club decided to mark the occasion with a‘ Commemorative Criss-Cross four ball during Open Week on 15th July 1982. A special poster was created by club member Martyn Turner, the eminent cartoonist of the Irish Times, and this was reproduced in Dermot Gilleece’s‘ Golf Log’ in the newspaper’s edition of 13th July. As a result, Mrs. Christina Adams contacted the Curragh Golf Club and, in a conversation with myself, stated that she was David Ritchie’s granddaughter. A shareholder in The Irish Times, she read the paper everyday and was amazed to see the celebration of David Ritchie’ s golf match at Donnelly’s Hollow that was to take place two days later. The accompanyingphotograph shows Christina with the special commemorative trophy that was presented to the winners on 15th July.
Christina Adams knew her grandfather well, as she was 17 years old when he died in 1910. On seeing the commemorative poster, she remarked that“None of them look like David Ritchie!” She then produced this wonderful picture of the Musselburgh golfer who had laid out the first course at Donnelly’s Hollow in 1852.Mrs. Adams then handed over David Ritchie’s portrait, which is now displayed in the Royal Curragh Golf Club’s clubhouse.

Eminent golfers on the Curragh in 1852

Earl of Eglinton plays golf again on Curragh in 1858

The article above appeared in the periodical The Irish Golfer 9th September 1903, when Arthur Beatty of Portmarnock Golf Club wrote of a meeting with Andrew Smith Maxwell, who had been on the Curragh with the Lanarkshire Militia in 1858. He recorded the fact that the new Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Eglinton, had come often to play golf on the Curragh with military colleagues. John Gourlay, one of the most famous golf professionals in Scotland, was brought over to lay out a course (not for the first time, as asserted by Lieutenant Maxwell) and the golfers went to the nearby Curragh racecourse for refreshments after their game of golf. It is obvious that Lieutenant Maxwell was unaware of the Earl of Eglinton’ s earlier golf activities at the Curragh. He mentions Gourlay in the context of ‘ The introduction of the Game into Ireland’ , which is incorrect and Eglinton must surely have mentioned this at the time.

The Earl of Eglinton was provided with lunch at the Stand House on the nearby Curragh Race course after his games of golf on the links near Donnelly’s Hollow. It is interesting to note that he preferred the traditional ‘golfer’s luncheon’ of bread, cheese and a bottle of stout.

The Curragh Golf Club 1858

2nd Battalion, Royal Lanarkshire Militia

Founders of the Curragh Golf Club July 1858

Despite the best efforts of Andrew Smith Maxwell, he failed to mention the founding of a golf club at the Curragh in 1858.crest A digital search of newspapers in the British Library’s website in 2010 gave a hit for the Belfast Newsletter 1st July 1858, which showed that the regiment had established a golf club at the Curragh Camp. They had arrived to Ireland in late 1857 and they were in Dublin and Kilkenny before arriving to the Curragh in early 1858. For over two years before coming to Ireland they had been based on the grounds of Lanark Golf Club, in Lanarkshire, where a hutted camp had been built for them. Unfortunately, the early records of that club (founded in 1851) are missing. There is little doubt that there must have been a sizeable number of golfers among the military fraternity on the Curragh in 1858/59; there were a total of 115 officers of all regiments at the camp at the time. The Earl of Eglinton must have felt very much at home here. One year later, he would be the prime mover in founding the Open Championship in October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club; he donated the Champion’s Belt for the winner, Willie Park of Musselburgh

The first British Open Championship at Prestwick G.C. 1860