Golf clubs � Short history of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers

The first recorded open golf championship took place in Edinburgh in 1744

In 1744, a committee of the Gentlemen Golfers of Edinburgh drafted the first 13 rules of golf to compete for a silver golf club, presented by the City of Edinburgh , over Leith Links. John Rattray, a physician and champion, was the first winner and was declared �Captain of the Golf' and thus winner of the first recorded open golf championship on 2nd April 1744 . This was the first golfing activity of any golf club in the world.

The gift of a silver club as the prize appears to derive from fact the City of Edinburgh gifted a silver arrow to the Royal Company of Archers in 1709 for one of their competitions. For the first twenty years the Leith competition was �open' to all golfers, but from 1764, with the formal agreement of the City of Edinburgh , it was limited to members of the Leith club.

The Gentlemen Golfers built a clubhouse at Leith in 1768, the first purpose built clubhouse in the world. Until then they usually met in a tavern called Luckie Clephan's. There is a minute on 2nd July 1768 recording the foundation ceremony for the �Golf House', as it was called.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, with the Napoleonic Wars raging, Leith Links had become overcrowded with people and golf was declining in popularity, or at least, being a member of a golf club was. Many golf clubs disappeared. In 1831, The Honourable Company fell into particular financial difficulties and so the club's early treasures and the clubhouse had to be sold.

The Honourable Company reformed in 1836 at Musselburgh, then an eight-hole golf course inside the racetrack. They also played the West Links at North Berwick during the summer months, as they shared Musselburgh with several other clubs.

The practice of declaring the winner of the Silver Club captain for the next year ceased after 1837 and election became the norm. The members possibly felt that the best golf player did not necessarily make the most suitable chairman of the club's financial affairs.

In 1872, the Honourable Company contributed to the Claret Jug for the �Open Championship' along with Prestwick Golf Club and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. They continued to be involved in the Open until 1919, when the running of the event was handed over to the Royal & Ancient entirely.

Later, overcrowding at Musselburgh forced Honourable Company to move again, settling on another racecourse, further down the coast, the site of the East Lothian horse races on the Hundred Acres Park owned by the Rt Hon Nisbet Hamilton. This became the Muirfield course. It was designed by Old Tom Morris and the first 16 holes, built by �hand and horse', were opened on 3rd May 1891, with the final two holes added in December of the same year.

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