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Club House at Gotham
Photograph of the first club house for Carlow,
then known as the Leinster Golf Club, situated at Gotham. Gotham was mid
may between Carlow and Maganey and was conveniently reached by rail from
either station. This first pavilion cost £99 and it was erected in 1904.
- Mr. J.D. McDonald
(Note: The car in the photo is
probably a 1902 Wolseley, registration C 9.)
Carlow Golf Club was originally known as the
Royal Leinster Golf Club.
Club House at Gotham Club. It was founded at a
meeting in the Clubhouse Hotel, Carlow, (later known as St. Brigids
Hospital), on May 18th, 1899. The co-founders were Dr. Francis Brennan of
Castledermot County Kildare and P. Lynch, The Abbey, Athy, County Kildare.
The first course was at Gotham between Carlow
and Maganey. It was a 9 hole links, and was officially opened in July
1899. Captain C. Duckett Steuart was the first Captain of the club. The
Landed Gentry and professional classes were prominently represented in its
membership. Membership fees were set at one guinea (21 shillings) for
gentleman and 10 shillings and 6 pence for ladies.
The Great Southern and Western Railway
facilitated members travelling to Carlow or Maganey Stations for golf
purposes. They were offered return tickets at single fares which could be
procured from "the Honorary Secretary".
The name of the Golf Club changed to Carlow
Golf Club on June 27th 1902. The club was affiliated to the Golfing Union
at that time also. Messrs Thompsons a well-known Carlow engineering firm,
built the pavilion at Gotham in 1904. It cost £99.
The Golf Club moved to a site at Oak Park on
the Bruen Estate in 1922. Cecil Baracroft was the architect and designed
this 18 hole links on a 164 acre site. Mr. Bruen was President of the Club
between the years 1912-1927.
The Clubhouse was destroyed by fire in 1960.
However, in May 1961, Carlow Golf Club purchased the Deerpark site from
the Irish Land Commission for a sum of £2,500. The architect of the new
clubhouse was Mr. Shaffrey and the builder was Mr. Edward Byrne. His
tender of £12,400 for the construction was accepted by the club in 1962.
The new clubhouse at Carlow Golf Club was
officially opened by the then President Hugh O'Donnell. The 9 hole Oak
Park course adjoins the 18 hole Championship course at Deerpark since
2003.
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- Golf Club meeting 1899
Account of Council Meeting of Carlow
Golf Club (Leinster Golf Club) from Carlow Sentinel 1899. It cited
Captain Duckett Steuart of Steuart Lodge, Leighlinbridge as Captain
of the Club. Eleven gentlemen and three ladies were elected members
of the club on that occasion.
Carlow County Library
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- Golf Clubhouse Fire 1960
Article from the Carlow Nationalist and
Leinster Times August 1960 on the fire which destroyed the Carlow
Golf Club's Clubhouse
Carlow County Library
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- Establishing a Golf Club
Account of the meeting which established
Carlow Golf Club from Carlow Sentinel 20th May 1899. The meeting
took place in the Club House Hotel Carlow. It stated that the club
would be known as "The Royal Leinster Golf Club". The subscription
was to be one guinea for gentlemen and 10 shillings and six pence
for ladies. The grounds were situated at Gotham which was midway
between Carlow and Maganey railway stations.
Carlow County Library
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- ''The Captains Table'' - Carlow Golf Club (1899 - 2004).
by Seamus Connellan. It is well illustrated with both black
and white and colour photographs.
This book recently appeared for sale on eBay |
Golf
Nationalist
and Leinster Times, June, 1938.
The feat of
Cecil Ewing in the final of the British Open Gold Championship last week
is something of which all golfers in Ireland may be proud. He had hard
luck in defeat at the hands of America's Yates, but I am convinced that
if he continues to provide such first-class golf in the future he will
soon be a world champion. The result of his success has given him his
place on the British Walker Cup team against America. His brother Harry
Ewing is a very popular member of the Carlow Gold Club, he recently
married Shelia Kehoe daughter of Watty and Mrs Kehoe Pembroke, Carlow.
Source: M.
Purcell (PPP)
CARLOW Golf Club has long been hailed, not alone
nationally but also internationally as possessing one of the
finest parkland facilities in these islands.
The
club was, of course, founded long before that date and the esteem
in which it is now held is a far cry from its humble origins. The
first course of nine holes was laid out in 1899 on land at Gotham,
somewhere between Carlow and Athy, and drew anything but
complimentary comments from scribes of the day. If you consider a
course to be tough nowadays think of what old-timers with their
hickory shafted clubs and gutta percha balls had to contend with.
The club's Centenary History book records an extract from an
article in the Irish Golfer of 1900. "The lands being peculiarly
adapted for a golf course, it was unnecessary to construct
artificial bunkers." His description of some holes is recorded
thus.
First (Old Bog Hole) . A good drive
and a brassy will reach the green having crossed two low ditches
that penalise topped balls. A sliced drive is badly punished by
furze bushes. Second (The Pond). "A very sporting hole, the tee
being at the top of a hill, with water below for a topped ball
punished bt water and furze, not to mention having to play over a
big hill to reach the green." A sliced ball may also find water or
get out of bounds, so that the golfer has no option but to drive
straight.
"Eighth Hole (The Lerr).
"A
drive over a sunken ditch and a brassy over another should be near
the green, which is guarded on one side by a swamp and on the
other by the River Lerr. Bogey allows six for this hole and, as
the lies are often far from good, it takes quite this number."
It was therefore, no surprise, that "in 1921 or thereabouts a
member of vision and enterprise, the Very Rev M H Bolger PP,
decided that Carlow golfers deserved more ambitious terrain." His
keen golfing eye saw the possibilities at Deerpark. The club
became tenants there in 1922 and bought the land in 1961.
There
has been an on-going programme of alteration and upgrading
involving advice from many prominent architects but they did not
go down the road of total change to sand-based greens and the
texture of the indigenous meadow grasses is as good a surface as
you will get.
Renovations and refurbishment of the present
clubhouse (the last was destroyed by fire in 1960) is also a
continuous programme and the result is a very comfortable and
friendly atmosphere with excellent food. Much of the attention and
money has gone into the development of the new nine, an excellent
addition with yardage and par similar to the main course designed
by Jeff Howes.
Source:
Irish Independent 2004
Website -
Barney Hennessy Memorial Golf
Society
Please report any images or broken links which do not open to
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The information contained in these pages is
provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others researching their
ancestors in Ireland.
© 2001 County Carlow IGPTM
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