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Aberdeen Golf Club. (1780 - 1888)

Founded in 1780 as the Society of Golfers at Aberdeen.

Advert from April 1781.

From the Aberdeen Press & Journal Monday 16 April 1781. Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

In 1815 Aberdeen Golf Club was formed, this club played on common land known as Queens Links.

Below is a report on the “golf revival" at Aberdeen.

From the Caledonian Mercury Saturday 13 April 1816. Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Competition result from April 1829.

Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle Sunday 12 April 1829. Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The club seems to have takes on the "Royal" title in 1879.

From the Glasgow Evening Post Thursday 1 May 1879. Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Report on the location of the clubhouse from the Aberdeen Press and Journal Wednesday 28 July 1886 - "Town Council Meeting. There was also submitted an offer by the Aberdeen Golf Club to take as a feu the ground at the end of Urquhart Road, on which the clubhouse stands."

Aberdeen Golf Club scorecard.

Aberdeen Golf Club scorecard dated 1886.

Results from the Spring Meeting in April 1887.

Aberdeen Press and Journal Thursday 14 April 1887. Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Below is the entry from the 1888/89 Golfing Annual. It records some of the early history and mentions the “new links” at Balgownie, the club’s current course.

Entry from the Golfing Annual 1888/89.

Extract from the Golfing Annual Vol. V 1891-92:-

"The club formerly played on the Aberdeen Links course, but on 31 March 1888 , they opened a private course on the Balgownie Links, situated two miles north of Aberdeen, near the mouth of the Don. 

The Aberdeen Golf Club appears to have come after, and in the place of, a club called the "Society of Golfers at Aberdeen," instituted on 9 May 1783, a printed copy of whose "Regulations, with a list of the original members and the Laws of Golf" is still extant; but this "society of golfers" had become dissolved before the institution of the present club. A golf club must have existed in Aberdeen even before 1783, as the ballot box still in possession of the club bears the inscription, "The Aberdeen Golf Club, 1780." The game itself has been played on the Aberdeen Links from time immemorial. In "A description of both Touns of Aberdeen," written by James Gordon, Parson of Rothiemay in 1661, it is stated that "The Lynx extend themselves almost betwixt the two rivers of Done and Dee. Hear (sic) the inhabitants recreat themselves with several kynds of exercises such as football, goffe, bowling and archerie." 

Thanks to Dixon Pickup for the button images below and for the following information – “The first coatee example (29mm) in silver plate is an excavated example, but where it was found is unknown. It was certainly worn on the GREEN cloth coatee adopted in 1827 after much discussion and most probably even earlier. The green cloth coatee did not meet with the members’ approbation and was discarded in 1829 for a more conventional red or scarlet cloth pattern, the second picture shows the very large (29mm) copper gilt button worn on this coatee. The obligatory wearing of the coatee appears to have been totally abandoned by c1840. The last two exemplify the use of the scarlet/red single breasted jacket c1880-1914 and post 1892 for the Ladies (both 23mm).”

The Bullivant & Timpson partnership existed from 1816 - 1837.

The club moved to Balgownie in 1888.

It became Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in 1903.

The Ordnance Survey Map below is from the 1860s and shows the Queen's Links and Old Racecourse. The golf course is not marked.

O.S. Map Survey Date 1865-67; © Crown Copyright {year of publication 1869}.

The Google Map below shows Queens Links, the location of the golf course from 1815 until 1888.