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San Remo Golf Club at Arma di Taggia. (1902 - WW1)
The club was founded in 1901/2.
Even though it seems the club is accepted as being founded in 1901/2 the Golfing Annuals from 1901-02 to 1907-08 mention that the club was founded in 1898.
Nowadays many people think that golf in San Remo started in December 1931 when the Peter Gannon designed golf course Circolo Golf degli Ulivi opened.
Only a few are aware that there was a much earlier San Remo Golf Club. It was, at that time, the only golf course on the Italian Riviera “of nine holes, is about five minutes walk from Sagia Station, which is five miles from San Remo. An excellent clubhouse has been secured. Visitors’ fees, 50 francs, ladies, half. For full particulars apply to The Bank, San Remo, Italy” (from Golfing Annual 1901-02)
The picture below shows golfers on the early Arma di Taggia golf course in c1903.
From The Tatler February 11th 1903. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
The San Remo clubhouse.
Jean-Bernard Kazmierczak reports in Golfika No. 20, autumn 2017, that in certain editions of the London Evening Standard (during the autumn 1900) there was an advertisement from the San Remo Bank stating “A golf Club is in course of formation at San Remo”.
Similarly, the French newspaper Le Figaro was informing its readers, on 23 December 1901:
“In a short while, San Remo will have a superb links, laid out on a huge land, close to Taggia. The professional, Harris, is supervising this installation, eagerly awaited by the English colony in San Remo”.
The Tatler, dating 11th February 1903, gives the following information:
“Nowadays the golf club is the centre and focus of all the social life at these and many other places. It is the rendezvous for luncheon and tea and the chosen home of gossip and flirtation. The game enables everybody to enjoy the climatic advantages in the best possible way, combining as it does outdoor exercise with pleasant society. A man must be in a very bad way indeed who does not benefit by a few weeks of golf at this season at Pau or on the Riviera.
We give an illustration of the newly-formed golf course at San Remo, or rather at Arma di Taggia, which is only a mile or so away. This is the only golf course on the Italian Riviera and it should prove a great boon to the San Remo district, which of late has become very popular as a health resort. The honorary secretary of the golf club is Mr J. W. Howell, San Remo”.
Last but not least Jean-Bernard Kazmierczak also found a notice in The Globe dating 23 March 1903 which confirms that in March 1903 there was a golf club in San Remo. At least, a price list was already established: “Some people are apt to repine a little at the cost of golf, a growing cost, in Great Britain; but Country Life observes that this does not seem to be a circumstance in comparison with the prices that some the Continental places charge. What is it San Remo? Two hundred francs for the season for men and one hundred francs for ladies, both sexes playing on the same course of nine holes. There ought to be some money made by somebody over golf these terms”.
Early editions of the British Golf Illustrated from 1908-1910 clearly state that a golf course was in existence at San Remo, or to be more precise at Arma di Taggia in a valley surrounded by olive trees.
The following information is taken from Nisbet’s 1912. “The course is beautifully situated at Arma di Taggia in a valley surrounded by olive trees. Good sporting links and the only course on the Italian Riviera”. The club had a membership of 60 at this time. There was no entry fee and subs were 100 lire (£4) for men and 50 lire for ladies. A nine-hole course. Sunday play was allowed, with caddies. Visitors, on introduction by a member, paid 5lire a day, 25 lire a fortnight and 40 lire a month.