Lurgan Golf Club 1893 – 1993

Lurgan Golf Club was founded in 1893. Nine people met in a house in Lurgan and decided to form a golf club with the main protagonist being Mr. H.G. MacGeagh, the first captain. The original course was a 9-hole layout on sixty acres of the Brownlow Demesne. The first competition was won by Thomas Dickson who went on to win the Irish Close Championship in the same year, 1893. In 1898 the club moved from Brownlow to Gracehall where it was to remain before returning to its original site in 1923 but this time with 76 acres. Continuing with Gracehall was conditional upon a clubhouse being built which may have sparked a move back to Brownlow although a clubhouse was soon built here and remained until 1954. Both of the courses were designed by Major G.W. Greer and Mr. H.G. MacGeagh. In 1918 it had been proposed to move the club to Woodville but it was rejected but a minority branched off to set up the Woodville Golf Club which, ten years later, amalgamated with the Lurgan Golf Club.

The clubhouse which was built in the fifties was effectively demolished by a bomb detonating in the fireplace on the 12 July 1972 and its replacement was officially opened in 1975. In 1968 the committee had secured the land needed to expand the course to 18-holes and Frank Pennick of C.K. Cotton, Pennick and Associates were selected to design the course. The official opening of the course took place in August 1970 which involved an exhibition by Christy O’Connor snr., Hugh Jackson, Dai Rees and Iain Clark. In 2004, the club was the target of a bomb attack by dissident republicans, which caused significant damage. The club is privately owned and has been managed by various committees and members over the years.

The club has been associated with notable figures such as Mr. Thomas Dickson, who won the first Irish Close Championship and Gareth Shaw. Additionally, the Day family, with sons Alec and Christopher, became professionals at The Royal Belfast and Malone, respectively. Notable lady members include the Ladies European Tour player, Annabel Wilson and Miss Crystal MacGeagh who won the Irish Women’s Amateur Close Championship at Bundoran in 1939. Also connected with the club was William Brownlow who, although attached to the famous Abercromby’s Addington course, was a member of Lurgan Golf Club. In 1926 he was beaten by the eventual winner Jessie Sweetser, the American, in the semi-final of the 1926 Amateur Championship on the 21st hole and also played Walker Cup that year.