St. Anne’s Golf Club : Jubilee Year 1921-1996 A History of the First Seventy Five Years

St. Anne’s Golf Club was founded in 1921 with the blessings of widowed Lady Olivia Ardilaun (subject to the club being called after her Estate, St. Anne’s) at a time when the Black and Tans and IRA were on the rampage around the city. The week before the establishment of the club on the 3 July a fifteen man IRA unit attacked the Coastguard Station and cottages at the wooden bridge at Dollymount sending families fleeing for their lives. Bull Island is essentially a giant sand bar created by the Great South Wall and the North Bull Wall, courtesy of George Halpin, which tamed the previously dangerous navigation of the waters Dublin Bay. Royal Dublin Golf Club (“RDGC”) had bought the land from Edward Vernon of Clontarf Castle while the remaining land was purchased by Lord Ardilaun of the Guinness dynasty who in turn leased it to the RDGC in 1904 for 21 years.

The course was designed and established on the North Bull Island, a UNESCO Biosphere by three friends Marmaduke Montgomery Devitt (“Mar”), Tussy Murray, and Dudley Stuart. The three worked for Elvery’s, the Great Northern Railway and the Dublin Tramway Company respectively. The greens were built by greenkeeper Michael Collins.

The club initially paid a nominal rent to The Royal Dublin Golf Club and later secured a formal twenty-year lease in 1927. There were initial difficulties with The Royal Dublin Golf Club over the lease and rights to play golf on the island. Originally it was a nine-hole course which remained relative intact until Dublin Corporation built the Causeway Road (1970) through their golf course. It would be 1989 before it would be extended to 18-holes. Dublin Corporation now had control of the lands apart from the RDGC and after the Causeway Road was built they offered St. Anne’s a 99 year lease on 85 acres of land in 1971. As far back as 1956 Mr McAllister had been requested to produce a plan of what the club would need for an eighteen-hole course and it was presented to the Corporation but financial concerns meant the plan was put on the back-burner and for the next decade they tinkered with adding additional holes and alternative teeing areas.

There were still problems to be ironed out after the causeway road and the new clubhouse in the early seventies as access, water and electricity were still issues which would be resolved and then the clubhouse catching fire (1982) took priority over future plans for the club. The renovation of the clubhouse resulted in a 360 degree panoramic view of the land, sea and sky. Ongoing negotiations with the Corporation secured the necessary lands for eighteen holes but the term and ecological sensitivities of the area meant the process would be a prolonged one. Eddie Hackett was brought in to help with the design and development of the new eighteen holes and the new course was opened on the 1 September 1989. Issues continued to crop up but were handled and even the Diviner came through by finding a source of fresh water.

St. Anne’s has one of the most distinctive clubhouses in Ireland with its curvy roof and camouflage structure designed by MCA Architects and built at a cost of €3.3m in 2005. As the economic boom was upon them the activity and membership in the club grew and had rendered the existing clubhouse obsolete. The cost to be met by borrowing, levies, new members and voluntary donations. At the same time the course was being modernised to provide the highest quality golf experience.

Although a product of his native Lahinch, Paddy Skerritt is the most notable player associated with the club having being appointed professional in May 1963 and it was his accomplishments that would put the golf club front and centre on the international stage as they afforded him the freedom to play competitions. Skerritt’s most notable victories were in the Carroll’s International (1967), the Unroyal Tournament (1972), Alcan International (1970) at Portmarnock and the Kerrygold Tournament (1973). Skerritt also finished eighteenth in the 1968 Open Championship at Carnoustie.