The Royal County Down Ladies Golf Club 1894-1994: a Memoire

The Royal County Down Ladies Golf Club was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1894 by the ‘lady subscribers’ to the County Down Golf Club since 1889 got together and formed the old Ladies’ Golf Club in Ireland. At the meeting there was a rule passed on the occasion ‘all ladies allow gentlemen to pass them on the links’ which likely had had something to do with the secretary of the club, Dr. Robert Magill, also being present. It council of the RCD agreed to charge the club £15 p.a. (but only £5 in the first year). It was already likely that there was a shorter course available for the ladies to play. The proposal for a clubhouse to be built for their use was rejected to they rented rooms from Miss Hutchins (on the Downs Road) at £1 p.m. The membership quickly outstripped the accommodation and they the following year built an iron house with a verandah for £85 on land leased from the Annesley family when the club bought out the lease the ladies were offered a 200 year lease.

One of the first annual competitions was for the Silver Challenge Cup which was donated by their male counterparts. In 1908 the ‘indefatigable George Combe’ had finished his major reconstruction of the ‘Long Course’ and this released nine holes, the so called flat nine, which could be permanently used by the ladies. The Ladies’ Course was 2,038 yards and ran alongside the Belfast and County Down Railway line. For years afterwards the Ladies’ Course was disparagingly referred to as the ‘Hen-Run’. The Ladies’ Course was extended to eighteen holes with five new holes added in 1925 and the remainder in the thirties.

Fashion at the time dictated voluminous dresses and hats (boaters or wide caps) and windy conditions necessity a little ingenuity (elastic) to limit the obstructions of a billowing skirt or hat blowing away. The first fifteen years of the Ladies Golf Club represented the Golden Age of women’s golf in Ireland with Rhona Adair, May Hezlet and her sisters being the leading exponents in the ladies game. There were nine British Ladies Championships played at Royal County Down with the first two being won by May Hezlet. The Curtis Cup was also played there in 1968 and the United States were presented with the same cup that had been played for at an International competition held in 1907. There is a long list of great lady golfers who represented Royal County Down throughout the years including Olivia Mehaffey, Daisy Ferguson, Miss J. Magill, Danielle McVeigh, Moira Smyth and Ms Nellie Graham.