Dornoch38pp
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HISTORY<br />
Long before a golf club was formed at Dornoch, the game was played on the town<br />
lands along the seashore. Golf in Dornoch can be traced back to 1616, and some<br />
claim even earlier, but what we are sure of is that everyone who came to play<br />
marvelled at the wonderful links land and the challenge it presented.<br />
The club itself did not form until 1877. The two gentlemen responsible for the<br />
foundation being Alexander McHardy, ‘the pioneer of golf in the North of Scotland’,<br />
and Dr Hugh Gunn, a native of the town, who was educated at St Andrews and there<br />
learned the game – the course then was only 9 holes long.<br />
In 1886, the Club invited the veteran champion golfer, Old Tom Morris, to visit<br />
Dornoch, make a survey of the links and lay out a more fully planned golf course.<br />
The basic purpose of these “founding fathers” of Dornoch golf was to have a golf<br />
course of first class quality in keeping with the abundant natural resources already<br />
provided on the famed Dornoch Links.<br />
About the turn of the century, the great Sandy Herd first played with the new rubbercored<br />
ball and out of fashion went the old gutty. John Sutherland, the Club’s<br />
Secretary who guided the fortunes of the Club for over 50 years, and his committee,<br />
had to remodel the course as a result of the faster ball and Dornoch became for a<br />
time the 5th longest course in Britain. In 1906, through the influence of Her Grace<br />
the Duchess of Sutherland, Duchess Millicent, a good friend to the Club, Dornoch<br />
Golf Club secured the title and dignity of ‘Royal’ from King Edward VII.<br />
Women golfers, also of a high level, regularly gathered in Dornoch in the bright days<br />
before 1914. The Second World War saw an aerodrome in being on the Ladies 18<br />
hole course on the lower links and 4 holes of the Championship Course were also<br />
lost. In the late 1940’s the decision was taken to construct further holes out towards<br />
Embo and once again the House of Sutherland helped by leasing the land (later<br />
purchased) to the Club. This was largely the work of George Duncan, for John<br />
Sutherland had died in 1941. A restricted 9 hole relief course was formed known as<br />
the Struie, which has now been developed to a full 18 holes.<br />
The spectacular views of Struie Hill and the Ross-Shire Hills to the West, the close<br />
proximity to the shores of the Dornoch Firth and the call of the many species of<br />
wildfowl along the estuary enriches the experience of golfing in such a magnificent<br />
setting.<br />
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