New Member Information Pack Dec 2022

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