The Golf House Club was established in May 1875 and takes its name from the golf house, or clubhouse, that was begun in the same year and completed in 1877 for the princely sum of £1,000.
Since then the clubhouse has been steadily upgraded as time and circumstance have demanded and it has recently enjoyed a £1.25m refurbishment, giving it the excellent facilities that members and visitors now enjoy.
All of the work has been done sympathetically, and the clubhouse still holds true to its roots and retains its sense of history.
This is immediately evident from the wooden lockers that line the hall and originally housed the golfing jackets worn in the 19th Century, to the war memorial that hangs in the clubhouse in respect of the members lost during both the First and Second World Wars.
The Golf House Club is not the only club that plays over the links at Elie and other clubs with playing rights include the Earlsferry Thistle Golf Club, also formed in 1875, and the Elie and Earlsferry Ladies Golf Club, which was formed in 1884.
Predating all of these clubs, The Elie and Earlsferry Golf Club had been formed in 1832, although it was ultimately disbanded in 1912 as the Golf House Club became the preeminent organisation.
In 1974, through a mixture of good fortune, generous gifts and astute purchases, the Golf House Club finally took ownership of the land on which the course lies.
Until then, it had relied on 20-year leases and the ancient ‘right of golf’ that had been granted and confirmed in law over the preceding centuries.
Fortunately ownership of the land has now secured the future of golf in Elie for all of the generations still to come.
For further information about when golf was first played in Elie & Earlsferry go to this section >>
