Establishment of Golf in NZ

It was in 1871, and in Dunedin, that the first semblance of order came to the game of golf in New Zealand.

From humble beginnings on nine holes in a pasture, only "half an hour’s stroll from the Central Post Office", the game has spread throughout the country. Earliest reference to the game in New Zealand came in September, 1863 when the Otago Witness carried an advertisement seeking "gentlemen desirous of forming a golf club".

While there was no shortage of gentlemen in Dunedin at that time, there was obviously a lack of interest in the game. For it wasn’t until 1869 that the first balls were struck.

The man behind the move has become a legend. He was Charles Ritchie Howden, the father of New Zealand Golf. Howden was the sort of Scot on whom the early prosperity of Dunedin was based. By the time 1871 came along he was financially secure, as well as young and enthusiastic enough to be a solid driving force behind the development of the game.

It was only to be expected that when a dozen players gathered to form a club in September, 1871, that it should be Charles Ritchie Howden who became the first Club Captain. The same meeting set the annual subscription at a guinea and gave the Committee the task of securing equipment for members. No clubs or balls were available and members had to send to England for what they required.

The twenty eight members of the new organisation decided that its name should be the Dunedin Golf Club.

The first few games were played at Caversham but early in 1872, the City Council gave permission for the establishment of a golf course at Mornington. The nine-holer was laid out by Howden and a Committee member. The first tee just happened to be very handy to Fogarty’s Hotel which soon provided a locker room, Clubhouse and the first ‘nineteenth’ in New Zealand.

Fairly regular competions proceeded for a couple of years but the very nature of the Course assured it of a short life.

The final blow came in 1876 when the ‘nineteenth’ changed hands. The new landlord soon found himself in bankruptcy and the ensuing sale saw a member of the public secure a complete parcel of all the members’ golf clubs for two pounds. When the clubs were tracked down a year later, they were useless. Without a playable course and without equipment, players found the whole business impossible.

It was nearly twenty years before golf once again took organised shape, but in those early years four historic trophies had been established: The Bruntsfield Medal, The St Andrew's Cross, The 1871 Cup and The Telfer Medal.