Montrose Mercantile Golf Club
History
Montrose Mercantile Golf Club History
The
Mercantile Golf Club was instituted in September 1879 and the clubhouse at that
time was in
Melville Lane,
Montrose, which is now known as
Bents Road.
The Club was an offshoot of the “Star Golf Club” which was a Wednesday half
holiday club.
Membership increased when the Club opened to Saturday golfers. This increase
was partly due to the winding up of two local golf clubs, the Union Club and the
Mechanics Club, some of whose members joined the Mercantile. Indeed the
“Mechanics Cup” remains an annual competition in the men’s golfing calendar.
The Club’s first clubhouse, known as “Golf Lodge”, was purpose built in 1891 and
was erected by subscription loans from some of the then 200 members, who each
contributed one pound to help pay for the building.
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Between 1902
and 1903, work commenced on building the present clubhouse which is sited a
short distance north of “Golf Lodge”. This work was funded by the local businessman and philanthropist Mr William Jameson Paton and it was he who officially opened the clubhouse in August 1904 and handed it over to the members “with no restrictions or conditions whatsoever”. |
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Mr Paton, in his address when opening the clubhouse, said he had three reasons for presenting the Mercantile with a new clubhouse. Firstly the old one (Golf Lodge) was too small for the growing membership of the Mercantile, secondly, he wished to show his respect for the working classes of Montrose, and thirdly, he wished to promote the enjoyable game of golf amongst them.
The Captain of the day, Mr James Fyfe, accepted the clubhouse with grateful thanks and made reference to the artistic work inside and out which showed the good taste of the donor.
Today the frontage of the clubhouse remains unchanged from 1904 apart from the addition of a glazed veranda which spans from the bay window to the front door.
The “Merky”, as the Club is affectionally known to its members, has just over one thousand members comprising gents and ladies, ordinary, senior and life, junior boys and girls as well as social members.