The Royal Ottawa Golf Club
The Royal Ottawa Golf Club is a private golf club located in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1891, and has made major contributions to the development of Canadian golf right from its early years, hosting many important championships and meetings, and continues to do so. Several significant champion golfers have been associated with the club. The club has 27 holes of golf.
Founding, early years
The club was founded in 1891, as the Ottawa Golf Club. It was the host of founding meetings of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, and the Canadian Professional Golfers' Association. Since 1895, it has hosted amateur and professional championship tournaments.The club's first site, a 9-hole course, was built on land lent by Charles Magee, a real-estate developer, in a section of Ottawa just west of the old Dominion Rifle Range in what is now known as Sandy Hill. The first Canadian Amateur Championship was played on this course in June 1895. Soon after that, responding to pressure on prime real estate in the rapidly expanding city core, the club moved to a new site in the province of Quebec, just across the Ottawa River from Ottawa to the north, a mile north of Hull, Quebec, along Chelsea Road on the property that was one of the founder of Hull, Quebec, Philemon Wright's original farms, the Columbia Farm. The clubhouse occupied the stone house that was built by Thomas Brigham, Philemon's son-in-law. This course consisted of 12 holes, of which 6 had to be played twice to comprise an 18-hole round. One of the par three holes was quite unique, in that players had to flight their ball over the barn behind the clubhouse to reach the green.
Moves to current site
In the early 1900s, the club purchased its current site in Aylmer, Quebec. The site had been known as Mrs. McVeity's orchard and coincidentally, it occupied land that was another of Philemon Wright's original farms, the Britannia Farm. Mrs. McVeity, who was nicknamed "Mrs. Slinn", was once vice-president of Slinn's Bakery in Ottawa.The Ottawa Golf Club built a new course, and constructed a clubhouse, which opened in 1904. Five years later, it burned to the ground. Its replacement was built on the same site, and it burned down in 1930. The present clubhouse was officially opened on September 19, 1931.
In 1912, the club received permission from King George V to use the designation 'Royal'.
The club presently has an 18-hole course and a 9-hole course, known as the Royal Nine. The main course was designed by Tom Bendelow in a parkland style, and among its features are back-to-back par 3s. The course was redesigned a few years later by Scottish architect Willie Park Jr.. The course has been modified in minor ways many times in the years since. Royal Ottawa is affiliated with the Quebec Golf Association and the RCGA.