A Link With History

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It is a pleasure to see the special relationship between The Leith Rules Golf Society and the Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh continue with the purchase of Bronze No.17 by Committee Member John Yuille.

The Member's Choice

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We thank the Hankley Common Golf Club for marking the occasion of the passing of a popular past Captain with the purchase of John Rattray Bronze No.11. Our picture shows friend and fellow member Jack Dunn who took on the role of facilitator.

The Perfect Pair

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Very special thanks to Michael O’Bryan who has purchased the smaller bronze for his summer home in St Andrews as well as a larger one for his winter home in Florida.

Leith Links

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This photograph was taken 100 yards from where John Rattray will stand. It serves as a wonderful reminder of how right we are to let the world know what went on here all those years ago.

Rattray at the Old Course Hotel

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G&T was invited during the Dunhill at St Andrews to make the numbered Bronzes available for public viewing. There was a lot of positive press coverage resulting in commitment from 3 new Platinum Contributors.

Clan Rattray Support

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Bronzes and Certificates have already been delivered to Rattray family members in Australia, USA, Wales and Scotland. Our picture shows Mr & Mrs James Rattray of Killiecrankie receiving their own Bronze.

Muirfield and Old Course Open Champion helps out

Sir Nick Faldo raising money for John Rattray by auctioning one of his very rare Pringle pullovers.

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The R&A - Managing Change with Experience

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David Rickman, Executive Director - Governance & Chief of Staff of The R&A, together with Angela Howe, Director of The British Golf Museum, receiving the very first 16 inch Rattray Bronze from Lachlan Rattray of Rattray and the Sculptor David Annand.

Carnoustie for a dry run

David has been to Carnoustie for a dry run prior to being asked to meet the with the world's golfing press when they attend The Open Championship in mid July. It will be the first time the Rattray Bronzes will be given any column inches in the media.

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Eric with John Rattray

One of the most recent orders for a bronze was placed by Mr & Mrs Milne of St Andrews Fife. Our photograph shows Eric with John Rattray outside the headquarters of the family business Fisher & Donaldson in Cupar. Eric and his relations were great sponsors of Golf & Thistle's previous project when partnering the National Trust for Scotland and rebuilding Kingarrock, a 1920s golf course for play with hickory clubs.

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Raising John Rattray

The statue of John Rattray is due to be installed exactly where the 1st green of the 5 hole course was situated in 1744.

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The Committee of Leith Rules Golf Society have agreed with the City of Edinburgh that the statue of John Rattray will be installed where the 1st green of the 5 hole course was situated in 1744. It was there that Rattray won the first ever competition for the Silver Club, was duly appointed 'Captain of the Goff' and became the sole signatory of the very 'Rules of Golf' that have proved to be the foundation of the sport.

Previously with Golf & Thistle

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The right time for NTS to get more involved

We complete the handover of Kingarrock to the National Trust for Scotland this month.
The time is right. We are expecting grandchild No.10 next month and as all are living in the south of England and Belgium, it is time we moved to be a little closer and spent more time with them and a little less at the golf!

We can't say thank you enough to everyone that have helped Kingarrock come alive and played the course.

Learning about the Sharp family who lived at Hill of Tarvit 100 years ago, rebuilding the golf course and meeting you all has been a wonderful experience.

Thank you again and again.

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Ladies to the fore!

The annual outing of the Leith Rules Golf Society at Kingarrock proved to be a most enjoyable outing for all participants. The high point was the presentation of the 'Not So Silver Putter' to the winner of the day, Yves Foulis.

Watching on that day with characteristic smile was Yves husband Douglas, past Captain of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield. His presence acts as a reminder of the importance of his club's history in writing down the first rules in 1744. If they had not, we certainly would not have had the silver club to play for and more importantly, golf would not have become the worldwide sport it is today.

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GOLF & THISTLE GET AN ASSIST FROM THE ST ANDREWS LINKS TRUST

28 golfing students from Pennsylvania were here too early in the season for Kingarrock but not for The Balgove 9-hole course at St Andrews. A great time was had by all as can be seen from the photograph.

Three went round in only 30 shots using our 1924 ball and the winner of the day was one inch from a 'hole-in-one' at the 3rd. Haste ye back - and many thanks to the Management of The Links Trust.



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The Castle comes to Kingarrock

Elmwood College held a guest day at Kingarrock at the end of October with great success.

One of their visitors was Allan Paterson who has played a big part in the development and maintenance of the now famous Castle Course that opened on the same day as Kingarrock, 28th June 2008.

Allan equalled our course record of 34 with the 1898 ball. Our green keeper Colin is also smiling because he did it taking only 13 putts!.

A BioBlitz Bonus

Following the 36 hour study carried out recently by Fife County Council, we have been informed that our sustainable methods of maintaining the golf course have resulted in more fauna and flora per square metre in the course than there is in the gardens beside it!

We can thank the Fife Amphibian and Reptile Group for looking after our pond and growing the number of frogs and toads that add to our numbers.

CHAMPION DRESSING

The European Girls Championships were recently won by the ladies of Sweden.

The European Girls Championships were recently won by the ladies of Sweden. To have them play and grace Kingarrock with their presence was a lovely honour. To have them dress accordingly was a very special bonus. 

 'Haste Ye Back'.

BIRTHDAY HICKORIES

The Spring meeting of the Kingarrock Trustees coincided with one of our number have a special birthday.

We won't say the number, but Peter McEvoy OBE is very happy with his Tom Morris spoon being presented to him by Director Michelle Thissen to mark the occasion.



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ST ANDREWS CELEBRATES 600 YEARS

The University held a shotgun start in late September as one of the events to mark their 600th birthday.

The sun shone and an old hickory putter was presented to the winning team and is now to be played for annually.

Our picture shows Dr Louise Richardson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor together with her guests prior to hitting the first shot to get things started.

THE DITCHWITCH

After the wettest summer in memory, we now know exactly where to lay down new drains!

We are indebted to Gordon Moir and the Links Trust for making this marvellous machine available to us.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

ST RULE SHOTGUN

The spirit of the lady golfers of St Rule in St Andrews shone through recently when the heavy rain made things difficult for 36 to play the course.

Back they came two weeks later to finish the job and with flowing roaring twenties dresses to the fore, a good time was had by all.



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DOUBLE A SAVES THE DAY.

While visitors do not normally expect to use buggies or trolleys to help replicate the 1920s experience when carrying their few hickory clubs, it is nice for those that have difficulty walking to know that John Deere and their local agent DoubleA have the answer.

Our friends from the Bruntsfield Links were provided with an electric gator that proved perfect on the day.



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DOOLICHTER TO THE FORE!

A group from the Czech Republic celebrated their visit with all players donning a 'Kingarrock Doolichter'.

The extra wide cap, used 100 years ago when collecting the pigeon eggs from the 'Doocot' has proved a popular item.



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HELPING NATURE

Interest is growing concerning our ability to develop the course using 1920s methods and without any chemicals or bought-in fertilisers.

Wood, grass cuttings, leaves and mole hills are all we need and nothing this year has had to come from outside the golf course itself.

The latest group to want to get involved was The Scottish Wildlife Trust. They did a great job increasing the size of our natural pond.

Might be a while though before we see someone fishing!



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University Rugby Squad at Kingarrock

The St Andrews University Rugby Football Club made a recent visit to the Kingarrock. Two large trees, each over 100 years old, had come down in strong winds. E verything in the field is recycled.

The woodchips help to keep the paths open in the winter and the logs provide the heat for burning the molehill mix that is used as top-dressing for the greens. The strength and enthusiasm of the squad made light work of a very big job. Their expertise with wooden golf clubs was almost as impressive!



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BLGS 250th

It was great fun helping Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society celebrate the club's 250th anniversary with a weekend of hickory golf.

It started with the original 6 holes at the Meadows in the centre of Edinburgh, moved to Musselburgh for the 9-hole course on Sunday and ended that evening back at Barnton with 20 Past Champions playing 4 holes with 5 old hickories and our shortest distance golf balls. Great scoring and good fun for all was the result.

Our picture shows Michelle ensuring that both past and present senior PGA Professionals from BLGS, ably assisted by 2 enthusiastic members, pack 300 clubs safely for their journey to Edinburgh.



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AMAZING SCORE

Our 2011 season opened at Easter with a record round.
Matthew Gibb, Ned Conway and Thirnan Young, all from St Andrews University, played two rounds with the '1898' ball.

Matthew played the first 9 in 43 and proceeded to take a shot a hole off for his second ever round of Kingarrock, holing out in 34 shots.
After a hard winter, I think we should give some credit to Colin the green keeper and his 1920s methods!

Our picture shows Matt enjoying a celebratory glass of ginger beer.



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OFF-SEASON WORK

We are receiving more and more requests from golfers wishing to put together their own set of hickory clubs.

Removing decades of rust is just one of the jobs Michelle has to perform to make the old clubs playable again.

Having twice the number of visitors last summer has also meant there is no shortage of work at this time of year in repairing our own hickory clubs.
We prefer to be busy and so get in touch if we can help.



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BEWARE FIFE IN WINTER

These were the words of sound advice from the gnomes of St Andrews before we resurrected the 1920s Sharp family course.

Our 1939 set of gang mowers are certainly not much use in this weather. It is a good thing we close in October!

Andrew Carstairs (94 years young) recently confirmed that prior to its closure for the war effort in 1939, he and friends enjoyed Kingarrock as a summer experience, with the family playing their winter golf on the local links courses.



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A TAYLORMADE DAY

It was a great pleasure to welcome 70 international staff from TaylorMade recently to Kingarrock.

While half played the course with a shotgun start the remainder were busy on the Mansionhouse lawns hitting jiggers through croquet hoops and enjoying the hog roast and Arbroath smokies.

The weather stayed fair and all looked forward to improving their hickory score next time.



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1st Hole-in-One for over 70 years!

Kingarrock recently succumbed to its first ace since George Thomson had two hole-in-ones on the same day in 1939.

Our star player on this occasion was Paul Charlton who holed his 166 yard tee shot with a brassie at the 2nd named 'Stand Sure'.

Old Daw Anderson was on hand to ensure that the ginger beer was replaced by something a bit stronger for the celebrations that followed 'afore ye go'.



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WELCOME GEOFF OGILVY

Our timing for the Mansionhouse to receive its new coat of paint and be back as it was 100 years ago could not have been better.

The Open at St Andrews brought many first time guests to Kingarrock. Among them was a former US Open champion.

After his round, Geoff Ogilvy said "It can really help your swing speed and your imagination. You're learning all over again. There is something fun about playing golf like this."



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HICKORY POWERPLAY GREAT SUCCESS

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed Kingarrock's first ever PowerPlay Charity Day.

Peter McEvoy OBE awarded our trophy to Ian Gaunt (9 handicap), who after scoring only 6 points in the first 5 holes, collected another 23 points over the last 4. It could only happen with 'PowerPlay'! 2nd equal with 25 points were Neil Paton of the Old Course Hotel and Douglas McEvoy, son of Peter.

All entry fees were split 50/50 between Erskine and the Bill McLaren Foundation.



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SHOTGUN STAR TO 2010

We started our season with 60 of the best architects in the world of golf. They played Kingarrock in the morning and held a conference in St Andrews in the afternoon.

They brightened up a damp day and enjoyed their visit like no other group before. Our awards photo shows Andy Jeffrey and Rick Baric receiving their prize from Howard Storey of John Deere. David Anderson (Kingarrock) is on the left and David Krause (President of EIGCA) is on the right.



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WINTER ACTIVITY

The last few months have involved turning wet land into a pond, sowing yellow rattle in the rough to assist the growth of wild flowers and some strategic tree planting in keeping with a RAF 1946 aerial photograph.

The golfers are not due to return until we open again at Easter, but it is good to see others making use of the course in the meantime!



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A SPECIAL TREE FOR XMAS

In 1743 the first book on golf was published in Edinburgh called 'The Goff'.
It told the story of matches played at that time on Leith Links. There are believed to be between 5 and 10 copies of the 1st edition still in existence. Hugh Sharp of Hill of Tarvit owned two of them. Sadly they are missing.

David Hamilton, well known golf historian, in 2003 wrote and published 'The Thorn Tree Clique' to provide us all with a better understanding of the 1743 work. A thorn tree was known to dominate the 1st tee at Leith all those years ago.

We were honoured to have David be the one to plant our thorn tree in front of our 1st tee and to help us celebrate Hugh's own library of over 1,500 books.



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AN ASSIST FOR NEXT SEASON

Our first full summer has taught us where the occasional ball gets lost and so we are sowing 'yellow rattle' to the right of the 6th fairway. It thins out the grass with a pretty flower and makes the golf ball easy to spot and a lot easier to play. Our picture shows Colin Smith our Head Greenkeeper preparing the ground for seeding. We look forward to even lower scores!



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A VISIT FROM THE EXPERTS

The British Golf Collectors Society had their first official outing at Kingarrock last Tuesday.
The group included their President and current holder of the 2009 Scottish Hickory Championship Philip Truett as well as Society Captain David Hamilton, a leading Scottish transplant surgeon and well known writer on golf and its history. Stuart Lloyd of the R & A Championship Committee was also in the party and so any matters concerning the rules of the day were decided most promptly!



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STAR TURN

Peter McEvoy OBE, paid us a visit the other day and played the 9 holes with the '1924' ball in 35 strokes.
The current record with the '1898' ball stands at 36 and is held by PGA Professional George Finlayson.
It is turning into a summer of record returns!



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1744 REVISTED

We were honoured recently to have The Leith Rules Golf Society visit us.
9 holes were played with the 1898 ball and a second round with the 1924 ball. Their enjoyment was increased by not incurring a single penalty associated with Rule No.11 of 7th March 1744!



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BUTTERCUPS & DAISIES

The gift of a set of gangs from friends in Lincolnshire has allowed us to cut the fairways in a more traditional way.
And with the reduction in the use of chemicals, natural flowers are flourishing.
We are now looking for another set of gangs for the rough. If you see any lying unused, do get in touch.



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SINGING IN THE RAIN

The Fife County Ladies Golf Association held an outing at Kingarrock last weekend as part of their centenary celebrations.
The wet weather could not dampen their spirits or their finery and the gold medal was presented for a record score with the 1924 ball.
We look forward to their return next year, and lots of sun to go with their smiles!



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READY FOR PLAY

While the leaves won't appear for a week or two, we are ready for the 09 season and will be open for reservations from the 2nd April.
New planting will be apparent to those that have visited us before. More good news to the eye is the enclosure by Willow Traders of the last remnant of late 20th century activity in 'Golf Field' ( see 'The Rough with the Smooth' - 11th July 2004.)



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WINTER ARRIVES

Our first summer playing hickory on Kingarrock after a 70 year gap was most enjoyable.
We are closed now for winter and open again in the Spring on the 2nd of April.
We wish you a good festive season and look forward to welcoming you back when the days are longer and warmer!



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THE KINGARROCK ARTISAN

Members of the Kingarroch Golf Society at Craigrothie have created a club for up to 12 artisans that receive the courtesy of the course in return for assisting the greenkeeper. Our picture was taken following their first ever 'Bogey' competition won by Jack Williamson. Colin Smith was runner-up and the 'Lost Shot' award went to Jason Herkes.



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THE PERFECT START

Kingarrock re-opened on the 28th June and the sun shone brightly, but no more so than our very first visitors that reserved the 1st tee for 9am.
Bill, Tammy and Derrick came all the way from Vancouver and arrived dressed magnificently for golf in the roaring twenties. A little champagne before play did no harm to their swing and they posted scores for the board to be proud of. Haste ye back.



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RESULTS ANNOUNCED FOR 'NAME THE HOLES' COMPETITION

Nobody was spot on, but these local golfers all came very close.

Michelle Thissen, Director of Golf & Thistle, presented each winner with 3 of the 9 hand painted Wemyss tiles representing the different holes. Peter Milne, Ron Hoy and James Finnie now look forward to the real thing when the course opens this weekend.



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BBC COMES TO HILL OF TARVIT

Our picture shows Peter Alliss and Phil Tuffnell celebrating inside Foresters Cottage after a successful days filming on the Kingarrock golf course. The comparison between old clubs and new was ably demonstrated.
What will appear on the One Show in July nobody knows, but G & T can confirm that under the able tutelage of caddy Peter, Phil's very first attempt at using hickory resulted in a birdie 2 at the 7th!



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NEW FROM OLD

A small bridge was needed to cross the cundy at the 7th hole.
All the stone used to build it has come from within the Hill of Tarvit estate.
We thank Alan Boyd, our local stonemason from Ceres for doing a wonderful job.



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