Moray Golf Club is situated in

Lossiemouth Lossiemouth ( gd, Inbhir Losaidh) is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over ...

(on the south coast of the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; Scottish Gaelic: ''An Cuan Moireach'', ''Linne Mhoireibh'' or ''Caolas Mhoireibh'') is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotl ...

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The club has two eighteen-hole courses appropriately called the ''Old Course'' and the ''New Course''. The club has played host to many championships, both amateur and professional. The old and new courses were designed by

Old Tom Morris Thomas Mitchell Morris (16 June 1821 – 24 May 1908), otherwise known as Old Tom Morris, and The Grand Old Man of Golf, was a Scottish golfer. He was born in St Andrews, Fife, the "home of golf" and location of the St Andrews Links, and died ...

and Henry Cotton respectively.

Club history

The first attempt to set up a golf club in Lossiemouth was in 1875, when a seven-hole course was established in the Stotfield area. This club failed after a few years, and it wasn't until 30 March 1889 that the present club was officially opened. At that time, the club had 82 members who were mostly from Elgin, the county capital, some 6 miles to the south. Captain James Brander of Pitgaveny, also a founding member, leased the land to the club and Old Tom Morris the St Andrews professional designed the layout. Initially, there were only 16 holes but within a year the course was extended to 18 by leasing land from Sir

William Gordon Cumming Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Alexander Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet (20 July 1848 – 20 May 1930) was a Scottish landowner, soldier, adventurer and socialite. A notorious womaniser, he is best known for being the central figure in ...

. By 1897, the membership had grown to around 320, 85 of which were ladies. The membership stood at 635 in 1904, 135 being ladies. In 1905 the ladies got their own 9-hole Ladies Relief course. The new 18-hole course, designed by Sir Henry Cotton, opened in 1979 and incorporated the 9-hole course. Membership has now grown to more than 1700. Lossie golf course

The club found itself in a political dispute during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

over the membership of

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...

, who was from Lossiemouth and then an outspoken anti-war Labour MP. MacDonald was a keen golfer and his sons also played at the club, but in August 1915 a group of members submitted a motion to remove his name from the roll of members on the grounds that the club's character was damaged. The council of the club refused to take any action, with MacDonald himself objecting that they were not elected to take political judgments. However, a year later, a new motion was submitted by some 30 members who had not signed the previous motion; they asserted that the failure to take action had caused other members to resign. A special meeting was held in the Burgh court house in Elgin on 1 September 1916 at which a London barrister moved that MacDonald had forfeited his right to membership; the motion was carried by 73 to 24. MacDonald regretted that their actions had held the club up to ridicule and contempt and never played there again. An attempt to rescind the motion in July 1924 (when MacDonald was Prime Minister) failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority. A further attempt in July 1929 was successful but Macdonald, having felt the initial expulsion deeply, refused this offer.McConnachie, John. The Moray Golf Club at Lossiemouth, 1988

Course details

References

{{Authority control Golf clubs and courses in Moray Sports venues in Moray Lossiemouth