Royal Montreal Golf Club, Montreal, composite, 1882

Royal Montreal Golf Club group, Dorval, 1907

The Royal Montreal Golf Club is the oldest golf club in the Americas, having been founded in 1873. In that year, a small group of eight gentlemen sat in a dockside office and formed the Montreal Golf Club. Eleven years later, in 1884, permission was granted by Queen Victoria to use the "Royal" prefix.

The first golf course was a 9-hole layout on Fletcher's Field, part of Mount Royal Park, which was shared by the red-coated golfers and other citizens relaxing in what was then the outskirts of Montreal.

In 1896, the club moved to Dixie, in the parish of Dorval, where it remained until the pressures of urban growth again dictated a decision to move. The clubhouse at Dixie is now the Queen of Angels Academy for Girls.

The last move was to Île-Bizard, Quebec in 1959, where 45 holes were constructed by American golf course architect Dick Wilson.^[1] The Blue Course continues to be ranked as one of the "100 Greatest Courses in the World".

Royal Montreal was one of the five founding Clubs of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1995. The RCGA is the governing body of golf in Canada and organizes the major national championships, including the Canadian Open, the first of which was played at Royal Montreal in 1904.

In September 2007, Royal Montreal hosted the Presidents Cup; an event which enables the World's best non-European players to compete in an international team match play competition against the top 12 PGA Tour players in the United States.

[edit] See also

• List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage
• Monarchy of Canada

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• List of Civilian organizations with prefix "Royal" - Heritage Canada.
• List of civilian organizations with the prefix "Royal" prepared by the Department of Canadian Heritage
• Royal Montreal Golf Club
• Course rankings

[edit] Royal Montreal Golf Club Professionals since 1873

• Willie Davis
• Albert Murray
• Charles Murray
• Pat Fletcher
• Ron Janes
• Bruce Murray
• Bob Hogarth
• Henry Brunton
• Dave Hill
• Dave Perry
• Jeff McDonald
• Ken Gasseau
• Peter Chandler
• Rafael Kalamat
• Derek Ackford

This golf club or course-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e