The History of the Lothians Golf Association

The Lothians Golf Association was formed at a meeting of representatives of like-minded clubs in the Lothians area held in the Ferguson & Forrester restaurant, Princes St, Edinburgh at 6pm on Wednesday 16th February 1921.

This had followed a preliminary meeting at the same venue on the 20th November 1920 held after a meeting at which the Scottish Golf Union had been instigated. At that meeting a small committee had been formed to draft out a constitution and to organise a formal meeting at which the proposal to form the Lothians Golf Association could be decided. Attempts had been made, by circular and advertising, to get in touch with all the golf clubs in the 3 Lothians districts, those being 72 in Midlothian, 16 in East Lothian and 8 in West Lothian. 40 clubs were present at the meeting.

The draft constitution stated that -

‘The objects of the Union (Association) shall be the furtherance of golf within its district (Area) by the promotion of inter-county or inter-district matches, the holding of competitions and tournaments, or in any way that may be decided upon’.

100 years later we are now embarking on summarising the history of the association by gathering together the records we have under the headings shown below. Each section will be in the form of an introductory text with electronic links to more detailed information already held on the website.

We are also preparing a small brochure to hand out at events during the centenary year. The basic information in the brochure will be supplemented with additional sheets in a pocket at the back of the brochure relevant to that particular event. For example the brochures handed out at the Men’s Championship will include a list of all the finalists since 1947, the results and the venues and also a set of photographs of the champions taken from the ‘history’ on the website. We are very much indebted to the clubs and other commercial sponsors who have advertised in the brochure which has covered the cost of that publication.

We hope that this history will portray the development of the association and highlights the achievements of the players from our clubs and societies. We also hope that it shows how we are very much dedicated to supporting our clubs and providing activities for the full range of players at the clubs and societies in the area. 

We also value the close links we have with the Ladies Counties of East Lothian & Midlothian and look forward to continue to work with them in the joint interests of the members of our clubs.

John Allan                               

President                                                                                                                                                                                                        Lothians Golf Association

January 2021

Index of History

This is the full index for the history. The plan is to develop each section and add it to the website at a relevant time during the year. The Introduction by the President appears above and the 2021 Council members was added after the AGM on the 4th March and so on. As things are linked a note will appear in the Notes column and the content can be seen by clicking the Topic heading.

We had proposals for special events in 2021 but most of these are now 'on hold' pending the relaxation of Covid 19 restrictions. It is looking very much as if we will be having to adopt a '100 year + 1' policy for these.