THE EARLY YEARS LONG ASHTON GOLF CLUB
Organised 1894 . Te links of nine holes are at Long Ashton, three miles from Bristol, from which electric trams and ‘buses run. Membership 70. Entrance fee. 10s. 6d. : annual subscription. 215 : visitors’ fees. per day
18.per week 3s 6d., per month 105. Te hotels at Cliſton (Bristol) arc many and well-appointed. Lengths of holes and hogey figures :-(1) 280.5. (2) 320.5. (3) 210.4. (4) 200.4. (5) 280.5. (6) 210.4. (7) 100.3. (8) 190.5. (9) 210.5. Amateur record. 78. No Sunday play. President Lady Smyth, Ashton Court. Long Ashton : Hon. Secretary, K.C. Irvine, College Road, Cliſton, Bristol: Treasurer W. J. Kemp. Long Ashton.
From “The Official Golf Guide” 1903-4 An extract from the official Golf Guide of 1903-4 (see above) gives the lengths
and bogey figures for the original nine holes and includes the amateur record of 78 (presumably for two rounds). It is difficult to ‘tie up’ the lengths of the holes and the bogey figures with other information available. Te bogey figures show how different the clubs and balls were from today’s equipment-several 280 yard holes are bogey (par) fives. Te 1901 Minutes show that several members wanted to keep the course
open for play during the summer months-consequently it was decided to make new greens for summer play and rest the existing greens until September. Members wishing to play summer golf had to guarantee the additional expenditure and eventually nine members contributed the extra five guineas for summer golf. Presumably the golfers of that time had to accept the grazing animals as
additional hazards; without the animals, grass cutting would have been a major problem during the summer, particularly as we only had one part-time green keeper for the nine holes. It is not surprising that only nine members thought it worthwhile to play in the summer. Our first President-Sir Greville Smyth died in October 1901 and Dame Emily
Smyth his widow agreed to become the Club’s second President. Extracts from the Clevedon Mercury show that during the 1901-1904 period,
matches were played against Cliſton Downs, Henbury, Rod way Hill and Weston- Super-Mare. Tese were eight or nine aside matches and Long Ashton frequently won. Surprisingly, no records of matches being played against our near neighbours Bristol and Cliſton can be found. Medal competitions were played on the second Saturday of each month, starting
in October. However, competitors were not allowed more than an 18 handicap, unless cards had been returned for a medal within the previous three months.
THE EXTENSION TO 18 HOLES By 1901 some golfers with an eye to the future had inspected the fields on the the west side of Providence Lane. Te Minutes of March 1901 show that the
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