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The history of Caird Park and Camperdown Golf Courses
Caird Park
A meeting of Dundee Corporation in August 1921 hotly debated the terms presented by Mr [Harry Shapland] Colt, who had submitted costs for layout of £5,000 plus his travel and hotel expenses. A capped fee of £300 was eventually thrashed out, together with an instruction to Mr Macrae, the Superintendent of Parks & Cemeteries, to "inspect some of the courses already laid out by Mr Colt"
Interim labour costings reported during 1922 for "excavating bunkers, throwing up hazards and fixing tees" came to £2,017 and "car" fares for tram journeys for staff totalled £2.
1923 saw the naming of greens, including Caird and Marryat for 1 and 9 as the
benefactors.
The rules and regulations laid down included:
| Rule No 6. |
"No person shall wilfully annoy or disturb sheep..." and
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| Rule No 19. |
"No person shall play in a single, threesome or foursome match without at least two clubs". |
The course was opened on Saturday 3 November 1923 by Mrs Marryat, sister of the late Sir James K Caird Bart., the benefactor who subsidised the Caird Hall and Antarctic expeditions.
An early tourist guide spoke of the pleasant situation with unbroken views to the Sidlaw Hills to the north, the Dighty Valley to the west and country to the east, and of the reasonable charge of nine pence (£0. 04) per round.
Camperdown Park - 50th Anniversary 6 June 2009
Funds from the Sir James Caird Acquisition Fund purchased Camperdown Estate for the community in 1945. The Superintendent of Parks & Cemeteries, Alexander S "Parky" Dow produced a visionary report for the Corporation in 1955 for future leisure use. This included an 18 hole golf course using the former Cowfields, Viewpark, Bisset's Corner and Garden Fields around the Mansion House.
Camperdown Golf Course was carved out of the parkland in the mid 1950’s and opened in 1959. In June of the same year, Lady Hughes, wife of the then Lord Provost, drove the first golf ball to open the course and Camperdown Golf Club opened the following year within the basement of Camperdown Mansion House.
The boom years of “the big three” Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player soon fired enthusiasm in the hearts of many with TV coverage of golf helping the game to become very popular.
During this age Camperdown became a very
popular course not only with Dundonians; as Caird
Park and neighbouring Downfield were already well
established; but from further afield in Fife and
Perthshire. Not many could believe that a course
as fine, and as difficult as this, could belong to a
local authority. |
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Dundee Corporation had made a wise decision by building Camperdown and soon in the 70’s it hosted the British Police Championships, and together with Downfield, The Scottish Stroke Play Championships. The course and club also benefited from the Professional game when many players had to qualify there to play in the Sunbeam Electric Tournament at Downfield. Thirteen of those who tied were scheduled to play
down Camperdown’s difficult first hole for three places in the Tournament proper and notably ex Ryder Cup Captain Eric Brown decided he had a sore back preferring instead to nurse it back to health with some medicine at the club bar. |
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