Royal Ottawa Golf Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Royal Ottawa Golf Club is a premier private golf club located in Aylmer, Quebec (now part of Gatineau). It was founded in 1891 and has been at its current site since 1904, where it has been the site of founding meetings of the Royal Canadian Golf Association and the Canadian Professional Golfers Association. It has also hosted the Canadian Open championships in 1906 and 1911, and several other amateur and professional championship tournaments.
The Club's first site, a 9-hole course, was on land lent by Charles Magee, a real-estate developer, in part of Ottawa known as Sandy Hill. The first Canadian Amateur Championship was played on this course in June, 1895. Soon after that, the Club moved to a new site in Quebec, a mile north of Hull, along Chelsea Road. This course consisted of 12 holes, of which 6 had to be played twice to comprise an 18-hole round.
Finally, in the early 1900s, the Club purchased its current site in Aylmer, and built a comfortable and elegant clubhouse which opened in 1904. Five years later, it burned to the ground. Its replacement was built on the same site and it burned down in 1930. The present clubhouse, which reflects the Victorian-era grace and charm of its predecessors, was officially opened on September 19, 1931.
The Club presently has an 18-hole course and a 9-hole course, known as the Royal Nine. The main course was designed by Tom Bendelow in a parkland style, and among its features are back-to-back par 3s (holes 11 and 12).
