Early Kilmarnock Golf

Our Friendly Farmer

Harry Ward

In my previous articles on Ayrshire’s golf courses, I have attempted to give a flavour of how golf took the country by storm in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The town of Kilmarnock was no exception, with a club forming as early as 1887 at Holmes Farm.

The game was no stranger to the more influential citizens of the town, and indeed, it was the early golfers of Kilmarnock who influenced the formation of the original Troon club in 1878. However, the travel time between the towns in the late 1800s was considerable which created a desire to have a course nearer to home. This was achieved when the Kilmarnock Ossington Golf Club was formed in November 1887 at a meeting in the old George Hotel, and the new course (laid out by a gardener) at Holmes Farm opened in March 1888.

Golf was now established in the town, although, as was often the case in the early days of golf, any agreement with your local farmer as to the lease or occupation of his ground for your golf course was always going to be somewhat fragile and subject to having a good relationship with your tenant. But greed has always been the scourge of mankind and in this case even more so.

The friendly farmer at Holmes decided after a short occupation of his ground to increase the rent from £15 to £45 – a huge amount at the time – and also to spread manure over the fairways. If this wasn’t enough, he then decided to give his cattle the privilege of the course, and with local ladies hanging their washing on parts of the course, enough was enough. It was time to move, and this they did in 1894 when the club re-located to their present home at Barassie.

The above precarious situation with farmers and golf clubs was fairly common at the turn of the century, especially on large estates where the owner of the land would be keen to support the local cause and demonstrate his allegiance to the community. In turn, of course, he would become the golf club’s first President. But first, the owner would have to convince his tenant farmer of the advantages of having golfers on his lands.

Once again, money would be the motivation for such an agreement, and a lease or rental arrangement would be made between club and farmer. If the farmer could secure a rent from the club which was more or less equal to the rent paid to his landlord, he’d be living off the land rent-free.

In time, the landlord’s good lady would be invited to hit the first ball and open the new golf course to the adulation of all the locals, invited friends, the golf club, and the media who would report on such an event in great detail.

Everyone’s a winner, and everyone’s happy, until a fall-out changes everything – just like the one at Holmes Farm where greed was the main instigator. From the 800 or so golf courses I have researched over the years, nearly 250 clubs had to re-locate to due to fall-outs with tenant farmers. I have also come across several clubs who have written their centenary publications only to discover later that they had omitted to include a former home course which they once occupied.

I have been lucky to be invited to speak at the centenary dinners of several golf clubs. Unfortunately, on one occasion, I had to reluctantly inform the club that they were celebrating their centenary in the wrong year – very embarrassing for them indeed!

When the Ossington golfers left Holmes Farm for the private course at Barassie, the remaining artisan golfers of the town were left without a course to play on, and demands were soon placed on the council to provide what would become Kilmarnock’s first municipal golf course at Caprington in 1909.