The annual subscription
was fixed as follows: Gentlemen £1.00, Ladies 5 shillings, Family $2.00.
A further milestone in the development of the club occurred on
the 3rd of May 1910 with the official opening of the new clubhouse
which was built into the side of Cloonascragh sand hill and we are told it had a
commanding view of the first and fourth greens. To mark the occasion a mens
single v bogey, ladies single v bogey and mixed foursomes competitions were
held. The entry fee for each was two shillings. The prizes were presented by
Henry Concannon, Mrs Henry Concannon, Rev. Cannon Higgins and Patrick Murphy
respectively. To help defray the cost of construction a concert was held on the
previous Monday in the Town Hall. The first club dance was held in the Tuam Club
on the Dublin Road in a further fundraising effort on Tuesday of the following
week. There was an attendance of 82 ladies and gents and the catering was
provided by the ladies committee and it was a resounding success.
THE FINAL YEARS AT CLOONASCRAGH.
The 1930’s were noted for the club’s very successful series of open
meetings. Competitors for these occasions came from Castlerea, Ballyhaunis,
Sligo, Galway, Athlone, Claremorris, Westport, Ballinrobe and Dublin. An
interesting feature of these open days was the fact that competitors played in
two competitions, singles and fourball v bogey. Some names of winners over the
period may be of interest to the more senior members of the club: Dr T.Waldron,
Dr Nohilly, Rev J.G.McGarry, Oswald Browne, H. Campion, D.D.Dennehy, B.S.Kenny,
R.Leake, Dr T.Cunningham, J.P.Glynn amongst others.
RELOCATION TO MAYFIELD.
In 1937 the Club took the decision to leave Cloonascragh and re-locate to the
lands of the Kilgarriff family at Mayfield on the Dunmore Road and stretching
over to the Tullinadaly Road, now the Milltown Road. It appears that the
decision to leave was because of the state of the fairways at Cloonascragh which
had deteriorated to a significant degree and it was considered that it would
cost an amount way beyond the financial capability of the Club to remedy them.
Also James McDonnell, the President, had left Tuam on his retirement some years
previously and his interests in the town had been sold off.
In March of 1940 a new golf club called the Commercial Golf Club was formed and
took over the old course at Cloonascragh which was renovated and made playable
again. This club was affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland and golf was
played on that course for many years afterwards. In 1942 they employed the
services of a professional.
In 1948 Christy O Connor Senior came to the club as
professional. While here he gave golf lessons not only to the members of Tuam
but also in several of the surrounding clubs. In 1951 he was encouraged by his
friends in Galway and Tuam to play in the British Open in Royal Portrush. He
finished as leading Irishman in the championship and later that year he was
invited to take up the position as professional at Bundoran Golf Club, then
owned by the Great Northern Railway Company, from where he went on to even
greater fame on the professional tour. Due to his expert tuition and the
encouragement of the management committee of Tuam Golf Club in those years some
very promising young golfers emerged in the club.
Barnacurragh Development Company and Tuam Golf Club.
Tuam Golf Club members were becoming restless from the mid 1960’s on. They
were playing on a 9- hole course, which they had to share with sheep and cattle
as the land was rented. They were also hearing on the grapevine about other
local clubs like Athenry and Loughrea which were extending their courses to 18
holes. While they had enjoyed their days in Mayfield they felt the time was ripe
for them to buy their own property and develop an 18-hole course adjacent to the
town of Tuam.
An extraordinary general meeting of the club members was held
and it was agreed that the club purchase the lands, but as the club had no money
and the members would only guarantee £5,000 it was decided to establish a
company to purchase the property and develop the lands into an 18-holes golf
course. Barnacurragh Development Company was set up.
The first priority of the company was to level and develop the land and drain it
where necessary. A deal was done with a local land developer, Sean Ryan. He was
given the land, rent free, for two years. He was to level it and sow two crops
of barley and then hand it back under grass. This was duly done and some
drainage work was carried out.
The next step was to engage a golf architect to design an
18-holes course. We were lucky to get the eminent golf architect, Eddie Hackett.
He spent a week here in Tuam staying in the Hermitage Hotel and cycled back and
forth every day to Barnacurragh and at the end of the week provided us with a
blueprint for the course. His fee for the week was £250 plus the cost of his
keep in the hotel and his train expenses up and down from Dublin!! His design
for the course envisaged the 1st. and 18th. holes in the
town side of the bridge but the company felt it would be better to have all 18
holes in the one side of the bridge and this was duly done by creating two new
holes where the present 8th. and 10th. now are.
As the course development works were going on the construction
of a new clubhouse was put in hand. It was designed as a single-storey building
with provision in the design to construct a second storey overhead. This work
was done by direct labour.
Works on the first nine holes and clubhouse were completed by
the end of 1974 and the course was opened for play in the spring of 1975. There
was an official opening in 1978 by the Presidents of the I.L.G.U. and the G.U.I.
and the course and clubhouse were blessed by the Most. Rev. Dr. J.Cunnane,
Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Most Rev. Dr. Butler, the Protestant Bishop of
Tuam.
Work continued on the development of the second nine holes and
these were completed a year later and the 18 holes came into play in 1979. Some
years later the Radhairc tree planting company were employed to carry out a
programme of tree planting on the course and thousands of trees of all kinds
suitable for the terrain were sown. At this stage Dave Burke was very much
involved in the development work.
Work on improvement of the course was ongoing year after year
by each succeeding committee and a second storey was added to the clubhouse in
1991. The well known golf professional, Christy O’Connor Junior, was employed
in 1990 to examine the course and advise on any improvements he considered
necessary. He proposed a new green for the 7th. , a new tee for the 9th.
, relocating the 4th. green across the drain and minor changes such
as planting of trees and placing of bunkers at strategic points throughout the
course. These works were duly carried out.
FOREWORD.
Some years ago, on being elected Vice-President, I decided to look into the
history of the club in which I had been interested for some time. However it was
not very long before I realised that there were very few records in existence
which I believe is not unusual in many of the smaller clubs throughout the
country. From its foundation up to the move to Barnacurragh our club was really
among this category.
I sincerely hope that this resultant publication will not only be a record of
the club’s past but will also be of interest to you its members.
Michael Moroney