Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh, 1761. Amid cheers, the Captain of the then Bruntsfield Links Golfing Club swings his driver and plays the opening shot to ceremonially inaugurate The Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society which, to this day, remains the fourth oldest golfing body in the world.
To celebrate the Society’s 250th Anniversary, I was asked by its committee in 2009 to design and produce a book to commemorate this significant milestone.
So, for the last two years, it has been my pleasure and honour to work with the Secretary and Past Captains of the Society and, in particular, it was a delight to work with Pat Colledge, the book’s author, on what has been another mammoth golf production.
Pat had spent the previous three years researching and writing the Society’s history and finding old cuttings and images, a total of five very active years on this project.
It was on my early suggestion that we decided to publish the book in March 2012, so that we could include all the 250th Anniversary events within the book. I’m very happy to say that the Society also agreed that we keep the book’s production in Scotland. So, hot off the press last week at Haddington, each of the Society’s 1,150 members will now receive one of these 280 page, Wibalin bound editions, while a further edition of 50 leather bound issues are available for collectors and buyers.
Obviously a Society of such antiquity and importance – that has moved home from Bruntsfield Links to Musselburgh, then back to Barntongate, Edinburgh – has many stories to tell and I must admit to enjoying many of them over and over again as I designed each page, checked, double checked, made author’s corrections, and final proofed the book (several times).
Thanks also go to Kenneth Grieve, a member, who took many of the photos in the book, GSR Photography, Dundee, who photographed all the trophies and prints, and Margaret Paterson, the Clubmistress, for her patience in typing the entire text in Word for me.
It has been such a privilege to have worked on this most enjoyable project, to enjoy the hospitality of such a wonderful club, and to play its course. In return, I hope its members enjoy their book.