Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club
1982 - 2022
40th Anniversary

As we reach our Club’s 40th Anniversary it’s worth re-telling the story of how the Club was reborn.

In the early Eighties a group of Musselburgh men, friends, and acquaintances, began to meet regularly and socialise in local bars in the Musselburgh area. Golf was the bonding factor for this group, many were existing members at different courses while others, non-course members, played regularly on the council run Old Course.
A small informal, friendly golfing society was born, and they played out fiercely fought competitions on the Old Course, although the course was in decline and a shadow of its former glory this was the only course which could accommodate the society.
Often meeting in and retiring to local hostelries after golf they bemoaned the condition of the Old Course, but as the society grew in numbers this became problematic as they outgrew their favoured watering holes. So, the founding members set out to form a golf club which would be attached to the Old Course, committed to bring about much needed improvement and investment in the course and sourcing their own premises.
The Club applied pressure to the local authority and the Racecourse Committee, without success, and eventually turned to the local press who published an article featuring the efforts of the Club.
In 1982, the Racecourse Committee recognised the commitment of the society and offered the use of two near dilapidated prefabricated units, located in the ‘Silver Ring’ section of the Grandstand, to be used as a Clubhouse. The offer was conditional, that the society repair, reinstate and maintain the ‘building’ and pay a yearly rent of £1.00 per annum. Undeterred by the challenge ahead, the society grabbed this opportunity, and the Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club was born.
The Members pooled their personal funds, skills, and resources in to making the ‘Silver Ring Clubhouse’ habitable establishing a Clubhouse, bar, and locker room area. However, being located in a fairly remote location proved problematic as local thieves began targeting the Club. Numerous break-ins and thefts of clubs and equipment resulted, and although the local Constabulary made arrests and recovered some of the stolen property it was believed that at one time the local Police Station housed more sets of golf clubs than the actual Club itself.

So, from humble beginnings the club gradually prospered and in 1995 Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club, assisted by East Lothian District Council and The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, purchased the building and set about restoring it to its original purpose.