Clubs Within The Club
Turnhouse Golf Club has several friendly, thriving groups and sections across Ladies, Men and Juniors. Internally, we also have fantastic support from a number of clubs within the club, or ‘Intra Clubs’, who have been established for a long time. These groups are a great way to meet fellow likeminded members and integrate seamlessly into the club.
If you are a member of any club within the club and haven’t had a mention here, please contact us with your story and we will update the page.
Senior Moments
Just over thirty-four years ago (1990) Walter Maguire and John Morrison retired from their respective employment and with time on their hands decided to play some mid-week golf. They approached the senior group (now the Elvie Plus) which played on Tuesday mornings and some of them also on Thursdays but were rejected as being too young. Accordingly they started to play themselves on the alternative mornings of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They were soon joined by other retirees and so started a group which has now grown to a notional membership of some thirty players, including three past TGC Captains.
Click Here to visit the Senior Moments website
The Surfers
The Turnhouse Surfers are a friendly group of like-minded golfers of all handicaps who typically play on Monday and Wednesday mornings all year round and on Saturday morning during the winter. The Surfers run 3 competitions, the winter eclectic, plus a summer cup and a winter knockout. Some pictures and more can be found on their website.
Click Here to visit the surfers website
Winter Woolies
With an active Ladies section at Turnhouse, a group of 16 members formed in 2017 and called themselves the Winter Woolies. They play a Stableford competition on Sundays throughout the Winter for a very cute looking trophy, named Eunice!
Hellish Legions
THE NAMING OF THE WINTER SATURDAY AFTERNOON GOLFERS “THE HELLISH LEGIONS”
Back in autumn 1995 Alan Cleeton wrote an amusing article about “Clubs within Clubs” for the Turnhouse News. In it Alan recounts his experience of trying to finish on the 18th green just as the Saturday afternoon golfers leave the changing-room and head for the 1st and 10th tees. He reflects, ‘all we require to determine the result of our game is simple pitches and putts, when suddenly, a scene reminiscent of Tam O’ Shanter’s nightmare at Kirk-Alloway emerges:
‘When out the Hellish Legion sallied,
With loud resounding mirth and dancing,
Thro’ ilka bore the beams were glancing,
As gowfers glowr’d, amaz’d, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious,
Warlocks and Witches in a dance,
Nae cotillion brent new frae France!’
The pitches are duffed, putts are missed and handshakes are exchanged in a sort of daze.
Then the ‘Hellish Legions’ have passed. Gone to swarm all over the 1st and 10th tees.
‘The Deil has business on his hand’
Alan finished with reference to the late Peter Gordon who once ran this immensely popular group and also Jimmy Kirk. ‘Weel done Cutty Sark’ In the spring of 1996 Jimmy Kirk responded in like manner to Alan. The following is an extract from his article.
Readers may be interested to hear about the origins of the ‘Winter Saturday Afternoon Gentlemen Golfers’. Back in the early fifties, a golfer of some repute (Joe Kyle) joined our Club; he was a scratch golfer. By the time of his arrival at Turnhouse, Joe had been Club Champion at Ralston Golf Club a number of times, (seven, I believe) and whilst working for J & P Coates in Canada he won the Montreal Open Amateur Championship. Subsequently, he won the Turnhouse Championship four times (three in a row from 1955) and the Lothians Championship in 1958; four years after Stanley Smith, who was one of our long serving Members.
Not unnaturally, quite a number of Turnhouse Members were keen to have a game with him, but in these early days this privilege was restricted to a handful of “old worthies” and a nucleus of between six and eight was formed. However, this cosseting of Joe by these few members was much frowned upon and so the said Darkie Anderson invited a further few to make the total twelve. He was the first ‘Secretary’ to make a weekly draw. This was so successful that the original twelve soon became twenty-four and in 1960 I took over from A B Anderson.During the next few years the numbers mushroomed to a peak of 44 (much to the chagrin of the original members particularly in late December when the afternoons are short). It is true that we are an exuberant and boisterous lot – particularly when we invade the 1st and 10th tees – but we have lots of fun whilst enjoying highly competitive and cut-throat matches. Fifty years on we still have a healthy membership and hopefully the ‘Hellish Legions will carry on for some time yet.”
The 8:30 Club
The 8.30 club was established about 1947 to give its members an opportunity to play competitive golf throughout the winter. By dint of history and practice, we are a gentlemen’s club of approximately 24 members playing on Sunday mornings from October through to April. Our format is fourball Stableford: our philosophy is that if you’ve got out of a warm bed in the middle of the night, then you might as well play all eighteen holes!
Click Here to visit the 8.30 Club website
El Vie
This club was formed in 1986 by Dawson Cunningham who along with other members of Turnhouse Golf Club decided to form a group to play a Stableford competition during the winter months.This was for retired gentlemen 55 years and over. – Hence the name EL-VIE PLUS (LV) This club meets every Tuesday morning with a tee of time of 8.15am. A trophy was donated by Dawson Cunningham’s widow, and this is played for at the end of season outing. During the summer months the club still meets on a “bounce” game basis. In 2011 a splinter group was formed for the members who only wished to play 9 holes. Their tee of time is 9.15 am.
If any member is interested in joining this Intra club group, please contact Douglas Watson.
American League
The American League comprises of two leagues of fifteen teams, two players per team. They play at 8.30am on Sunday mornings. Fourteen matches are played between the middle of October and the end of March. Teams can be promoted and relegated between the “A” League and the “B” League. Matches are played using the Greensomes format – both players on a team tee off, the best of the two tee balls is selected and that ball is then played alternate-shot until holed. Click Here to see the American League Facebook page
The 3R’s
I’m often asked ‘what do the 3R’s stand for’? On giving the answer a disbelieving smile usually ensues. Back in the early 90’s a handful of retired members, luminaries such as Jack Morrison, Douglas Scott, Tom Chalmers, Stan Smith and David Black met and played golf on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the afternoon. The group became known as the Mid-week Golfers. The demographic shift meant that the numbers soon grew to well over twenty with golfers such as Ian Fraser, Brian Conner, Jim Malloch, Alan Cleeton et al. joining it. Alan Cleeton soon felt the urge to rename the group with a title more befitting an eclectic mix of characters from which it is made. After careful reflection he settled for: Retired, Redundant or Retarded is the authoritative definition, and like all truisms it has stuck.
In those early days with increasing numbers it was agreed to formalise the draw for the preferred game of four-ball foursomes, but when the number of players is odd say 13 then an individual Stableford is played. The kitty, 50p per head, going to the winner with the highest score. With certain members regularly winning, a handicap adjustment was introduced. This required a record to be kept of scores and revised handicaps. Hence a record book was started in October 1994; this (known as the black book) also contains the rules.
Everything went well for a while until the summer of 1999 when the one stroke reduction rule was brought in to question because Bobby Brown returned a score of 50 points (some saw this as equivalent to a net 55). The one stroke rule was quickly revised and to this date is a sliding scale of up to 5 strokes for 50 points (that’ll teach newcomers not to get too big for their boots, I’m sure they thought).
The preferred game is played in teams of 3 and the occasional team of 4. The 2 best Stableford scores count towards the points total; the team with the most points wins the kitty. Teams of 4 are handicapped 7 points. This is calculated using a database which has now been running for the past 5 years. With the passing of time some of our members have moved on and we annually play for the Memorial Stableford Trophy in memory of our absent friends. From a small beginning several years ago, the group is still going strong and would welcome any newly retired or redundant members. Meeting the third requirement ‘retarded’ new members, with the help from established members, usually develop signs of this within the first couple of years, thereby becoming fully established.
Click here to view the most recent rankings
BBT
The BBT Golf Club was founded in December 2003 and is based at Turnhouse Golf Club in Edinburgh. Membership is by invitation.
The club had a very successful first year, winning the Sivewright Trophy. We also reached the latter stages of the Evening News Dispatch Trophy – a feat we’ve repeated most years since.
In our second year, we were proud that Ian Robb represented the BBT Golf Club and took part in his first competitive matchplay tournament, the Lothians Handicap Champion of Champions – and won!
Our most recent success was in the 2015 Lothians Team Tournament – our team won the Walker Trophy for the lowest scoring Non-Course Owning club.
This site contains all the Club information as well as competition draws and results, so keep an eye on the site for up-to-date information regarding events and outings.
The BBT Golf Club is affiliated to the Lothians Golf Association.
Click Here to view the BBT Website.