Heritage

Formation

1892

• The Club is founded with both male and female members.
• The subscription was 31 shillings and three pence, the equivalent of £1.56 today.
• The entrance fee was the same.
• Queen Victoria is on the throne and William Gladstone in his fourth term as prime minister.
• Little did that group of enthusiasts meeting in a pub in Richmond realise how their creation would grow.

1899

• JH Taylor leaves Royal Wimbledon to become professional at Mid-Surrey.
• It was his idea to build the humps and hollows to add character to the flat terrain.
• The old Outer Course now bears his name.

1926

• The club gains royal status by command of King George V.
• His son, The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, becomes club captain.

1936

• Pam Barton wins the British and US Amateur Championships.
• She was killed in a wartime flying accident but was later honoured by the club by naming the old Inner Course in her memory.

1937

• A new, colonial style clubhouse is built, bringing men and women golfers into the same building for the first time.

1947

• Royal Mid-Surrey’s Artisan Section is formed.
• During that winter’s big freeze, they could not work on the course and built the artisans’ clubhouse which still stands.

1992

• The Club celebrates its centenary.
• Planning began five years in advance and there were two main themes running through the many events- a re-connection with the club’s royal history and including as many members as possible.

2001

• Fire destroys the old clubhouse with the flames consuming virtually all of the club’s memorabilia as well as many sets of members’ golf clubs.
• The cause was never identified.

2003

• The new clubhouse opens after two years spent in a marquee alongside the building site.
• The committee tried to re-create as much of the atmosphere as the old building.
• The main difference was spreading the new facilities over two floors.

2004

• The principle of full equality for men and women was voted in at the AGM of that year, with equal playing rights and the same membership subscriptions.
• Equality was formally recognised ten years later when the club’s governance changed.

2014

• The second phase is completed of greens’ re-construction on the JH Taylor Course.
• All 18 greens were rebuilt to USGA standards.
• The project took seven years altogether but finally solved the course’s problems with drainage and soil compaction.

2017 

125 anniversary celebrations.

More informal than the centenary and with no royal presence this time.