Playing a round at the old Lindsay golf links

Just in Time local history series

The words “tee,” “par,” and “fore” are likely the farthest thing from the minds of dog-walkers, pedestrians, and schoolchildren making their way through the bucolic setting of Broad Street Park in Lindsay. The same is true for hungry patrons at the A&W restaurant on the south side of Kent Street, shoppers struggling to find a parking spot outside of Staples or Food Basics, and the residents of nearby Fallingbrook Crescent or Thrushwood Trail.

And yet for more than 90 years, this vocabulary was virtually synonymous with this neighbourhood south of Kent and west of Angeline Streets – from 1909 until around 2002, what is now a busy commercial district and quiet residential area was home to the Lindsay Golf Club’s nine-hole course.

There is some debate about precisely when the Lindsay Golf Club first got off the ground. The game was almost certainly being played in local pastures by interested residents prior to 1900, and one source suggests that a club was formed as early as 1902. Another couple of years would pass, though, before what we now know as the Lindsay Golf and Country Club was born. On Sept. 15, 1904, a group of golfers – including J.G. Edwards, C.D. Barr, Robert Ross, and L.V. O’Connor, among others – met to formally elect an executive and brainstorm about where they were going to play the game. “It is felt that within another year Lindsay will be able to boast of having links second to none outside the cities,” a brief item in the Evening Post newspaper optimistically announced two days later.

As with any monumental civic undertaking, things took a bit longer than planned. April of 1905 saw a temporary course of a mere seven holes laid out on the Corley farm that would keep local putters amused until the full nine-hole facility could be completed. Enthusiastic golfers sometimes disregarded basic golfing etiquette in their rush to play a round or two in these primitive conditions. “The Green Committee should give notice that there must be no playing upon all greens and fair greens under seed or repair until such time as they may announce,” an anonymous golfer wrote in May of 1908. “The Green Committee undoubtedly have absolute power and control in a matter of this kind, and it ought not to be necessary to write this letter,” grumbled the correspondent.

By 1909, membership in the Lindsay Golf Club was nearing 80 people, with 39 men and 39 women taking to the greens with their wooden clubs in tow. Many of these players would have purchased their equipment from J.G. Edwards’ hardware store, and a sense of formality defined the fashion choices of those venturing out to indulge in putting contests, handicap competitions, and foursomes. Men donned flat caps, knickers, and argyle socks, while ladies were attired in blouses, bicycle skirts, and wide-brimmed hats. A new two-room clubhouse regularly hosted afternoon teas organized by local women, with refreshments being served up on the porch after games.

The Lindsay Golf Club could now at last “boast of having links second to none outside the cities,” particularly after the Corley farm, previously rented, was acquired outright around 1919. Even so, the grounds’ agricultural origins were still apparent whenever a local cow found its way onto the greens. This prompted the construction of fences around each green; while cattle were frowned upon, sheep were apparently welcome as their grazing aided in maintenance. By the 1940s, the sheep had been succeeded by a converted Ford Model “A” with a lawnmower in tow.

A new clubhouse was constructed in 1924, set back within a grove of trees at the edge of the course. Resembling a small cottage, this picturesque building sported comfortable tables and chairs for use in bridge games and the ever-popular afternoon teas. Locker rooms were fully equipped with showers, and a small store sold cigarettes and other provisions. (Players who successfully hit a ball down the tree-lined 385-yard fairway towards the fourth hole were given a package of cigarettes as a reward for their golfing prowess.)

By the mid-1930s, the Lindsay golf links was known for miles around, and the club had a membership of almost 150 individuals who seemingly cared little for the sort of social snobbery that might have characterized other clubs. “A splendid spirit of democracy features the Lindsay Golf and Country Club in that it embraces people in the various professions and walks of life who mingle together in a competitive sport for the sake of the sport and the enjoyment that may be obtained from it,” asserted a visitor in the June 27, 1935, edition of the Post.

That spirit endeared the old links to generations of local golfers. “We spent all day there,” recalls Dale Piggott. He began playing at that course around 10 years old, worked in the back shop as a teenager, and was instrumental in relocating the Lindsay Golf Club to its present location. On May 6, 2003, more than a decade’s worth of planning came to fruition when a professionally designed 18-hole course opened on the former Murphy farm, across from Riverside Cemetery.

“The future of golf in Lindsay is bright,” Piggott says. May it be so for another 120 years.