Club History
Spring Meeting 24th April 1908
As a member of the Scottish club golfing scene Leven Golfing Society as such is a relative newcomer. However, as it is the product of an amalgamation, it lays claim to being the eleventh oldest club in the world.
On 29th February 1820, fifteen gentlemen golfers drew up a constitution of a club, to be called the Innerleven Golfing Society, for play over 15 holes of golfing ground called Dubbieside, on the site of what is now the Methil Power Station Complex. One round of Dubbieside then consisted of 5 holes but this was soon extended to 9 holes.
In addition to the club constitution, the members formulated Rules of the Game under which play on Dubbieside was to take place. This was in times before the R & A rules of the game became universal. The twelve written rules bear a remarkable similarity to some of those under which present day play takes place. The club initially prospered and by 1829 the membership stood at 55.
In 1848 the Dubbieside links was reputedly the place where Allan Robertson and Old Tom Morris first saw play with the Gutta Percha ball, the replacement of the feathery. The Spring Meeting Dinner of that year heard the first performance of the song 'In Praise of Gutta Percha'.
Like most golfing societies of the time, members had no fixed home. After-meeting dinners or suppers etc. took place at local hostelries and 1848 saw the club dining in the Star Inn. In 1849 the venue was the Crawford's Hotel. The green fee for each meeting was 3d and as these meetings took place only twice a year, the club's income was not great. It was not until 1853 that the club was given permanent use of a room in Mr Elder's building, free for the first year. In the same year the club agreed to take responsibility for the upkeep of a wooden bridge over Scoonie Burn but they had to finance that responsibility by asking members to subscribe individually. The playing ground was 9 holes to the Mile Dyke and the members record that the preparation, cleaning, continual extension of the Links was undertaken by the members and their families. November 1850 saw a match with St Andrews Golf Club. The visitors were successful and after dining in Crawford's Hotel "drove off in glorious style".
1865 saw the club sufficiently formed to ask Tom Morris to attend and suggest the sites of necessary bunkers. He was back in 1867 presumably in connection with the laying out of the links extension east of the Mile Dyke. For this work he was paid £1:1:0 plus 10/6 expenses.
By 1866 the progress of the Industrial revolution had begun to affect
play over the original links. Building of railway lines encroached on
the ground and at the Autumn Meeting of 1867, "because of the diminishing
breadth of the green", the club decided to play on the "popular
green at Leven". The club made a contribution to Leven Golf Club
of £10 because "they had brought the links into a fine condition".
When Lundin Mill G.C. was formed in 1868 the 9 holes then in play were
extended to take in the area south of the railway line up to the sand
dunes of Lundin Links. The first club competition over this extended course
took place on 28th September 1868, the winner being David Marshall with
a score of 99. Around this time the Innerleven club had moved their scene
of operations from their original home at Dubbieside The opening of the
full 18 holes was marked by a 36 hole match on 2nd October 1868.
At this time four clubs were playing over the same ground - Innerleven,
Leven Thistle, Leven Golf Club and Lundin Mill. Innerleven was in 1876
actually running the Links taking contributions towards the upkeep from
the other two Leven clubs.
Innerleven is reputedly also the first club to use sandboxes and one of
its early prominent members, Charles Anderson of Fettykill, whose descendents
still live in Leven, invented the hole-cutter.
Innerleven's first clubroom in Leven proper was in a building which had been a washing house for residents in the eastern part of the town. The owner, Matthew Elder, had converted it to a clubhouse and the two Leven clubs occupied the upper flat whilst the celebrated clubmaker, A. Patrick, had his workshop below. By 1881 the second lease period was running out and the members wanted a new clubhouse ready for 1883. Perhaps they objected to Elder increasing the yearly rent to £5! A site was obtained adjacent to the existing building on the site of the present Leven thistle clubhouse. The original building was bought from Matthew Elder for £200 and leased to Alex Patrick. A new building was constructed at a total cost of £1,066.9.7 but by the early 1890s this was found to be insufficient for the members needs, despite the excellence of the catering therein. By 1892 active discussions were taking place with one John Wilkie, a builder, to buy his feu of the ground to the west of the Home hole and to build a new clubhouse. By 1894 this was completed and ready for occupation. The final cost of the house and furnishings was the immense sum of £4,400.
Golf had not been forgotten amongst all this building and moving. 1855 saw the club actively taking part in the organising of a 'National Tournament'. This tournament finally took place in St Andrews in 1857. The Innerleven representatives, messrs. David Wallace and David Marshall, were given strict instructions to "bring home the prize". Sadly the winners were Blackheath.
Proof that Innerleven was amongst the leading clubs of the day is shown by the invitation, in 1886, by the R & A to participate in arranging the proposed Annual Amateur Championship and the next year the club was invited to send a representative to the newly formed Permanent Organising Committee.
The year 1870 saw the start of something that has grown throughout the years. The Standard Life Assurance Company, then proprietors of Lundin Estate, gifted a gold medal for amateur competition by members of Innerleven, Leven and Leven Thistle golf clubs and members of any other club approved by the Council of the Innerleven Golfing Society. With this proviso, the Tournament can proudly claim to be the oldest Open Amateur Stroke Play Competition in the world, predating Glasgow Golf Club's Tennant Cup by some ten years. The competition was originally over 18 holes, the first winner being a local player, James Elder, with a score of 85. Over the decades the Tournament has grown in stature and is now one of the prestigious competitions in Scottish Golf. Traditionally play for the Amateur Champion Medal (strictly the correct title) took place on the second day of the club's Summer Meeting. In present times, early August sees the reservation of Leven Links for the "Standard Life Gold Medal"
Despite being a leading club in the country, and still in 1908 sending a representative to the amateur Championship Organising Committee, the Council in October 1912 did not accept an invitation to join the Golf Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Perhaps this insularity was the source of the club's eventual demise.