Royal Colombo Golf Club (Sinhala: කොළඹ රාජකීය ගෝල්ෆ් සමාජය සහ පිටිය) is one of the oldest Golf Clubs in Sri Lanka. Its course is situated adjacent to Borella Cemetery in Colombo District.
History
The Colombo Golf Club was established in 1879 by ten founder members, led by Edward Aitken, the founder of Aitken Spence (Gunawardena, 2003). On 13 March 1880, they met at the Colombo Club and held the first general meeting of the Golf Club. E. Aitken took the chair and R. L. M. Brown was the first Honorary Secretary. W. Law became the first Chairman and W. Somerville, F. A. Fairlie and R. Webster elected the initial committee members.
In 1896, the club was moved to Alfred Model Farm, an abandoned model farm set up by a Sri Lankan philanthropist Sir Charles Henry de Soysa (1836-1890) who finally gifted it to the colonial government. The golf course was opened in July of the same year by Governor Joseph West Ridgeway (1896-1903), after whom the Ridgeway Links were named.
In 1928, King George V (1910-1936) bestowed upon the club a royal charter, which enabled the club to use the prefix "Royal". The club opened its doors to Sri Lankans in 1936 (Gunawardena, 2003).
See Also
#) Nuwara Eliya Golf Club & Course
References
1) Gunawardena, C.A., 2003. Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka. Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd. ISBN: 81-207-2536-0. p.162.
Attribution
1) "Ridgeway" Royal Colombo Golf Club course and Royal Colombo Golf Club course by Dhammika Heenpella are licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
