The Royal Montreal Golf Club (French: Club de Golf Royal Montréal) was founded in 1873 by a group of eight gentlemen in a dockside office. Eleven years later, in 1884, permission was granted by Queen Victoria to use the "Royal" prefix.
The first golf course was a 9-hole layout on Fletcher's Field, part of Mount Royal Park, which was shared by the red-coated golfers and other citizens relaxing in what was then the outskirts of Montreal. The first female member - Mrs William Watson Ogilvie - was admitted in 1891 - the first woman of any golf club in North America. In 1899, the Ladies moved on to their own golf club.
In 1896, the club moved to Dixie, in the parish of Dorval, where it remained until the pressures of urban growth again dictated a decision to move. The clubhouse at Dixie is now the Queen of Angels Academy for Girls.
The last move was to Île-Bizard, Quebec in 1959, where 45 holes were constructed by American golf course architect Dick Wilson. The Blue Course continues to be ranked as one of the "100 Greatest Courses in the World".
Royal Montreal was one of the five founding Clubs of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1995. The RCGA is the governing body of golf in Canada and organizes the major national championships, including the Canadian Open, the first of which was played at Royal Montreal in 1904.
In September 2007, Royal Montreal hosted the Presidents Cup; an event which enables the World's best non-European players to compete in an international team match play competition against the top 12 PGA Tour players in the United States.
Famous quotes containing the words royal, golf and/or club:
“a highly respectable gondolier,
Who promised the Royal babe to rear
And teach him the trade of a timoneer
With his own beloved brattling.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Years ago we discovered the exact point, the dead center of middle age. It occurs when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up to the net.”
—Franklin Pierce Adams (1881–1960)
“At first, it must be remembered, that [women] can never accomplish anything until they put womanhood ahead of wifehood, and make motherhood the highest office on the social scale.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, pp. 24-5 (January 1870)