The Links of Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland; considered the birthplace of golf, were shared by many different clubs throughout the 1700 and 1800’s; one of which was the Thistle Golf Club. Sadly, the original Thistle Golf Club itself, based in Leith, is no more. The club was established in 1815 and played on Leith Links with the Leith Golfers who would become the Honorable Company of Edinburgh golfers based at Muirfield. The Golfers Yearbook of 1866 reported of the Thistle Club that This Club was established in 1815 and was in active operation for 15 years up to 1830. After having been in abeyance for 36 years, it was resuscitated on 5th April 1866. The members have a commodious Clubroom, and the game has made great progress since Spring; the resident professional being Willie Dunn, whose services the Club was fortunate enough, to secure. Its most important accomplishment was that in 1824 it published a rule book with an extensive introduction on golf history, which they termed as “some historical notices relative to the progress of the game of golf in Scotland.” Significantly, then history documents the origins of ball games, which with the related technology of the leather-bound ball, known as the feathery, was key to golf development. Sadly, for the club, much of the Leith Thistle Club memorabilia has been sold off. One bowl survives in the National Museum of Scotland. Recently, Thistle Club scorecards from 1825 were discovered and are available in occasional auctions. Spiritually, the club’s name is also kept alive by the Thistle Golf Club in Sunset Beach, North Carolina (20 miles north of Myrtle Beach, SC), an apparently commercial development of Thistle Estates. Quite a difference from the 7 holes on Leith Links. The North Carolina club is 110 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina which is the site of the first mention of golf in America when golf clubs and balls were imported in 1739 and 1743.

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