4/5 Prashanth K. 4 years ago on Google
Our
history
dates
back
to
the
establishment
of
the
game
of
golf
in
Sri
Lanka,
and
over
a
century
of
sport
and
sporting
traditions,
customs,
manners
and
styles
of
the
British
in
Ceylon.
A
fragment
of
it
is
to
be
seen
in
the
founding
of
the
Colombo
Golf
Club
and
its
life
thereafter
as
the
Royal
Colombo
Golf
Club.
In
1879,
a
handful
of
intrepid
British
expatriates
decided
that
it
was
time
to
introduce
golf
to
a
small
British
Colony
called
Ceylon.
The
British
were
recognized
for
their
skills
in
organized
sports
and
it
inevitably
spread
throughout
Ceylon.
Not
only
golf
but
horse
racing,
polo,
cricket,
football,
hockey
and
rugby
were
initially
introduced
on
Galle
Face
Green.
It
was
there,
sharing
with
cricket
and
rugby
enthusiasts
on
Galle
Face
Green,
that
the
Royal
Golf
Club
was
inaugurated
without
a
clubhouse
or
a
proper
golf
course
After
the
first
year
of
being
inaugurated,
nine
gentlemen
met
and
decided
it
was
time
to
elect
a
committee
and
create
a
set
of
rules
to
handle
the
affairs
of
the
club.
On
the
Saturday
afternoon
of
March
13th,
1880,
they
met
at
the
Colombo
Club
and
held
the
first
Annual
General
Meeting.
Membership
was
growing
fast
and
Galle
Face
Green
was
becoming
more
and
more
crowded,
what
with
sharing
the
ground
with
other
sports
enthusiasts
and
the
general
public.
Edward
Aitken
took
the
chair
and
R.
L.
M.
Brown
was
the
first
Honorary
Secretary.
The
first
Chairman
and
Captain
was
W.
Law
and
the
committee
consisted
of
W.
Somerville,
F.
A.
Fairlie
and
R.
Webster.
Sir
Charles
Henry
de
Soysa,
a
Ceylonese
philanthropist,
set
up
a
farm
named
Alfred
Model
Farm
in
pursuit
of
creating
a
centre
for
excellence
in
agriculture
and
animal
husbandry.
The
farm
never
took
off
and
he
ended
up
gifting
the
land
to
the
colonial
government.
Around
the
same
time,
Sir
West
Ridgeway
arrived
in
Colombo
as
the
new
British
Governor
of
Ceylon.
Being
a
golf
enthusiast
himself,
the
golfing
community’s
requests
for
a
separate
ground
fell
on
sympathetic
ears.
On
July
1896
the
Alfred
Model
Farm
was
officially
converted
to
the
Colombo
Golf
Club.
In
1928,
His
Majesty
King
George
V,
bestowed
upon
the
Club
the
privilege
of
using
the
prefix
“Royal”,
and
consequently
the
Colombo
Golf
Club
came
to
be
known
as
the
Royal
Colombo
Golf
Club.
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