THIS WEEK IN HISTORY, 1925: B.C.'S FIRST MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE OPENS AT HASTINGS PARK
Golf exploded in popularity after the First World War. But there were very few courses to play in Vancouver, and they were for the elite, not the masses.
“They needed a course where the average guy could just put his dollar on the counter and play golf,” explains Mike Riste, historian for the B.C. Golf Museum.
Public courses had opened in Seattle, Spokane and Portland and had done a thriving business.
So, in 1924, the Vancouver park board teamed up with the Vancouver Exhibition Association to build the first municipal course in British Columbia.
“They decided ‘Ooo, this is a money-maker,’” said Riste. “‘Golf courses like Jefferson in Seattle, they’re making lots of money, we’d better get into the game.’”
The location was at Hastings Park , east of the Vancouver Exhibition (the PNE’s original name) and Hastings Park racetrack.
“At first it was nine holes, but then it expanded to 18,” said Riste.
“The clubhouse was basically on the corner of Windermere and Hastings. They began clearing all the land north of Windermere to Cassiar, where the tunnel is today. They cleared all that and expanded it to 18 holes.”
The course started off in the centre of today’s PNE grounds, and angled over to where Empire Stadium (today’s Empire Bowl) was eventually located.
“The roller-coaster, all the grounds through the middle there was where the golf course was,” said Riste. “The second hole was located on the corner of Hastings and Renfrew.”
The course was a big hit when it opened May 1, 1925.
“Amid the cheers of a large concourse of citizens, the first municipal golf course in British Columbia was declared open by Mayor L.D. Taylor on Saturday afternoon,” said a front-page story in the May 3, 1925, Vancouver Sunday Province.
The story was accompanied by several photos, including one of the 67-year-old mayor after hitting “a powerful 300-foot drive” at the opening ceremony.
L.T. Taylor was an appropriate guy to tee off — he had made a career fashioning himself a champion of the working man. The course cost 35 cents to play nine holes when it opened.
Golf has a long history in B.C.
“The Victoria Golf Club formed Nov. 10, 1893, and is the fourth oldest continuous golf course on their original location in North America,” said Riste.
But Vancouver had a course a year earlier.
“On Nov. 5, 1892 at 525 Seymour (Street) a group of guys led by the Bell-Irvings and Campbell Sweeney the bank manager got together and formed the Vancouver Country Club,” said Riste. “They went out to Jericho and built nine holes on the beach.”
The original Jericho course only lasted until 1894, but it started up again in 1905 and lasted until 1942, when the military took over the site during the Second World War.
“It was always military land, and that’s why in 1942 they lost their lease, to build the Jericho naval base,” said Riste.
The Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club was started in 1911 on land leased from the Canadian Pacific Railway, but was quite exclusive, like Jericho.
“Those two clubs were strictly based on old money and your standing in the social community in Vancouver,” said Riste. “Otherwise, you couldn’t get in.”
A third private course, the Vancouver Golf Club , opened in Coquitlam in 1912. “It was basically businessmen who couldn’t get into Jericho and Shaughnessy,” said Riste.
The CPR opened its own 18-hole public course at Langara in 1926. It was purchased by the City of Vancouver in the 1960s, but part of the original course became Langara College.
Part of the old Shaughnessy Heights course is now VanDusen Gardens , part is now Eric Hamber school. But the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club continues to operate at 4300 SW Marine Drive on land leased from the Musqueam First Nation.
The Hastings Park golf course lasted until 1953, when Vancouver took over the land to build Empire Stadium.
“The British Empire Games were originally supposed to be out at UBC,” explained Riste. “But at the very last minute UBC said ‘no, we don’t want them,’ and the city had to scramble around to find a location. So they built Empire Stadium on the old golf course.”