History

The Knock Golf Club is one of the oldest in Belfast having celebrated its Centenary in 1995.

In May1895,a group of eight gentlemen got together to create Knock Golf Club on a site adjacent to the old Knock Railway Station and opposite to what is now the Headquarters of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The course was described as a ‘very small 9-hole links’. Within three years is was too small and land was leased in Shandon Park beneath the hill from which the area takes its name. This wooded scene is portrayed in the Club Crest. This course was also a 9-hole and again in its time became too small.

In May 1920 the club bought the Summerfield Estate at Dundonald for the sum of £10,946 and three pence. Summerfield was a family estate, owned by the Gordon family who were wealthy County Down landowners. The Gordons also set up a local banking empire which was later to become the Northern Bank.

The Estate consisted of a 200 year old Georgian style house, out-houses, stabling, walled gardens, greenhouses and around 80 acres of farmland. Buying a country estate was one thing but turning it into a golf course using only horsepower and manual labour was another. The land needed a considerable amount of work, hedges had to be cleared, earth moved, greens, tees and bunkers built. Outbuildings had to be demolished while water, electricity and a crude form of central heating were installed in the clubhouse.

The task of designing a viable golf course was entrusted to a firm of golf architects, Colt, McKenzie and Allison. One partner, Harold Colt, had been involved in developing Royal Belfast and Royal Portrush while another, Dr Alister McKenzie, designed the world famous U.S. Masters course at Agusta.

In those halcyon days membership, including entrance fee was a mere £3. The course has undergone many modifications since opening with the maturing trees, meandering rivers, as well as a liberal sprinkling of bunkers all pleasant features which ensure a difficult but fair test of golf. Playing down the 6th fairway you cannot help to notice the 70 feet tall ‘monkey puzzle’ tree which is alleged to be the oldest in the British Isles. This hole is particularly attractive in the spring when the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom.

It took many years and much negotiation before a much needed extra eleven and a half acres were leased from the Hospitals Authority in the 1950's, this allowed the course to presented in the wonderful condition and layout it is today.