I remembered the shekels that flowed to the coffers of
the Glasgow and South-Western from the Prestwick and Troon Golf Courses
on their line, and visions of enrichment for my little railway rose
before me. Very soon I induced my directors to adopt the view that the
railway company must encourage and help the project. This done the
course was clear. They were not so sanguine as I, but they had not lived
in Scotland nor seen how the Royal game flourished there and how it had
brought prosperity to many a backward place. Mr. Baillie's energy, with
the company's co-operation to back it, were bound to succeed, and on the
23rd March, 1889, with all the pomp and ceremony suitable to the occasion
(including special trains, and a fine luncheon given by the Directors of
the Company) the Golf links at Newcastle, Co. Down, were formally opened
by the late Lord Annesley. From that time onward golf in Ireland
advanced by leaps and bounds. Including Newcastle, there were then in
the whole country, only six clubs and now they number one hundred and
sixty-eight! The County Down Railway Company's splendid hotel on the
links at Newcastle, with its 140 rooms, and built at a cost of 100,000
pounds, I look upon as the crowning glory of our golfing exploration on
that winter day in 1888.
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