The John Lumsden Memorial Cup is a 36 hole stroke play event that is taking place on Sunday August 1st. It is an open competition for any golfers who are members of a club in Leinster and they are invited to inform their friends who might be interested in an opportunity to play the singles event in Royal Dublin.
The entry fee is €50 per non-member and €15 per member which includes lunch. The WHS index limit is 9.4 and completed entry forms should be sent to info@theroyaldublingolfclub.com or dropped into the office by the closing date of Wednesday July 14th.
On the day there will be prizes for:
Best Nett – The John Lumsden Memorial Cup
Second Best Nett
Third Best Nett
Best Gross
Fourth Best Nett
Second Best Gross
A Short History – Prepared by Peter Finnegan
The Lumsden Cup will take place on Sunday 1st August over the Royal Dublin Links at Dollymount, for the 93rd time since its inauguration in 1926. The 36 hole event is an Open Competition for all golfers in the province of Leinster, with a WHS index of 9.4 and under.
John Lumsden, a Scottish banker after whom the trophy is named was one of the true pioneers of golf in Ireland. He was a vice president of The Golfing Union of Ireland and a founding member of The Royal Dublin Golf Club. He was tireless in promoting the game of golf and was always available to assist and advise in encouraging the spread of golf throughout the country.
On Easter Monday 1885 together with his two young sons and a fellow enthusiast Hugh McKean, he laid out a course in the Phoenix Park, which is recognised as the first 18-hole golf course in Ireland. The first recorded inter club golf match in Ireland was played over this course on 24th October 1885 when the newly formed Dublin Golf Club hosted The Royal Belfast Golf Club in a ten a-side match, a memorable day ended with Dublin’s first golf dinner in the clubhouse. The Belfast Newsletter recorded “Our team will retain pleasant remembrance of the hearty reception given to them and of the great attention paid to them by Mr. Lumsden, the genial Captain of the Dublin club, who was deservedly proud of the decided success gained by his men”.
In 1926 The Leinster Branch instituted a competition under handicap for single figure members of Leinster Clubs and named it The John Lumsden Memorial Cup, to commemorate the memory of the man who had done so much to popularise the game of golf in the province of Leinster. The trophy was presented to the branch by his sons Sir John Lumsden and his brother Hugh to honour their father. The Leinster Branch invited Royal Dublin to host the inaugural playing of the Tournament and the winner J.G. Greene was a member of the host Club. It is the second oldest Leinster golf competition preceded only by the Barton Cup.
The event has been played at many different venues throughout Leinster and has taken a number of forms over the years from a 54-Hole event, to a week-long matchplay event with a 36 hole final, to its current format a 36 hole strokeplay event, with the best nett score winning the Lumsden Cup and further prizes for best gross score, the best first round and second round scores.
It is a very popular event and has been won by many great names in Irish golf over the years. The winners of the Lumsden Cup are recorded in the histories of many of the great golf clubs in Leinster. Tom Craddock of Malahide was the 1980 winner, in a stellar career he was an International golfer, Walker Cup player, Irish Amateur Open and Close champion; Roger Greene of Clontarf won the Lumsden Cup in 1933 and earned International honours that same year, the only member of that Club to be so honoured; The narrowly defeated finalist Jim Middleton is fondly remembered in Howth Golf Club as Uncle Jim “the very epitome of a gentleman”
J.F. (Jack) McLoughlin of Royal Dublin won in 1929, he was a West of Ireland champion, whose sister Molly McLoughlin of Kingstown, later Lady Captain of Clontarf Golf Club, was Irish Ladies Close champion in 1926. Con Harnett of Hermitage famously defeated Joe Carr of Sutton in the 1951 final. International golfer and Irish Close champion G.H. Owens of Skerries won in 1934, uncle of former Royal Dublin professional Leonard Owens and later President of the Golfing Union of Ireland.
A number of years ago the Leinster Branch invited the Committee of Royal Dublin to take over hosting the competition on a permanent basis, which Royal Dublin was very pleased to do. It is now run under the auspices of the Tournament Committee of Royal Dublin as an Open competition.
The Lumsden Cup now has a permanent home at Dollymount but it still remains as envisaged by its original founders, a competition open to members of the golf clubs in Leinster. This is entirely appropriate and serves to remind all golfers of the debt of gratitude we owe to the vision and energy of golf pioneers such as John Lumsden.
Leave a comment