Wimbledon Common Golf Club

About the Club

The Club was founded in 1908 and was originally called Wimbledon Town Golf Club. Golf has been played on the Common since 1865, when the Lord of the Manor of Wimbledon, Earl Spencer, gave officers of the London Scottish Rifle Regiment permission to construct a golf course. In 1871, after the earl had tried to seal off the land for his own private use, the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act was passed in Parliament and control of the Common was vested in a body of eight Conservators.

On 20th February 1908 at the Wimbledon Hill Hotel (now The Dog and Fox pub), a small group of local residents under the chairmanship of MV Ely agreed to form The Wimbledon Town Golf Club to play golf on the Common. Shortly after the first General Meeting of the Club, the local Member of Parliament, The Rt. Hon. Henry Chaplin became the first Club President. Membership levels were set at 100 residents of Wimbledon at a rate of one guinea per annum, and the club colours to be the obligatory pillar-box red coat with green facings and cuffs. In 1910 the maximum membership level was increased to 250. In 1919 the South London Golf Club amalgamated with Wimbledon Town GC, Prior to that, the South London GC had played on various Commons (Clapham, Streatham and Tooting) but the Conservators would not accord it official recognition to play on Wimbledon Common. The two clubs merged to form the Wimbledon and South London Golf Club, with SLGC bringing 35 members, a small amount of cash, and two cups still played for today - the South London Cup and the Finlayson Cup. In 1928 the Club was once again renamed, as the Wimbledon Common Golf Club.

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