A stroll down memory lane

Denton Golf Club is proud of its course, modern clubhouse and a thriving membership with strong connections to the local community, but over the years it has had many changes and traumas to deal with.

Denton legend Ian McIlvanney has been looking back at the highlights and disasters the club has enjoyed and endured since it began as a nine-hole course in 1909 with Dr Wakefield McGill as the first captain.

He was captain in 1909, 1910, and 1911 and a founder member who was president in 1921 and also played a great part in the local Denton community.

The course was soon extended to 18 holes and the first clubhouse was erected in 2011, but was destroyed by fire in 1922 and was soon rebuilt with Dr McGill performing the opening ceremony.

Then on October 13, 1940, a German bomb hit the building rendering it uninhabitable. There were no casualties as the clubhouse had closed 30 minutes before the bomb fell, but all the club records and documents were lost.

There was a rescue mission to retrieve Mutt, the steward’s cat and he was discovered safe but dishevelled, covered in dust in an upstairs room.

The clubhouse design was then greatly adapted and re-opened in 1950 to end a 10 year period without a clubhouse and its facilities.

Over the next few years the development of the A57 and North West Water’s plan to develop the course as a business park and the construction of the M60 were worrying times for the club. Then came light at the end of the tunnel with the construction of the excellent current clubhouse followed by the demolition of the old clubhouse to take Denton into its present highly regarded status in golf and the local community.

Ian said: “We have a great book – Denton Links - which was written by member Alan Ward in 2006 - which gives the full history of our great club with some outstanding memories both on and off the course.”