Club History

Tyneside was formed in 1879, by 25 founder members following a meeting at the Douglas Hotel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and as such is the 11th oldest golf club in England.

Initially golf was played in red coats which identified them as members of the club, albeit this practice quickly fell out of favour.

With the club having been in existence for such a long time, unsurprisingly, it has a rich history with many “famous names” having been associated with the club over the years.

The club’s first two professionals, Mungo Park and his nephew Willie Park Junior, were winners of the Open Championship. Wille Park Junior’s diverse range of talents included those of an exceptional player, club designer, ball maker and golf architect. He is widely acknowledged to have laid the foundation stones of golf course architecture, practicing widely on the Continent and North America as well as across the United Kingdom. It is rumoured that in the 1950’s a group of members burned a set of Willie Park Junior’s wooden clubs on the fire within the clubhouse one cold Winter’s evening as no firewood was available!
Subsequent professionals include JS Fernie (a brother of Open Champion Willie Fernie), LH Vardon (nephew of the great Harry Vardon), and TE Edgar (brother of J Douglas Edgar who won the Canadian Open and was runner up in the US PGA Championship).

Mac Gunn, the club’s longest standing professional, holding the position for forty years between 1964 and 2004, qualified five times for the Open Championship. His score of 63 in a final qualifying round in 1972 at Gullane 1, one of the years the Open was held at Muirfield, was a record for an Open qualifier that stood for over 20 years. Mac played regularly in tournaments which would now be categorized as being on the DP World Tour, and achieved “top 15 finishes” on at least 4 occasions.

Another notable name with a connection with the club is JSF Morrison who prior to the First World War was a member of Tyneside. As a long time partner of Harry S Colt, Morrison was one of the leading golf course architects of the first half of the 20th century designing and redesigning courses such as Princes and Sunningdale New. He was by all accounts an “interesting character” – he was one of the first pilots to land a plane on an aircraft carrier, was a Walker Cup selector and had a penchant for watching golf on horseback.

The clubhouse at Tyneside is a beautiful and historic building. Built in 1911 it is, we believe, the only remaining example in England of what was once a typical wooden Edwardian Pavilion style golf clubhouse. In 2010 the exterior of this iconic building underwent a complete restoration which brought the fabric up to date whilst sympathetically retaining its original features. In 2025 an extensive internal refurbishment was undertaken which restored the vaulted wooden ceiling in the main lounge to its original state.

The club has continued to thrive and grow over the past 145 years from an initial membership of 25 to a position today where the club has over 600 playing members, including well established Ladies, Seniors and Juniors sections.