Quebec – The Early Years

Quebec, founded in 1608, was the center of the French empire in the new world. New France, as it was called, controlled the St. Lawrence River and everything upstream to the west. It was based upon the fur trade and the rival English traders were no match for the French voyageurs who explored far to the west of the Great Lakes and south down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

         This remained the situation for 150 years until the French and Indian War of 1754-63. In 1759, following a number of battles, English General James Wolfe quietly mustered his troops one night up to the heights adjacent to the fort of Old Quebec. The next morning’s battle took less than half an hour. The English triumphed, but Wolfe and his French opponent, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, were killed. The short battle was to change things forever.

          The English were now in charge and they wasted no time in establishing trading and business centers in Quebec and along the St Lawrence. The Northwest Trading Company was formed, a group of hardy Scots who prospered thanks in large part to the trading lane of the now open St. Lawrence River. Their influence led to trading and settlements upriver to the west as far as what became Winnipeg.

          With the Scots came golf. Newspaper reports of the time mention that golf was being practiced. Just before Christmas in 1826, a notice was published in the Montreal Herald calling upon Scots to remember their heritage and gather on the 25th and again upon Jan.1  to play at golf. Clubs would be provided – no mention of balls.

          In 1826 those balls would have been featheries. And we are talking about the golfer of that time. A person had to be of some means to afford to play. So these folks would have been of the merchant class or officers in the British Army. Even golf in Scotland was not yet played by the working man. Not to mention their personal hardiness – golf in Quebec in winter!

        A few years later, in the summer of 1854, a 16-year-old British seaman was interviewed while practicing golf shots on the Plains of Abraham, where the battle had been fought for Quebec. He gave his name as William Dolman and thus became the first named person to play golf in North America. He must have some privilege in order to be allowed on the plains. 

        Dolman, a native of Musselburgh, was back home within a year as a private citizen and continued to work on his game. The youngest of four Dolman brothers in the 1860s and 70s in Scotland he became the finest amateur player in the country, known at courses throughout Aberdeen, Musselburgh and Glasgow. Dolman died in 1918 never knowing what a legend he had become back in Canada.

        Golf in some fashion was being played through the 1860s both in Quebec and Montreal, but it was not until 1873 that a golf club was formed in Montreal and the following year in Quebec. In each case the Scot influence was strong.

       The first president of Montreal Club was Alex Denniston who had come to Canada in 1840 from Musselburgh. Denniston, a business man, remained president until 1881 when he and his wife, then in their 60s, returned to Edinburgh. He continued to compete locally but seldom returned to Montreal.

      The inspiration for the Quebec Club was said to be a visiting young Scot, 26-year-old James Hunter. Married to Elizabeth Morris, the daughter of Old Tom, Hunter was a fine amateur, said to be much admired. The Hunter’s did not stay long, returning to Scotland within a short time. Hunter’s business had him traveling and, while on a trip to Mobile, Ala. in 1885, he passed away.

         The first golf course of Royal Quebec, as it later became, was laid out over an area named Cove Fields that included the Plains of Abraham and was right next to the Citadel and the two Martello towers and on the south, bounded by cliffs descending to the St. Lawrence River. The same cliffs by which James Wolfe’s troops snuck up single file in the dead of night on Sept. 12,1759.

          In 2008, Quebec held a month-long 400th Centenary Celebration. As part of the festivities, the first golf course on this ground was recreated and interested visitors supplied with clubs and period gutties to bat around. It was, as they say “a real blast.” I know as I was one of those visitors. I still remember the challenging and interesting layout that was mapped from the old drawings. And to play it with the MacIntyre ball and hickory sticks with a gallery wandering the parkland was an experience I will never forget!”