Carnegie Shield celebrates 100 years

Robin Wilson of Brora Golf Club reports on a landmark milestone for one of Scottish golf’s most prestigious and enduring amateur competitions.

When Andrew and Louise Carnegie took the Struie Road by Altnamain to Bonar Bridge and onward to Clashmore, it was with the vaguest idea of what sort of property to purchase for their Highland base.

It was Louise who was attracted to the almost derelict building that had been Skibo Castle, and Andrew’s wealth restored it to the present splendid edifice, which he described as ‘Heaven on Earth’. To complement the castle and its grounds, a short golf course for the Carnegie family to learn to play the game upon was created.

It was a natural follow through, therefore, that they patronise the nearby Dornoch Golf Club, which in turn had been patronised by such golfing luminaries as Joyce and Roger Wethered, the Holderness family along with such house guests as John Henry Taylor.

The culmination of their interest took the form of the presentation to the club in 1901 of the magnificent Carnegie Shield to be completed for each August when lodges filled up with house guests aplenty.

Post war, Skibo once more lapsed into disuse until resurrected by entrepreneur Peter de Savary in the early 1990s. On the ground of Carnegie’s original golf course, he commissioned Donald Steel to design and build a now highly acclaimed championship golf links. The opening was marked in 1996 by a match between Greg Norman and Fred Couples and filmed for Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf series.

The Carnegie influence survives. Although the Carnegie Shield is 112-years-old, as a consequence of two World Wars last August’s competition was it’s 100. Indeed, entries are required years in advance and a waiting list almost as long as the Struie Road to Bonar-Bridge builds up every year.

As if history was repeating itself, through to the final went another local member, Chris Mailley, a product of the club’s junior section

To celebrate the Carnegie Shield centenary competition, an invitation from the club, long since elevated to Royal courtesy of King Edward V11 in 1906, went out to all previous winners to attend and take part. Twenty of them turned up, the oldest local retired club professional Willie Skinner at 80 years of age and the most prolific winner with ten in all, Brora’s Jim Miller, now 70. Guest of honour was Andrew and Louise’s great, great granddaughter Margaret Thomson of Overskibo.

Margaret’s great, great grandmother, Louise, made the first presentation in 1901 to local member Tommy Grant. Grant won only once but, along with four other Dornoch golfers, made his mark in the Amateur Championship of 1909, a year that came to be known as the “Muirfield invasion” The Dornoch entrants confounded the world of golf by eliminating such notable names as Harold Hilton, while Grant, a butcher’s apprentice, defeated John Ball.

As if history was repeating itself, through to the final went another local member, Chris Mailley, a product of the club’s junior section and who rose to prominence in 2002 as a 19-year-old, winning both the North District Championship and Youths’ title.

Mailley, affectionately known as “Chippie”, went up against Trey Wilkinson from the Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. The American was bidding to become only the third American to lift the trophy in 100 years of competition.

Wilkinson’s attempt suffered a setback over the opening eight holes when he was three-down and, although he cut that deficit to two on the ninth hole, he stole the tenth with a long putt for par when his opponent three putted from no distance.

With his three-hole advantage restored, the local player never allowed his American opponet sight of winning line and walked away a 4&3 winner with his third birdie of the game on the 15th green.

In a repeat of 1901, Mailley had the priceless trophy presented to him by a surviving member of the Carnegie family, the great, great granddaughter, Margaret Thomson, pictured below.