The RCMP and the RRGC
In addition to having the coveted royal designation and adjacent locations, the Royal Regina Golf Club shares a long history with Canada’s national police force.
When the Regina Golf Club, the first in Saskatchewan, started play in 1899, its course was located in what is now Regina’s Crescent area. However, that location was plagued with mosquitoes, so in 1901, the Club moved to a new site near the barracks of the North West Mounted Police (the original name of the RCMP) and played on nine holes near Wascana Creek. NWMP Commissioner A.B. Perry and his daughters took an active part in the club.
From 1905 until 1910, the Club tried its original site again but then abandoned it permanently, moving back to the current location and taking up Com. Perry’s offer of the south end of the old recreation hall as a dressing room. The next year, members obtained use of the NWMP medical officer’s residence as their clubhouse, which continued until the Club opened a new clubhouse in 1924. During these years, the Force continued to allow the Club tenure on its property, until 1923 when the federal government arranged for a 21-year lease on the property, which was later extended to 99 years.
Co-operation with the Mounties continued in later years. For example, when the Club hosted the Canadian Junior Girls Championship in 1976, an RCMP drum and bugle corps played a part in the opening ceremonies. In 2009, when the Club entertained the directors of all the Canadian golf clubs with royal designation, a highlight of the event was a tour of Depot Division.
Thus, the Royal Regina Golf Club is proud to celebrate more than a hundred years of association with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with a display of RCMP artifacts and a Mountie on its crest.
(written by Sandra Bingaman, RRGC historian)
