1956; renovated 1994. Single and 2-storey, asymmetrical Modern Movement style golf club. Harled and painted white. 2-storey flat-roofed block to SE angle with asymmetrically disposed windows, glazed bow at 1st floor to NW angle, 2 porches to E elevation with row of regular windows between. Single storey wings extending at right angles to N and W from 2-storey block with broad, almost fully glazed bowed projections radiating from N and W elevations.
1994 main door on road elevation, sandstone clad with projecting curved canopy.
Some original metal framed casement windows, bowed projections with modern aluminium windows. Flat roof.
Statement of Special Interest
The Cardross Golf Clubhouse is an important golf club of the post-war building period, built in the modern style. There are very few Modernist golf clubhouses in the country. Painted white, the design also draws from Art-Deco 1930s architecture with its stream-lined, angular plan-form and large bowed-windowed communal rooms facing N and W towards the golf course. The combination of the Deco and Modernist style distinguish the building as a rare and distinctive example of its building type in the early post-war building period. The Clubhouse replaced an earlier club (1905) which is understood to have been destroyed by enemy fire during the second World War. The present building owes its height and footprint to its predecessor, as the War Damage Commission required that it follow the general size and massing of the earlier clubhouse.
Scotland is widely recognised internationally as the home of golf. Early versions of the game were being played in Scotland during the middle ages. The 'Articles and Laws in the Playing of Golf' were penned in 1744 by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers in Edinburgh. Its principles, as played over 18 holes, still underpin the regulations of the modern game.
The popularity of golf in Scotland increased significantly with improved transport and availability of leisure time from the mid 19th century onwards. Early clubs and societies initially met in rooms at an inn or a members' house near to their course. Purpose-built clubhouses became more common from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and these were typically enlarged with bar, restaurant and other facilities in stages as the popularity of the game increased further throughout the 19th and 20th century.
Scotland has produced many pioneering names in golf including five times Open Championship winner and course architect James Braid (1870-1950), and the aforementioned (Old) Tom Morris (1821-1908). The Scottish Golf Union have indicated there are currently around 550 golf courses in Scotland with a total membership of approximately 236,000.