Carnoustie Caledonia - Caley Legends

John C. Stuart
John was dominie at Panbride School from 1899 till his retirement. He began playing golf left-handed and soon had a hole-in-one. He repeated this feat sixty years later, this time right-handed - not many golfers can equal this. He was a four-time winner of the club championship and numerous other club and local trophies, he also held a scratch handicap for 29 years!

During a distinguished career he played against some of the great names of golf. Sandy Herd (Open Champion), Bob Harris (British Amateur Champion and Walker Cup Captain), Willie Smith (in his last game at Carnoustie before going to America to win the US Open Championship), and Bobby Cruikshank, who later went on to tie the US Open with Bobby Jones.

J.B. Cunningham
Club champion in 1912, he was responsible, in a way, for the closing down of one of Carnoustie's earlier 'associate clubs'. Having won the Total Abstainers Golf Club Championship for the third successive year, he was given the trophy to keep. As there was then no trophy to play for, the club was disbanded! Club members and visitors looking at the championship board may be mystified as to why the 1925 club championship was withheld. Seemingly JB and arch-rival JR Hosie having won their way to the final couldn't find a mutually suitable date. Wonder what the late R.J. Duncan would have made of that?

J.D. Little
A past captain and three-time club champion, he was a keen exponent of the 2-ball foursome. Partnered by J.R. Hosie he led many a Caley team in inter-club matches prior to the Second World War. His love of the 2-ball game may well have led him to donate the trophy bearing his name, a competition played in and enjoyed by many members through the years. On the day after Bobby Jones won the 1927 Open at St Andrews, J.D. Little, partnered again by J.R. Hosie, played an exhibition match at Carnoustie against Bobby Jones and Mr R.B. Cant.

H.J. Chapman
Without Harry Chapman, much of the history of Carnoustie golf would have been lost or certainly less well documented. His ceaseless labours to put and keep Carnoustie on the golfing map plus his efforts to publicise the Tassie, can be read in his golfing columns kept in the local library. Stories of the 1939 Tassie players carrying gas masks while playing and having to go off when the practice siren sounded; the first and only woman competitor in the Tassie; these and many more tales can be found by browsing through his scrapbooks.

J.R. Hosie
A local legend in the period between the wars, JR was a a 9-time winner of the club championship stretching between 1923 and 1947. A Scottish internationalist and twice Scottish Amateur semi-finalist, he was beaten at Carnoustie in 1946 by eventual winner and Ryder Cup hero, Eric Brown.

H.A. Young
One-time match secretary. On hearing Bob Buttars sounding off in the clubhouse about slow play on a particular Saturday afternoon, Heb voiced the immortal riposte, 'Have you ever played ahent yersel', Bob?'

John Julian
John's usual four-ball had assembled on the first tee one New Year's morning. John had teed up and while waiting for the fairway ahead to clear, chatted to one of the many golfers standing around. A few minutes later the fairway having cleared, John addressed the ball, swing his club and, on making contact, the ball broke into a dozen pieces. Once over the shock it was explained that the ball had been replaced with one made of soap.

Duncan B. Marshall
Carnoustie born and bred, quiet, unassuming and always friendly, Dunc was one of the club's most accomplished golfers in the post-way years. Few players can hope to emulate his feat of scoring 13 holes in one.

Ralph J. Duncan
Ralph was a journalist and the Caley's able, popular match secretary until his untimely death in 1984. He was a very good golfer with a record few members will surpass, but he was, above all, a very enthusiastic player who loved the game and everything connected with it. When Ralph appeared in the Caley, resplendent in his plus-fours and maroon woollen stockings, no one could doubt that they were in a golf club.

R.G. Buttars
Bob, who died back in 1987, was for long among the most familiar figures in the Caley and on the course. Genial and always cheerful, his favourite refreshment was a 'Blairgowrie' - a double large whisky. Many members believe that he in fact invented this formidable drink.

The Z Division
Summer and winter they sally forth. There are four of them, a platoon rather than a division, but when the trumpet - or rather the starter's whistle - sounds about mid-day on Saturdays, they are ever so ready to answer the call. Alex Harrison, Doug Muir, Jack Wann and Findlay Young lay no claim to outstanding golfing prowess - their moment of glory arrived on the first Saturday of the Centenary Year (1987), when at the 10th hole on the Medal they fished 32 balls out of the burn.