Stonehaven Golf Club was founded on Friday, April 13, 1888, and the first clubhouse was opened in June 1889. The original chimney stack still stands by the 7th tee. At that time, the course had ten holes, reduced to nine a year later, and it was not until July 7, 1897 , that the “new” course and clubhouse on the present site was opened.
For a short time, the professional was George Duncan, who later won the Open Championship in 1920 and who played three times in the Ryder Cup team, being winning captain in 1929.
Also to grace the fairways was another, (5 times) Open champion, the legendary James Braid, who played a challenge match on August 18, 1906 , against his nephew and twice Open Championship runner-up Archie Simpson, the professional at Royal Aberdeen. Afterwards, Braid and Simpson planned improvements to the course.
A much less welcome visitor called in August, 1940, when a German aircraft, fleeing home after a raid, dropped a bomb on the course only a hundred yards or so from the clubhouse. The crater it left, known as Hitler’s Bunker, remains clearly visible today -- and very much in play between the first and second fairways.
