Helen's Bay golf club Down

Members Achievements

Young Rafael Poli was selected on the Ulster Under-16 Interprovincial Team played at Ballykisteen Golf Club on 21st and 22nd August 2023.
The other members of the team were Stuart Nesbitt & Luka Rodgers (Royal Portrush Golf Club), Evan Hogg (Belvoir Park Golf Club), Rafael Poli Bruce McDonald (Lisburn Golf Club) and Charlie Smyth (Slieve Russell Golf Club)
They were Captained by Trevor Lewers (Portstewart Golf Club) and Managed by Tiarnan McLarnon (Massereen Golf Club)

Members who played representative golf for Country or Province;

D. J. Cameron* represented Ireland as a Senior International in1900;

History of Helen's Bay

Instituted 1896 affiliated 1897

The records of Helen’s Bay are not available until 1906. However, an article in The Irish Field on the 12^th June 1909, gives an account of the origins of the club.

It tells us the club was formed in 1895 and it was expected to attract 30 to 40 members, to the surprise of the promoters, 150 members joined. The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava was a generous supporter and gave the club the use of 60 acres of his land. It is, bounded on the north by the sea.

Mr. G. Herbert Brown was the Captain for the first three years. The club remains unchanged to the present day.

What the Club tells us:

Helen’s Bay Golf Club was established in 1896 by a group of businessmen who met regularly in Belfast. In choosing the location for the Course they sought land of outstanding beauty and terrain that was within strolling distance of a station on the Belfast to Bangor railway line. Only a handful of houses existed in Helen’s Bay at that time and so competitions were often timed to begin ten minutes after the arrival of trains from Belfast.
From the very beginning Helen’s Bay has been a Club of men and women co-existing happily; the first Captains in 1896 were husband and wife Herbert and Kathleen Brown. The lay out of the 9 hole course today remains much as the same as it has been throughout its existence. The original Clubhouse was a quaint old estate cottage provided by our landlord the Clandeboye Estate, and to this various make-shift extensions were added during the first half of the last century. It was eventually replaced in 1970 with a modern Clubhouse, and this in turn was further modernised and extended in 1995 ahead of the Club’s centenary in 1996