HIn 1909, Lord Willoughby de Eresby first proposed the construction of a golf course on 250 acres of land known as South Luffenham Heath. At the time Sunday shooting was under threat and it was necessary to find diversionary entertainment for his visitors to nearby Normanton Lodge (the remains of which now overlook beautiful Rutland Water, formed by flooding the Gwash Valley in 1975).

The course was opened in 1911 with a celebrity match, witnessed by over 1000 spectators, between James Braid and Harry Vardon, both eventual winners of 5 Open Championships each. Braid eventually turned to course design and his appreciation of the course must have been sufficient to persuade him, between the two World Wars, to return and advise on changes that were needed.

Set in the Quorn and Cottesmore hunting country, it is hardly surprising that the Club attracted an aristocratic membership from far and wide. Viscount Castlereagh first became Captain in 1912 having been made Vice-President the previous year. In 1928 the Prince of Wales, later to become the uncrowned King Edward VIII, was invited by letter to St James’ Palace to become Captain; a position commemorated by the presentation of a trophy in 1929. The Prince of Wales Cup was requested by HRH to be contested annually, and that request was accepted and is contested to date as an 18 holes medal.