Some of golf’s greats have had a hand in shaping Erskine Golf Course, but the club owes its existence to the unaided enterprise of William Arthur Baird, a young man with an impeccable golfing pedigree stretching back to the dawn of club golf in the 19th century. When the 12th Lord Blantyre died in 1890, with no male heir, the Erskine Estate passed to his 21-year old grandson W. A. Baird. His paternal grand-father was Sir David Baird, Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and founder member and first Captain of North Berwick Golf Club in 1832. Sir David features in many famous St Andrews matches of the 19th century. In 1849 he refereed the match between Tom Morris and Allan Robertson of St Andrews against the Dunns of Musselburgh for £800. He is prominent in Lee’s world famous picture of a grand golf match, a print of which hangs in the clubhouse at Erskine.
