On January 12, 2024, an exhibition on the theme of golf in the former Dutch East Indies opened in the Dutch Golf Museum. Tom and Marianne Gmelig Meijling of the Indisch Golf Weekend (IGW) were the special guests of honour for the opening and after Tom’s opening remarks, Arnold van der Capellen was the first visitor to be shown around by Ferd.
Well before the opening of the first golf course in the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century, golf was already being played in the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia and at the time a colony of the Netherlands. The game of golf was introduced to the Dutch East Indies in 1872 by English and Scottish golfers with the establishment of the Batavia Golf Club. This led to the Dutch also playing golf in the Dutch East Indies and to the establishment of more golf courses and clubs.
The exhibition in the Dutch Golf Museum is dedicated to the birth of golf in the Dutch East Indies and to the large silver cups that belonged to the competitions at various clubs. Only 10 percent of those cups have been preserved, because during the time of the Japanese occupation all cups had to be handed in. At some clubs, the staff has hidden and buried cups, which is why old cups have been preserved.
The Dutch Golf Museum would like to thank everyone who has loaned the following cups.
- The Wilhelmina Cup (Koninklijke Haagsche G&CC);
- Eleven silver trophies (Museon-Omniversum);
- Two Beatrix cups (Indisch Golf Weekend (IGW) of the Hattemse G&CC);
- The Metah Cup (Indisch Golf Weekend of the Hattemse G&CC);
- The Koeta Radja Cup (Indisch Golf Weekend of the Hattemse G&CC);
- The Surabaya Golf Cup (Indian Golf Weekend of the Hattemse G&CC);
- The Goenoeng Sahari cup (Indian Golf Weekend of the Hattemse G&CC).
- The Batavia Golf Clubs (Iain Forrester).
An audio tour has been made especially for the exhibition in which the cups are told. So feel free to come and take a look at the Dutch Golf Museum and be inspired by the audio tour about the stories behind golf in the former Dutch East Indies.
