Founded in 1780, Royal Aberdeen is the sixth oldest golf club in existence. For the first 35 years, the club was known as The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, with membership being determined by ballot.  The Aberdeen Golf Club was formed in 1815 on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, and its members continued to play on the Queen’s Links, a strip of common land between the Don and Dee Rivers, until 1888 when they migrated to the current links at Balgownie.

Captain H.V. Brooke, in 1886, didn’t like the way the land was being cut up by soccer and cricket players. He felt a private course at Balgownie should be procured for “golfing purposes.” So in 1888, the Aberdeen Golfers “folded their tents and silently stole away” to the peaceful seclusion of Balgownie Links. They brought the old ballot box bearing the 1780 date and the Captain’s Chair dated three years earlier. Both items can still be viewed within the current clubhouse.

While the club received the patronage of Prince Leopold in 1872, it wasn’t until 1903 that the club officially used the “Royal” name, which was bestowed upon the club by His Majesty King Edward VII.