Greenkeepers find 95-year-old buried message

Greenkeepers at Golf House Club, Elie in Scotland have found a 95-year-old packet of cigarettes in a bottle, which contained a message written by greenkeepers in the 1920s, hidden on the course.

The staff unearthed the bottle while working on improvements to the fairway bunkers on the ninth hole, and found it contained a well-preserved message.

According to Bunkered, the note is dated November 18, 1926.

The message reads: “We are here today but where we will be when this is found we do not know. Good luck.”

The letter is signed by T. Donaldson, D. King and W. Eason, who the club confirmed worked there as greenkeepers at the time of the letter’s burial.

Current greenkeeping staff at the Fife club now plan to write their own message and bury it in the same spot, once the current improvement works are finished, as part of a new tradition.

Gavin Cook, secretary of the golf club, said: “While removing the turf on the bunker faces, our greenkeeping team uncovered a bottle which had clearly been there for some time.

“These three names have been confirmed as members of the greens staff at the time. It’s astounding that this has been found and kept in such great condition.

“To retain the tradition, I have suggested our existing team write their own note, add it to the bottle and bury it when finishing off the bunker.

“We consulted former head greenkeeper Brian Lawrie, who retired in 2014, after 50 years at the club.

“He added that a number of bottles had been uncovered over the years when doing work on the course, although not often with messages in them.

“Before the introduction of heavy machinery, bunkers were hand dug and the faces made by piling up the earth removed from the bunker, so it didn’t have to be burrowed away.

“The staff would often use old glass bottles for drinking water whilst they worked, and these would sometimes get mixed up among the earth.

“It’s been a great piece of the history for the club to uncover and the members have really engaged with it.”