History of the club
Golfers inspired the landowner
In the fall of 1957, golfers Enar Werner and Henrik Streiffert walked across the beautiful grounds of Öijared and saw the potential of a golf course. They contacted the landowner of Öijared manor, Sten-Gustaf Fredrik Adlerstierna-Adelsköld and managed to convince him of the ideas. On April 1, 1959, the decision was made to build a 9-hole course designed by Douglas Brasier. Öijared thus became the second golf club in the Gothenburg district.
Sten-Gustaf Fredrik Adlerstierna-Adelsköld was not a passive landowner. He founded Öijared's golf club and was chairman until his death. He gradually became an inveterate golfer and was often seen on the courses with his dog as a caddie, pulling Sten-Gustaf's bag of clubs in a specially built harness.
The development of the club and Öijared in brief
1958 - Öijared Golf Club is formed
1960 - The Old Course with 9 holes is completed. Douglas Brasier was the course architect.
1965 - The Old Course opens with 18 holes and Erik Röhss designed the last nine holes
1970 - The New Course (Anders Amilon) opens and Öijared GK becomes the first in the country with 36 holes.
1974 - Järnbanan is built, one of Sweden's first short-hole courses where many golfers played their first holes.
1984 - The last heir in the Adlerstierna-Adelsköld family retires and the Öijared property is purchased by the Brandström family.
1988-89 - On the initiative of Jonas Brandström, the current clubhouse is built and Gert Wingård, the architect, has his breakthrough and is awarded the Kasper Sahlin Prize for Building of the Year for the first time. Öijared Park GK is formed and Öijared Executive (a course with shorter holes and par 62) is completed with 18 holes. (Åke Persson)
2000 - The Executive course is rebuilt to par 70 and renamed Öijared Classic (Peter Chamberlain).
2007 - ÖiGK and ÖPGK are merged into one golf club with 54 + 9 holes - ÖiGK. Sweden's largest golf facility. Öijared Classic changes its name to Parkbanan.
2009 - The Old Course opens after rebuilding with design Pierre Fulke. ÖiGK undergoes reconstruction and constructive discussions are held with the landowner's representatives.
2011 - The Brandström family takes over the operation of the golf facility.
2014 - Hotel with 200 beds and a top-equipped golf studio is inaugurated.
2019 - The iron course makes way for The Multi-Sport Course - an electrically lit 9-hole course with space for golf, footgolf and frisbee golf. Allmänna Arvsfonden, Öijared GK and Alingsås Sparbank provide the largest contributions in addition to Öijared Resort's own contribution.
2020 - Transport with a minibus for juniors begins to operate the route Floda center - Öijared Resort.
2022 - The club purchases a Paramotion - a machine that enables golf from a standing position even for wheelchair users. The financing is done by Lerum municipality, SGF, GGF and RF SISU.
History of golf
At the beginning of the last century, interest in golf skyrockets. In 1899, Coburn Haskell patents a ball consisting of a hard rubber core wrapped with a rubber thread and enclosed in a shell of gutta-percha. Essentially the same principle as the modern balls we play with today.
Many try to outdo it. Cork, lead, mercury and ball bearings are tried. Between 1900 and 1920, more than 200 different golf ball models are developed. In the same year, George Franklin Grant patents the first 'wooden spike', made of wood and rubber, an evolved version of a rubber-headed nail launched in 1892.
In the early 20th century, William Lowell presents 'The Reddy Tee', a peg made entirely of wood. He ignores the value of patenting his invention in time and spends most of the rest of his life suing competitors.
In Sweden, the word Golf was mentioned for the very first time in 1734 in a Swedish-English dictionary published by Jakob Serenius and was described in 1798 in "Bref om Skottland" as follows: "The Scots have a very special pastime called GOLF, with which people of all ages and positions amuse themselves. It is played with a small leather ball and a piece of wood, which is flat on one side and resembles a small club. The art consists in driving the ball into a hollow in the ground with fewer strokes of this implement than the opponent."
The first course was in Ryfors in the Småland town of Mullsjö outside Jönköping, where the Sager brothers, strongly influenced by English ideals, built a simple 6-hole course for their own use. The year was 1888.
/Christian Lefèvre, golf historian and former member of Öijared Golf Club.
