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In the next few weeks between 80 and 100 of our best golfers will receive a Postcard inviting them to play (if selected) in this years 50 a side match against Leven Thistle and St Andrews for the Lindsay Shield.
 The Lindsay Shield
This Inter-Club Match is played every year between Carnoustie, St. Andrews & Leven Thistle Golf Clubs.
The 50 best players each Club can muster meet each other on a scratch match-play basis over three Saturdays each April, with 25 members playing at home, and 25 members playing away.
It is quite normal to find professional golfers, provided they are Club members, in each team.
The matches originated in October 1849 with 12 St. Andrews members playing 12 Leven Thistle members both at home and away, with Carnoustie joining the fray in 1873.
The matches continued intermittently with varying sizes of teams until about 1900, with St. Andrews dominating, but from 1901 to 1913 Carnoustie “claimed success after success, being rightly regarded as the greatest side in the land.”
The Matches resumed in 1919 after The Great War with St. Andrews proving “as formidable on the golf course as they did on paper.”
In the immediate post-war years, the annual matches were the highlight of the three Clubs’ golfing year, with postcards inviting members to play for their Clubs being highly prized, and the matches themselves drawing crowds of up to 2000 spectators.
Before the Tay Road Bridge was built, the teams crossed the river by ferry boat, which was regularly missed on the return journey, and required team members to get the bus home via Perth!
The Lindsay Shield itself was presented for this fixture to St. Andrews Golf Club in 1953, and this unique match in Club golf continues to be keenly contested every year by 150 golfers with handicaps of usually 5 or less.
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