The Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club turned back the clock more than a century on Friday as North America’s oldest golf course celebrated its 150th year.

The sun shone brightly as golfers dressed in period attire, breaking out long skirts, fashionable headgear, tartan regalia and other historic themes to help turn the day into a memorable and remarkable anniversary.

The club, founded in 1875 on the same spot as it currently exists, has been marking its 150th birthday all season.

But as numerous members remarked, Friday’s celebration was “the best event they’ve ever done. It was so much fun and so well done.”

In all, 180 golfers signed up for two separate nine-hole outings, split between a morning and an afternoon session. Each round was kicked off with the skirl of the bagpipes courtesy of Kelly Buckley of St. Catharines.

The golfers played mainly in groups of four or five in a scramble format, but the committee that organized the day added a few twists.

Ambassadors from the Golf Historical Society of Canada were on hand with prized selections of “hickory sticks” and replicas of “gutty” golf balls, the type of rudimentary equipment used in the late 1800s.

Few of the golfers had ever swung such museum pieces but on this day they had to use them on several holes.

Gutty balls were made from the dried sap of the sapodilla tree and formed into ball shapes when they were heated up.

They didn’t fly very far and, as players learned in using the wooden-shafted hickory clubs, the game of golf has come a long way in the past century.

In another nod to history, NOTL Museum representative David Servos, a descendant of Niagara’s Launcelot Cressy Servos, a golf pro, instructor, course designer, author and playwright, mingled with the crowd and talked up the town’s and the club’s past.

It was all in fun and was seen by participants as a perfect way to recognize the club’s 150th.

But the golf competition was secondary to the effort to embrace the past, as members went the extra distance and dug into their closets to find items that celebrated the game’s bygone era. Long skirts, plus-fours and oversized headgear were de rigueur.

At an outdoor reception afterward, the historic club, the players and those dressed to the nines also were celebrated.

Clad in his family’s bold red tartan, The Lake Report’s Kevin MacLean and his wife May Chang were singled out with prizes — along with kilt-clad Linda Anderson-Kozik — for their throwback attire.

But dozens of others, including Gail and Norm Kerr, whose 1870s-era golf ensembles were the perfect fit for the occasion, embraced the historic theme and were decked out for the day.

On the course, there were some winners, too.

In the morning session, the foursome of Jim and Janice McMacken, Peter Chilibeck and Dave Anthony carded a 1-over 37.

In the afternoon, in warmer temperatures, Patrick Craig, Charles Goddard, and Brian and Marion MacIntyre teamed up to shoot a stellar 1-under 35.

There were some sharpshooters on the day as well. On the third hole with special flags at 150-yard intervals, Stephen Warboys and Todd Watson were closest to the pin in the morning, while Steve Millward nailed the prize for both pins in the afternoon.

And on the second hole, where groups had to putt from 150 inches away no matter where they landed on the green, Bruce Cochrane was the morning prize winner and Marion MacIntyre won the afternoon session.

As the day wrapped up with a mass photo on the first tee with, appropriately, more than 150 people raising a toast, several conversations focused on the idea of the club making the throwback celebration an annual event.

No promises but club co-owner Eva Kessel said it is under consideration.