A History of Golf

Here is a book which should prove a valuable and every welcome addition to the literature of Golf!

Written in a fluent and easy style that makes reading a pleasure, this new history has the merit of literary quality, and the author’s quiet, unobtrusive sense of humour eliminates the slightest suspicion of dullness or heaviness, without in any way detracting from the seriousness of his objective or the dignity and importance that even the most rabid devotee of the Royal and Ancient would claim for it. The work also provides ample evidence of the author’s industry and research, and, in keeping with his position as editor of Golfing, conveys a quiet assurance of authority.

The book deals with every aspect of the history of the game, from its earliest beginnings to the modern era of American ascendency. There are 34 chapters and a chronological table covering 600 years from 1353 to the 1950’s. We select here, more or less at random, a few of the subjects dealt with: Seven successive monarchs of the Stuart line as players—The golf of the House of Windsor—Golf as a cross-country game—The Celtic hurley, and the Belgian chole—The Scots game and the Dutch—The origin of golfing terms—Golf before the formation of clubs—Competitions came before clubs—The beginning of the championships—The start of the university match—How golf came to London—The golf boom of the gay nineties—The beginning of golf in America—The evolution of the professionals—Women’s golf originally a part of the feminist movement—Clubs and balls; wooden balls; the old featheries; the coming of the ‘gutties’; the arrival of the rubber core—Course construction—The rise of the golf architects—The evolution of the rules—American thoroughness makes golf a science instead of an art—International golf; the Walker, Ryder, and Curtis Cups—The game as a preserver of ancient landmarks—The genius of golf, the only game in which the worst player gets the best of it.