The Long Golden Afternoon

A history of golf’s boom period from the founding of England’s first golf club to the dawn of World War I.

The Long Golden Afternoon tells the story of the transformative generation of golf that followed the rise of Young Tom Morris—an era of sweeping change that saw Scotland’s national pastime become one of the rare games played around the world.

It begins with the first epochal performance after Tommy—John Ball’s victory at Prestwick in 1890 as the first Englishman and the first amateur to win the Open Championship – and continues through the outbreak of the Great War. If Tommy ignited the flame of golf in England, Ball’s breakthrough turned that smoldering fire into a conflagration.

The generation that followed would witness the game’s coming of age. It would see an explosion in golf's popularity, the invention of revolutionary new balls and clubs, the emergence of professional tours, the organization of the game and its rules, a renaissance in writing and thinking about golf, and the decision that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews must always remain the sport’s guiding light.

Praise for The Long Golden Afternoon

Named one of 10 Best Golf Books in 2022 by LINKS Magazine
Shortlisted for the 2023 Sports Book Awards for Best Sports Writing of the Year
Shortlisted for the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Book Award

“Proctor’s skill with the language is crisp and fluid. . . . A beautifully crafted examination of a period in the history of golf that will never again be witnessed. It is not to be missed.” —Jim Davis, The Golf