The Scottish Golf Guide

HISTORY OF SCOTTISH GOLF

HISTORIANS now support the view that the modern game of golf originated in Scotland. Though the inhabitants of Europe played various club-and-ball games from early times over rough fields, or in the parks of the noble chateaux or cathedrals, or in the muddy streets of inland towns, or when the canals were frozen, these games were not golf. They were all 'short' games.

The Scottish 'long' game was different. It was probably the result of the networking in Europe by the much-travelled Scots nobility and clergy who brought back the latest club-and-ball game from visits to the continental inland courts and cathedrals. Back home, they developed a unique club-and-ball game which was golf as we know it now. Scotland had two things not found in inland Europe - firstly, the firm coastal linksland on which a ball would run well, and secondly a mild winter. Winter in mediaeval times was the time for recreation, surprising though this seems. Summer was for preparing and bringing in the crucial harvest, or for travel by the nobility for diplomacy or warfare.

With a winter coastal playground at hand, the Scots could evolve a long game played with increasingly powerful clubs and an unusual ball which sought to get maximal length of shot, without sacrificing precision near the hole. It seems that the great and good of Scotland asked their bow-makers to produce a better club than used in European games and they summoned the shoemakers (the skilled leather-working cordiners) and told them to construct better and better feather-stuffed balls.

Golf became a lasting national sport and obsession in Scotland alone. All the major improvements in the game up until the twentieth century appeared first in Scotland, and it was from Scotland that the rules, players and designers of the game spread throughout the rest of the world to assist the golf boom of the 1880s.

Long and Short

In Scotland the gentry played this long game from mediaeval times. But the humble had their simple economical 'short' game also, played in the Scottish town streets and churchyards with simple equipment, as in Europe, and it was also called 'golf', perhaps because it mimicked the noble version. The short game was popular in Scotland among those humble citizens since James II had to pass a law discouraging it in 1457. Instead the ordinary people were encouraged to practise archery, a military necessity at the time.

A Winter Game

From the 1500s, the well-off golfers met regularly in winter on the links, but without forming formal clubs. It was an east coast game, and useful linksland was available near the capital Edinburgh at Leith; the sporting clergy of the cathedral towns - St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Dornoch - also had their town links at hand. Many landowners in other parts of Scotland moved to Edinburgh for winter conviviality and litigation, and played golf at snow-free and playable Leith Links.

The Links

As Scotland's land-forms emerged after the Ice Age ended, storms at the coast threw up small stones onto the beaches beyond the high water mark and these mounds then trapped blown sand. These sandy ridges were then fixed by the remarkably deep, spreading roots of the attractive marram grass. Behind the dunes were natural sheltered alleyways where blown sand mixed with the richer alluvium brought down by streams and rivers. Humus from dead plants blended there with bird and animal droppings to give a very thin top soil, and rabbits and sheep usefully nibbled away not only at the tough grasses that grew there, but they also dealt with unwelcome shoots of whins and other bushes. Only short, tough grasses survived since the salty air and occasional serious droughts killed or discouraged all other varieties. The early peoples knew to their cost that planting or ploughing the linksland was risky: one or two good crops might be obtained, but once the topsoil was broken, wind carried it away and a sandy wasteland returned. The Scottish Parliament even acted to prohibit harvesting the useful marram grass.

The links created the game of golf. The crumpled, grassy channels behind the dunes were called 'fairways' at the fishing towns, a nautical term meaning a navigable channel. They hosted a satisfying game, with an element of chance, and with long shots followed by accurate play to a small target. Often a single narrow strip was an obvious choice and holes were played out and back close to each other. Natural sandy breaks or those caused by rabbits gave the early bunkers. Storms from time to time refreshed the links with a new useful film of shore sand - not inert, as often supposed - but rich in lime and nutrients from shell debris. The sandy base below the thin grassy topsoil meant that rain drained away rapidly: the links were always playable.

Routine Play

In the 1600s, golf was played only on the common linksland belonging to the east coast towns, and not inland, and mysteriously not on the west coast with any enthusiasm. The east coast golfers had to share this ground with many other users - sheep and cattle, travelling fairs, military musters, townspeople at other games, grave-diggers burying the dead, and fishermen and women drying their nets or clothes. This mixture of citizens on the links had one useful effect later, since the aristocratic golfers were prepared to fight and pay for the necessary legal battles to preserve this land for everyone's use.

In the 1700s the gentleman golfers of the links started to form themselves into the first golf 'clubs'. The first in the world was that of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers of 1744, as it is still called, and in that year, this society simply regulated and wrote down what had been their long-standing habits and rules for play.

Town Changes

By the 1800s, after the tranquil period of the Scottish Enlightenment, industrialisation meant that the towns started to grow and many town links used for golf became encroached on by new building and the bustle of the enlarging towns and factories. Golf became difficult for players and dangerous for citizens. The larger towns like Edinburgh and Glasgow often lost their golfing ground, but smaller Scottish towns which did not grow so rapidly were luckier, and there the municipal links survived, as did their ancient golfing habits. To this day, St Andrews, Carnoustie, Monifieth, Aberdeen and other towns still have their ancient golf links starting from the middle of the town.

The Boom

In the mid-1800s, balls and clubs became cheaper. With more affluence, an enlarging middle class and better-paid working people, many more wanted to play golf. Also helping in this expansion of Scottish golf was the rapidly spreading network of new railway lines, allowing city dwellers to play golf at the coast.

Importantly, summer golf was emerging, since the new industrial society was based on factories which worked through the winter, and this meant that recreation and holidays came in summer. The Scottish golf holiday became popular with city families, and brought in many visitors from England. The popularity of Scottish summer golfing reached a peak with the patronage of golf by men such as Arthur Balfour, later Prime Minister, who started to play with determination at North Berwick - 'the Biarritz of the North'. He was followed by numerous English imitators who reached Scotland and hired bemused caddies to teach them and help them through a round.

The railway network expansion continued to be crucial. In remote parts of Scotland, when a railway line reached a town without a course, one was built, often with a new hotel. On the west coast, steamers took holiday makers to the many piers and new golf courses on the Clyde coast and beyond. These new courses in Scotland were largely as-it-is in design, with use of natural land forms and minimal building of greens, and designers like Tom Morris were ready to offer economical layouts.

The Suburbs

In the expanding towns the well-off golfers were increasingly cramped in their play on public land and solved the problem by moving away and purchasing land outside the town. They often obtained a well-established estate with a gracious mansion and parkland where they established private golf clubs to continue their golf in peace.

The growth of new golf courses at the end of the nineteenth century was helped by new technology. Golf had previously only been possible where the grass was naturally short: hence it had been a winter coastal game. With the new grass-cutting machines, golf could expand inland into parkland areas and surprisingly emerged even on cleared heathland. Golf could move away from the links. Even at the links, the grass could be cut regularly, instead of once for a summer grass crop: any farmers involved could be compensated from the new funds of the prospering golf clubs.

Abroad

With the rise of English golf came also the rapid expansion of golf in the Empire, Europe and North America. There had been isolated Scots-run golf groups internationally, even in the 1700s, run by merchants or the military, but when the Scots moved away the local game was lost. Now there was a change: everyone wanted to play the game and there was a major need for assistance. Scotland had an abundant supply of what was needed for the game world-wide. In England, Scots businessmen, doctors and engineers supported the rise of golf, notably in Liverpool, and young Scottish bankers supported enthusiasts in Canada. The jute industry in Dundee had links with India and boosted golf...