Golf in America. A practical manual

Preface

A NEW game has lately been added to the list of our outdoor sports. At first there were reasons why it did not appear to be a game to which the American temperament would seem to be permanently attracted, and grave doubts were expressed as to its ability to hold its own in this country. Such was the reception of golf. As time went on, however, and the game became more widely known a change occurred. The extreme enthusiasm of those who took it up induced others to play, and every day added to the ranks of its adherents. The secret of the game was no longer a sealed book ; its apparent simplicity and lack of interest were seen to be delusions, and its success was assured. Upon every side golf clubs sprang into existence, and the formation of a National Association became a necessity. Consequently, upon December 24, 1894, the following representatives of five of the leading clubs in the United States met iv PREFACE

pursuant to a call previously issued: Mr, Theodore A. Havemeyer and Mr. Winthrop Rutherford, representing the Newport Golf Club; Gen. Thomas H. Barber and Mr. S. L, Parrish, representing the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club ; Mr. John Reid. and Mr. H. O. Tallmadge, representing the St. Andrews Golf Club of Yonkers; Mr. Lawrence B. Curtis and Mr. P. S, Sears, representing the Country Club of Brookline, Mass. ; and Mr. Charles B. MacDonald and Mr. J. A. Ryerson, representing the Chicago Golf Club.

The details of this conference are given elsewhere; its result was the recognition of golf as an established American sport and the organization of the United States Golf Association.

Hence this little volume.

The writer desires to express his sincere thanks to H. O. Tallmadge, Esq., Secretary of the United States Golf Association, for his kind assistance in many ways.

New York, May i, iSgS-

Part I. Page

Origin of the Game of Golf — Its Early History — Scotch Statutes — Extracts from Church Registers — Anecdotes — Account of the Game in England and Scotland from 1864 to the Present Time — Leading Scotch Golf Clubs — Leading English Golf Clubs — History of the Open and Amateur Championship Meetings in England and Scotland 5

Part II

History of the Introduction of the Game into America — St. Andrews — Shinnecock Hills — Newport — Morris County — Tuxedo — Montclair — Richmond County Country Club — Orange Mountain Golf Club — Meadowbrook — Country Club of Brookline — Essex County Myopia Hunt Clab— Prides Golf Club— Germantown Cricket Club — Philadelphia Country Club — Merion Cricket Club — Chicago — Colo-

L CONTENTS

PAGE

rado Springs — History of the Organization of the United States Golf Association — Constitution and By-laws of the United States Golf Association — Golf in Canada . . , -33

Part III

Explanation of the Game and of Certain Technical Terms — The Advantages and Drawbacks of Golf— General Remarks on the Game . . 94

Part IV

For Beginners— The Method of Play— Choice of Clubs — Driving — Play on the Green — Putting — Summing up 112

FART V.

The Etiquette of Golf— Playing Rules as Adopted by the United States Golf Association — Special Rules for Medal Play — Glossaiy of Technical Terms — List of Leading American Clubs — List of Leading Canadian Clubs . . . 149

Part I

The origin of golf has been the cause of much surmise upon the part of historians of the game. They are all agreed, it is true, that the game which is played to-day is substantially the same as that which flourished in Scotland some four hundred and thirty-eight years ago. This was at a time before the general introduction of firearms into Scotland, and the game of golf was diverting the attention of the Scotch people to such an extent from the more important accomplishment of archery, that the Scotch Parliament felt called upon to interfere. Accordingly, in 1457, it was "decreeted and ordained that . . . the Fute-ball and Golf be utterly cryit doune and nocht usit and that the bowe-merkis be maid at ilk paroche kirk a pair of buttis and schutting be usit ilk Sunday." But this was obviously when golf was in its prime, when the game was flourishing to a marked degree; we can hardly suppose that it would have engaged the attention of Parliament otherwise. It is the source of the game which is the chief stumbling-block; its connection with the ancient Dutch game of "kolf;" with "chole," another game very old in Belgium and the North of France; or again, with '' Pali-Mall," a favorite pastime of Mary Stuart. These questions, ' and others, have given rise to some V courageous conjecture upon the part of \ its historians; the absence of authentic 1 records being frequently but so many I "bunkers" to be surmounted by the 1 explanatioij most sympathetic to each writer.

It was doubtless the evident desire upon the part of these antiquarians to cause the origin of the game to be set at the earliest possible date which led SirW. G. Simpson, in his "Art of Golf," to write as follows :

" It is not likely that further research will unearth the discoverer of golf. Most probably a game so simple and natural in its essentials, suggested itself gradually and spontaneously to the bucolic mind. A shepherd tending his sheep would often chance upon a round pebble, and, having his crook in his hand, he would strike it away ; for it is as inevitable that a man with a stick in his hand should aim a blow at any loose object lying in his path as that he should breathe. " On pastures green this led to nothing; but once on a time (probably) a shepherd, feeding his sheep on a links — perhaps those of St. Andrews — rolled one of these stones into a rabbit scrape. ' Marry,' he quoth, ' I could not do that if I tried ' — a thought (so instinctive is ambition) which nerved him to the attempt. But a man cannot long persevere alone in any arduous undertaking, so our shepherd hailed another, who was hard by, to witness his endeavor. ' Forsooth, that is easy,' said the friend, and trying, failed. They now searched in the gorse for as round stones as possible, and, to their surprise, each found an old golf-ball, whicli, as the reader knows, are to be found there in considerable quantity even to this day. Having deepened the rabbit scrape so that the balls might not jump out of it, they set themselves to practicing putting. The stronger, but less skillful shepherd, finding himself worsted at this amusement, protested that it was a fairer test of skill to play for the hole from a considerable distance. This being arranged, the game was found to be much more varied and interesting. They had at first called it ' putty,' because the immediate object was to putt or put the ball into the hole or scrape, but at the longer distance, what we call driving was the chief interest, so the name was changed to 'go off,' or 'golf.' The sheep having meantime strayed, our shepherds had to go after them. This proving an exceedingly irksome interruption, they hit upon the ingenious device of making a circular course of holes, which enabled them to play and herd at the same time. The holes being now many and far apart, it became necessary to mark their whereabouts, which was easily done by means of a tag of wool from a sheep attached to a stick, a primitive kind of flag still used on many greens almost in its original form,

" Since these early days the essentials of the game have altered but little."

This to US is as satisfactory as other accounts of the origin of the game, and certainly more amusing.

However this may be, it is certain that golf was popular in Scotland in the middle of the fifteenth century. From that time on its early history is told in occasional enactments of Parliament, in city records and church registers, and from the extracts of the minutes of the old golf clubs of Scotland. It is evident from these sources that golf was a matter of serious importance and enthusiastically enjoyed by the inhabitants in the North country. Parliament could make laws utterly crying it down, but the repeated enactments of a like character at short intervals of time are an evidence that it was one thing to make the laws and another to carry them out. Fourteen years after the statute of 1457, it was decreed that " Ilk yeman that can nocht deil with the bow that he haf a gude ax and a targe of leddir to resist the shot of Ingland, quhillk is na cost but the value of a hide, and that the Fute-ball and Golf be abusit in tyme coming " (Act of 147 1), and again twenty years afterwards: '* That in na place of the realms there be usit Fute-ball Golf, or uther sik unpro'fitabill sportis under the pain of fourtie shillinges to be raised be the schireffe and baillies foresaid." But the people paid little attention. Doubtless the schireffe and baillies were as much engrossed in the game as their neighbors and forgot to add to the treasury of the Crown. Perhaps the king himself put it into their minds to be lenient, for interest in the game extended from high to low, and he too, in spite of his statutes, was its devoted adherent.

The House of Stuart as a whole was greatly given over to golf, James VI of Scotland being perhaps more wrapt up in it than any of the rest. It appears that in his time the church-going of the good people upon the Sabbath day had become endangered. Proclamations were passed by the Town Council of Edinburgh at the end of the sixteenth century, ''that na inhabitants of the samyn be sene at any pastimes or gamis within or without the town on the Sabbath day, sic as Grolf." Another enactment about the same time begins as follows: Whereas "dyvers inhabitants of this burg repairs upon the Sabbath day to the town of Leyth and in tyme of sermonis are seen vagant athort the streets drynking in tavernis, or otherways at Golf," they are admonished to desist under a penalty of forty shillings.

As an instance of certain ones who were caught, so to speak, red-handed, the following extract from the Register of the Kirk Session of Humbie is quoted :

''April 27, 165 1. The which day James Rodger, Johne Rodger, Johne Howdan, Andrew Howdan and George Patersone, were complained upon for playing at the Golf upon one Lord's day ; were ordained to be cited the next day.

"May 4. The which day compeired the aforementioned persons, and confessed thair prophaning of the Lord's day by playing at the Golf; were ordained to mak publick repentance the next day.

" The which day Johne Howdan was deposed from his office, being ane deacon."

Register of the Kirk Sessions of Hnmbie.

Records such as the above were of frequent occurrence in the minutes of the city councils and of the church registers of St. Andrews, Perth, Leith, and Stirling.

It is unnecessary, however, to quote further details to show that the people were given to turning their faces towards the links of a Sunday, in which respect perhaps the times are not altogether changed. James VI was the author of an excellent compromise in the matter which is suggested to the governing committees of the golf clubs of to-day. Seeing that play continued on the Sabbath, whether or no, he arranged it that after the end of the divine service the good people should be at liberty to engage in such harmless recreations as were lawful, but this privilege was not extended '' to any that are not present in the church at the service of God before their going to the said recreations." Just how this arrangement was carried out we are left to conjecture. Probably one of the many duties of the greenkeeper was to stand at the church door and mark off the worshipers as they entered. Another friendly act which James VI performed was done in the interests of the Scotch ball-maker. About this time (1618) the Scotch were importing their golf balls so largely from Holland that the king, for the protection of home manufacture, caused a prohibitive tariff to be placed on the foreign importation.

This importation of balls from Holland has given rise to the idea that the game itself was brought from that country. This seems no more probable, however, than to suppose that it was carried to Holland by the Scotch, which is certainly a more sympathetic view. Golf to-day is a game, above all, of the Scots, and we naturally lean to the belief, if possible, that it had its rise in what is to-day its chief home.

The pastime of James VI was that also of his sons, Henry, Prince of Wales, and Charles I of England. Concerning the latter it is told that while engaged in play upon the links of Leith, a letter was put into his hands telling him of the uprising and rebellion in Ireland. He was an ardent supporter of the game, but on reading the news, we may well imagine that the day's sport ended abruptly.

Still continuing in the direct line, we find that the Duke of York, afterwards James II of England, was particularly given over to the pleasure of golf. The first mention of a fore-caddie, who ran ahead to mark where the ball fell, is made in connection with the boy who performed this service for James II before he ascended the throne and was too much given over to affairs of state to play the Scotch game. Betting also was largely indulged in in those days, and, as an instance, the story is told of a match game between the Duke of York and John Patersone, a Scotch shoemaker, on

I the one side, and two English noblemen upon the other. A dispute had arisen as to whether England or Scotland could justly claim to be the original home of golf. One thing led to another, and the outcome of the discussion was a challenge from the Englishmen to play a foursome with the Duke of York and any Scotchman as his partner whom he might choose. The Duke chose as his partner one John Patersone, a shoemaker, whose prowess upon the links was known far and wide. The result justified his choice. We are not told by what score the Englishmen were beaten, nor of the exact amount wagered upon the outcome. That it was no small sum we can be sure from the fact that the Duke of York presented Patersone with one-half of the stakes, and the shoemaker thereupon built himself " a comfortable house in the Canongate " with the money which he received, which house is still standing in the Canongate at Edinburgh. In mentioning these golfing incidents concerning the House of Stuart, the fact that Mary Queen of Scots, the unfortunate mother of James VI, was also a player, should not be passed over. It was, according to her enemies, but a few days after the death of Darnley that she "was seen playing- golf and pall-mall in the fields beside Seton." Whether this incident was an invention of her enemies told to accentuate her indifference to Darnley's fate is uncertain, but it tends to show that women as well as men have engaged in the game from the earliest periods, and is certainly of interest in that connection.

Thus the term ' * A Royal and Ancient Game" is no misnomer. If further evidence is sought to support the wellknown title, it may be added that in 1834 King William IV became Patron of the St. Andrews Club, and in 1863 the present Prince of Wales was elected Captain by acclamation.

Dr. Johnson, David Garrick and the Earl of Montrose must not be forgotten. They are all to be numbered amongst the famous players of golf. Whether they played famous golf is quite another question. The last-named was educated at the ancient university at St. Andrews, and, when a student, learned his game upon the links in that part of the country.

From those times to the present day golf in Scotland has continued to be a favorite pastime and the links at St. Andrews, Musselburgh, and Prestwick have always been the headquarters of the game.

In England, however, its growth has been comparatively recent. Indeed, golf was played but little there no less than twenty years ago. Blackheath was founded, it is true, far back in 1608, and became the scene of golf when James VI of Scotland came from the North to assume the title of James I of England.

But from that date until 1864 it may be said that the game was not played at all in England.

In this year (1864) Westward Ho ! sprang into existence; a year later the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club was founded. Hoylake, near Liverpool, soon followed, and the revival of the old Scottish game was well under way. If it took the Englishmen a long time to decide to take up the game, certainly no complaint may be made of the enthusiasm with which they enter into it to-day. Slowly at first and then with greater rapidity links sprang up in every direction, both at the sea and inland, and so fast has been their growth that to-day golf has practically spread itself over the entire country of England.

To attempt to enumerate these clubs would go far towards filling this little volume alone, and yet a few words concerning the most prominent may not be out of place here.

In Scotland there are many of great age. The Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society (1735) ^^^ The Hon. Company of Edinburgh Golfers (1744) are two of the oldest. The most famous by far, however, is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (1754). St. Andrews is the Mecca towards which all golfers naturally turn. By tacit consent it prescribes the playing rules and establishes the etiquette of the game, and nearly all the golf players of note in Great Britain are amongst its members. Old " Tom Morris," probably the best known golfer of to-day, came to the club in 1859 to take the place of Allan Robertson, the former greenkeeper, and although somewhat past his seventieth year his skill and strength are with him still. In the early days of the club (1766) it was the custom for the members to meet once a fortnight and to play a round of the links, then to dine together, and ' ' that they should pay each a shilling for his dinner, the absent as well as the present." The penalty for paying a caddie a greater sum than sixpence for a round of the course was two pint bottles of claret, to be paid by the transgressor at the first meeting at which he should attend. The Captain, too, was liable for a couple of pints in case he failed to put in his appearance at any of the meetings held throughout the year.

Instances in the minutes of the club are frequent showing that the rule as to penalties in the matter of claret was no dead-letter law, and that the club was a sporting and genial company. The society adopted, as early as 1780, red coats, which were to be considered the uniform of the club. Its memories are without number. In 1837, King William IV, who two or three years previous had become the patron of the club, presented to it a Gold Medal, with Green Ribband, with the request that it be played for annually. From that day to this the winner of the Gold Medal has been looked upon as obtaining one of the greatest golfing honors of the year. In 1855 it was won by George Glennie, with the remarkable, score of 88. For twenty-nine years this achievement was not bettered, until in 1884, Horace G. Hutchinson became the winner with a score of 87. So greatly, however, has interest in the game spread during the past ten years, and so large has been the number to take it up during that time, that not once since 1884 has the Gold Medal been won in less than 87, and in 1893, S. Mure Fergusson's 79 entirely eclipsed all previous efforts in this competition.

As has been already stated, the records of the Hon. Company of Edinburgh Golfers ante-date even those of the St. Andrews Club. The date of the institution of this famous organization is lost in antiquity, but as far back as 1744 there appears a list of those who are to play for the Silver Club. The competitors were twelve in number and a curious custom of the times was that the defeated candidates were accustomed always to add their signatures to the statement in the record book, giving the name of the winner and the details of the competition. Evidence also exists to show that here, as well as in the case of the St. Andrews Club, a spirit of good fellowship and good cheer existed from the beginning.

" Leith, Nov. 16, 1776.

" This day Lieutenant James Dalrympie of the 43rd Regiment, being convicted of playing five different times without his uniform was fined only in Six Pints, having confessed the heinousness of his crime. ,,j^_ ^^^^^^

" At his own request he was fined three Pints more." — Extract from the Minutes.

It was the rule that the members should dine in uniform at every public meeting of the club, and that they should likewise appear in uniform when at play upon the links. The fine for the infraction of this, or indeed any rule it would appear, consisted in the usual pint at the expense of the offender. For many years the home of this club was at Musselburgh, but on May 2, 1891, its new green at Muirfield was opened for play, and in 1892, the Open Championship was played there for the first time.

The clubs of St. Andrews, Prestwick, and The Hon. Company of Edinburgh Golfers, all of them Scotch clubs, were the original donors in 1872 of the trophy which is to-day played for in the great

Open Championship meeting of the year, and until 1894 the yearly meeting was always held upon the course of one of these clubs. " Prestwick, St. Andrews, Musselburgh" was the order of rotation, as will be seen by a glance at the list of the winners of the Open Championship Cup, a few pages further on. Last year, however, the number of players in England and the broadspread popularity of the game there was sufficient to cause a change, and for the first time an English links (Sandwich) was chosen as the battle-ground of the Open Championship meeting.

One other Scotch club should certainly be mentioned in passing, and that is Prestwick. Of all the golf-links in England or Scotland, this perhaps is the most picturesque. The beauty of the striking features of the surrounding scenery forces itself upon the golfer in spite of himself. The course is hilly and faced with bold precipitous cliffs, and the hazards are upon a grand scale, as the name, *'The Himalayas," given to one of them indicates. As a golf links, Prestwick holds the position in the west of Scotland that St. Andrews does in the east. The record for the course, 77, is held by Willie Campbell, who was formerly connected with Musselburgh and later with Prestwick. The same player, by the way, in a match with Willie Park in 1886, for ^25 a side, holed out the four rounds at Musselburgh in 152, which is 3 strokes less than the championship over that course has ever been taken in.

There are, of course, many famous Scotch links other than the three just mentioned — Bruntsfield, North Berwick, Carnoustee, Troon, Montrose, Elie, and a hundred others.

In England the number of golfing clubs is legion, and of these The Royal North Devon Golf Club (of which the links are known as Westward Ho!), Hoylake, and Sandwich, are amongst the best known. To the first-named belongs the honor of spreading the game among the present generation of Englishmen. Early in the sixties (1864) the club was formed and a course laid out on the North Devon Coast. Those were in primitive days, when there was no clubhouse, but all that is changed now.

Hoylake is the Liverpool home of golf, being situated on the Cheshire side of the Mersey. This club being founded in 1869 was only a few years after Westward Ho ! in point of time. If to Westward Ho! can be given the credit for taking up the Scotch game and disseminating it through England, to Hoylake belongs the honor of having instituted, in 1 88 5, the amateur championships which are to-day so great a success. The putting-greens of this course are known far and wide for their excellence. The course is thought by many to be somewhat tame, but it is the home of good golf, nevertheless, having produced Mr. John Ball, Jr., and Mr. H. H. Hilton, the only two amateurs to win an open championship since its foundation in 1872.

If the course at Hoylake is a little tame, the same can certainly not be said of Sandwich, for the Sandwich course is reputed to be one of the most difficult in Great Britian. The feature of the course is the " Maiden," a high sand-hill on the the near side of which yawns a deep sand-pit forming a hazard well known to all golf players in England. In 1892 the Amateur Championship was held at Sandwich, John Ball, Jr., being the winner, and two years later the Open Championship, as has been said, was also played upon the Sandwich links. This certainly is an excellent showing for a club hardly ten years old.

Great Yarmouth, Lancaster, Wimbledon, Tooting Bee, are all well known, not to mention Blackheath, the ancient forerunner of them all.

Over in Ireland the chief clubs are Portrush, Newcastle, and Holywood. Further South there are Dollymount, and nearer Belfast, the Kinnegar, where the first golf in Ireland was played. Of these, Portrush, in Ulster County, not far from the Giant's Causeway, is the best known, being the scene of the Irish Championships.

A list of clubs, such as has been given in the last few pages, however incomplete it may be, should certainly include the clubs at Biarritz and Pau. The course at Pau is excellent. The golf club there has been in existence nearly half a century, and the French caddies generally pick up sufficient golf talk to enable them and the English visitors to come to a mutual understanding.

It is impossible of course to give here anything like a complete list of the golf clubs in Great Britain. From latest accounts they number in the vicinity of eight hundred. The increase during the past few years has been something marvelous. A few of the chief ones only have been jotted down, and more especially those under whose auspices the championship meetings have been held.

There are two great golf meetings of the year in Great Britain — the Open

Championship, open to amateurs and professionals alike; and the Amateur Championship. The history of these meetings is not without interest, and as the Amateur Championship is a very recent institution (1886), we shall speak of the Open Championship first.

Prior to i860 there was no championship of any kind in Great Britain. In i860 what was known as the ** Championship Belt " was offered by the Prestwick Club, on the west coast of Scotland, under the condition that if won three times in succession, it should become the property of the one so winning it. This trophy lasted, as will be seen by the appended table of winners, until 1870.

i860 W. Park, Score for 36 holes

1861 Tom Morris, Sen., "

(C

1864 Tom Morris, Sen., "

1 60

1865 A. Strath, «

1867 Tom Morris, Sen., '<

1868 Tom Morris, Jun., "

1869 « « "

c<

1870 " " "

Thus in 1870 the Championship

Belt passed into the private ownership of Tom Morris, Jr. In 187 1 no trophy was competed for, and in 1872 the St. Andrews Club, The Hon. Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and the Prestwick Golf Club offered, jointly, the Championship Cup, which is still played for in open competition between amateurs and professionals. Tom Morris, Jr. , again was the winner, but the donors of the cup had allowed for no provision by which the cup could ever be won outright. Had the conditions been the same as in the case of the Championship Belt, it would have lasted a short, time only, as Jamie Anderson won his third successive victory in 1879. It will be noticed that prior to 1894 the Open Championship meeting was always held upon the links of one of the clubs donating the cup. Needless to say that at these meetings the play is of the first order, and the names of Tom Morris, Jr. (who is no longer living), Jamie Anderson, Bob Fergusson, and Hugh Kirlkaldy are known from one end of England and Scotland to the other.

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) O 1^ O C<1 O T a o fl i i o o c o 3 iS

To Hoylake, as has been said, belongs the credit of instituting the Amateur Championship. In 1885, although there was no representative organization to whom would naturally belong the power of holding an amateur championship, a very successful meeting was held upon the Hoylake links. Players from various clubs competed, and Mr. Macfie, the winner, was acknowledged to be the first player in a thoroughly representative field of amateurs. This led to the institution of the Amateur Championship in 1886, and in that year the initial recognized meeting was held under the auspices of the St. Andrews Club. For two years Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson headed the list of amateur players, but of the last seven competitions Mr. John Ball, Jr., of Hoylake, has won four in addition to winning laurels in the Open Meeting and in the Irish Championships. There are many fine amateur players in England and Scotland who play very close, one to the other : Stuart, Laidlay, Hilton, Mure-Fergusson, Macfie, Blackwell, Tait, Hutchinson, and John Ball, Jr., but the last-named, from all accounts, stands a little ahead of them all.