Articles

Remembrance Day: finding my grandfather and discovering his role in WWII

To coincide with Remembrance Day 2021, the AGHS is proud to publish this article on Eddie Anderson, penned by his granddaughter Vidya. Lest We Forget.

I grew up in Toronto, Canada with virtually no connection to my family’s history.

In the 1970s, my parents emigrated to Canada – my father from Indonesia by way of Holland and my mother from Australia. The inheritance of every mixed-raced child is to have a foot in two different worlds and a keen sense of never quite belonging. Growing up as the mixed-race child of immigrants only increased my sense of dislocation and isolation in a society where interracial marriages were not the norm.

My parents did not talk much about their homelands or their families, focusing instead as most immigrants did, on building a new life here in Canada.

Learning about my heritage
As I grew older, I wanted to learn more about my heritage and my place in the world, beyond the identity I had built for myself. All I had to go on was “an Australian grandfather who golfed and fought in WWII”. I didn’t even know his name.

When the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown began, I found myself mentally stranded, so I ventured down the rabbit hole of genealogical research. On my journey, I connected with an Australian golf historian. He helped me uncover the story of my grandfather – Eddie Anderson – a man who fought in the Pacific theatre of World War II, a prisoner of war, and a PGA champion and Australian golf legend.

Thailand-Burma “Death” Railway
My grandfather enlisted with the Australian Military Forces on August 4, 1941. He served as a private in the Australian Light Infantry’s Eighth Division. He shipped out to Singapore in 1942 to the Johore defensive line. Shortly thereafter, Malaysia fell to the Japanese. My grandfather was taken prisoner and forced to build the Burma Railway connecting Bangkok (Thailand) and Rangoon (Burma-Myanmar) to supply troops and weapons to the Japanese in the Burma campaign.

It was known as the ‘Death Railway’, because over one hundred thousand Allied prisoners and forced labourers died during its construction from 1942 to 1944. Conditions were horrific. Prisoners suffered and died from the working conditions, maltreatment, sickness and lack of food, water, and medical attention.

Eddie Anderson’s army attestation form (National Archives of Australia) (Click for larger image)

Disaster at Sea
Somehow, my grandfather survived. Along with 1300 other prisoners of war (POWs), he was loaded into the Rakuyō Maru, a prisoner transport ship headed for Japan. It was part of a convoy transporting Australian and British POWs, and other supplies for the Japanese war effort, including oil, rubber, and bauxite.

Allied POWs called them “hell ships,” overloaded with POWs being relocated to internment on the Japanese Home Islands or elsewhere in the empire. The holds were floating dungeons, where inmates were denied air, space, light, bathroom facilities, and adequate food and water.

Thirst and heat claimed many lives in the end, as did summary executions and beatings. Yet, most deaths came as a result of “friendly fire” from U.S. and Allied naval ships, submarines, and aircraft. The Allies sank other POW transport ships during 1944, but the sinking of the Kachidoki Maru and the Rakuyō Maru on September 12, 1944 led to the first eyewitness accounts being given by former POWs to Allied administrations about conditions in camps on the Thailand-Burma railway.

                           ^{Identification photographs from Eddie’s service file (National Archives of Australia)}

Sinking of the Rakuyō Maru
In the early hours of September 12,1944, my grandfather’s ship was attacked in the Luzon Strait by a wolfpack of three U.S. submarines. Rivers of fire were blazing in the sea from the convoy's oil tankers, hit earlier in the night. The men knew that they needed to abandon ship.

There were few lifejackets and the Japanese had commandeered the lifeboats, soon picked up by a Japanese destroyer at dusk. The POWs threw anything in the water that would float. My grandfather was thought to be lost at sea. Instead, he swam back to the sinking ship and found something to eat before it sank.

Along with fellow Australian survivors, he waited until the Japanese destroyer was out of sight and piled into an abandoned lifeboat. After four days at sea, with little water to drink and only mouldy rice, scrounged from a dirty tin in the bottom of the lifeboat, to eat, my grandfather and his comrades were picked up by two Japanese patrolling destroyers. The destroyers took them to the Chinese port of Amoy where they waited in a whaling station to continue their journey to Japan.

However, their trials were far from over as this new convoy was also torpedoed and sunk. Amazingly, the whaling ship survived and eventually arrived at Moogi, a southern port in Japan. My grandfather was listed as missing in action and presumed dead for five months.

Eddie Anderson’s service and casualty form (National Archives of Australia) (Click for larger image)

Waiting for Armistice
For the next 10 months, my grandfather was forced to work in a chemical factory and on the wharf. After more than three years as a POW, my grandfather was liberated on September 13, 1945 and shipped to Manila to convalesce. A month later, he arrived home in Australia on the British aircraft carrier, Formidable. He was awarded the 1939/45 and Pacific Stars, and the War and Australia Service medals.

When I read his war record, the aging news articles, and military historical accounts, I was stunned by his accomplishments and what he survived. Putting all the pieces together didn’t just paint a picture of incredible courage and fortitude but also of the grim realities of the war.

Golf saved my grandfather’s life
My grandfather survived, but he came home with what my mum called “shattered nerves”. Today, we would call it post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Civilian life would see my grandfather return to his love of golf. Before the war, he was a golf celebrity and professional, winning the Queensland Professional Golf Association (PGA) championship in 1937 and 1938. His career was cut short when the war broke out and he enlisted.

My grandfather should never have been able to pick up the game again after what he endured, but he remained disciplined and single-minded. Golf was his first love, after all. His theory was that “…besides working at golf, you have to think of it to the exclusion of all else – and dream of it too.”

Golf was his salvation. During the war, he kept himself in form in Singapore and in the POW camps by swinging with tapered pick handles, and the occasional club lent by Australian and Japanese officers.

Less than a year after he was liberated, my grandfather returned to golf in 1946, winning the Spalding Purse for the fifth time in his career. He continued to be highly successful, culminating with designing, building, and running his own golf course at Hudson Park, with my grandmother Beryl Anderson. 

My grandfather was steely, single-minded, and determined. He survived World War II, came home a hero, and rebuilt an enviable career as a professional golfer even by today’s standards. Although his struggles were glossed over in the “keep calm and carry on” way of the times, I will remember him as an incredibly brave survivor and a man of honour who lived up to his word. 

Chesterfield 8 Iron stamped for Eddie Anderson c.1947 (Private Collection)

My grandfather’s spirit lives on
My research led me to find my grandfather but none of this would have been possible without a chance connection to Leon (Old Golf) Rowbell, a historian and champion of the early golf professionals in Australia - so many of whom have died alone and forgotten. He followed me down the research rabbit hole and provided me with the old newspaper clippings to help me connect with the grandfather I never knew.

Finding my grandfather Edward (Eddie) William Anderson and uncovering his story has been truly bittersweet. I am grieving for a man I feel like I just lost, even though he has long since passed.

When I found his war photo, I knew he was my grandfather because my mum looks just like him. I really wish I knew him, walked the golf links with him, and heard from his own lips his story of survival and success. As I look in the mirror, genetic inheritance tells me I have my grandfather’s cheekbones, his jawline, and his freckles so at odds with my golden skin. But I like to think I also inherited Eddie’s grit, his determination, and his will to survive and beat the odds.

Vidya Anderson with her grandfather’s WWII enlistment photograph (Supplied)

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A Peek at History - Helen's Dance

Tony Hill takes a look at the 1936 Tour of Australia and New Zealand by Gene Sarazen and Helen Hicks.

Gene Sazaren made a good living as a touring professional in North America, but also took the opportunity to top up his earnings by making lucrative overseas Exhibition Tours.

He first visited Australia in 1934 with Joe Kirkwood, spending seven weeks cleaning up against the best Australian professionals could offer,  finishing second in the Australian Open to Billy Bolger (when he was short priced favourite to win), and sharing third place in the stroke play section of the VGA Centenary Open in mid-November.

By the time he left in November 1934, it had been reported in the Australian press that Gene Sarazen would tour Australia again, probably sometime in 1936.

Sarazen Will Be Back Adelaide Advertiser, 23 November 1934, p.10 Joe Kirkwood's Original Replacement Rockhampton Evening News, 7 November 1935, p. 12 Babe Didrickson's Replacement Brisbane Telegraph, 12 February 1936, p. 3 Helen Hicks (Vanity Fair, September 1, 1934) (Click for larger image)

By the end of 1935 Gene Sarazen had made his plans to return. Early in 1935 the announcements started to appear that Gene was coming, but not this time with previous touring partner Joe Kirkwood. His first reported partner was gold medal winning former Olympic athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson. Didrikson was a consummate athlete, adept at track and field, basketball, baseball and golf. However, by the end of December 1935, Gene had had another change of mind. After trying to ‘chat up’ Joyce Wethered and ask her to come, on the basis that anyone who had - reportedly  - ‘scared the pants off' Bobby Jones had to be alright as a golfer. Although she had toured North America that year, he had no luck in getting her out to Australia. In early 1936, announcements started to appear that Gene was coming, and he had a new woman in tow. He had invited Helen Hicks to join him in a nationwide exhibition touring  “adventure”  which would also include New Zealand. After a stellar career as an amateur golfer in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, during which she twice defeated Glenda Collett Vare at national level, became a member of the first U.S. Curtis Cup Team (1932), and being mentioned in the American amateur golfing circles as part of the ‘Big Four’ (the other three being Glenda Collett Vare, Maureen Orcutt and Virginia Van Wie), history probably best remembers Helen Hicks as America’s first female golfing professional (1934), a member of the Women's Professional Golf Association (1944), and a founding member of the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950. Her employer – the Wilson Sporting Goods Co.  – used her as a glorified saleswoman, who barnstormed across the country showing off their goods and playing exhibition matches both with and against Gene Sarazen and - occasionally - Babe Didrikson.

A Peek at History - The 'Forgotten' Golf Ball

Tony Hill takes a look at what could have become the preferred golf ball.

If you get the chance, do go and visit the Australian Golf Heritages Society Museum’s display Having a Ball. It’s both intriguing and enlightening to see the types of golf ball used by our forefathers. It includes a replica of the Vardon Flyer, and a gutta percha golf ball by Spalding in 1899.

            

Whenever you play the noble game of golf today - no matter the brand - the most common type of legal ball is 1.68” two-piece construction ball, often referred to as the American ‘big’ ball.¹ Go back in time a few years and we used a wound three piece golf ball that was covered with either Surlyn or, as preferred by the tournament playing professionals, the softer touch of Balata. And there are just some of us who are old enough to remember learning the game with the small 1.62" ball, also known as the British Ball.

However, for a few years in the early 1970s, there was a third size in golf balls that both the R & A & the U.S.G.A. sanctioned for use by the golfing public - the 1.66” golf ball.

The United States Golf Association (U.S.G.A.) had announced in 1930 that their 1.68" ball was to become “legal tender”, but the bickering between The Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A) and the U.S.G.A. would continue for another 45 years. In November 1946, President of the Royal Canadian Golf Association J. A. Fuller announced that Canada would use the American ball from January 1948. The North American market place had gone and the        R & A had lost control of the situation. Similarly, the Australian press in the 1950s felt it was only a question of time before we changed to the big ball.

North America pros visiting Australia generally chose to re-learn how to play the small ball. In October 1952, when four American Tour pros (Jim Turnesa, Lloyd Mangrum, Ed ‘Porkie’ Oliver and Jimmy Demaret) visited Australia to play in the 1952 Ampol at the Lakes, it provoked an interesting question before the Tournament began when Demaret was reported as saying they might use the small and large ball alternately – depending on which way the wind was blowing. At this time, there was nothing illegal about using either or both sizes of golf ball outside North America.

In the late 1960’s, The R & A attempted a compromise solution to the issue, offering up two alternatives – a 1.65” and a 1.66” golf ball. Discussion raged. A John Husar July 1969 article in the Chicago Tribune pondered over golf ball sizes, and on February 7^th 1971, the Sydney Morning Herald had an article on the drawn out controversy of golf ball sizes that refused to go away. The May 7^th 1973 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel questioned the “reluctance” of the U.S.G.A. to reconsider golf ball size. The R&A conducted extensive testing with the 1.66” ball in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The ball was released for the common golfer to use.

In the end it did not stack up. The top dog in the English and European golf professionals community Tony Jacklin used the big ball to win the Jacksonville Open Invitational in 1968, the 1970 San Diego Open, hustled the locals on their home turf at the 1970 U.S. Open (winning by 7 shots), and returned to win the Greater Jacksonville Open again in 1972.

In 1974, with the fear of American anti-trust laws breathing down their backs, The R & A made the 1.68” golf ball compulsory for the British Open. The writing was on the wall and the 1.68" ball gradually took over. The buying public didn’t want to use yesterday’s material and the 1.62” golf ball was formally outlawed in 1990 by The R & A.

And as for the 1.66” golf ball – it never advanced past the testing stage, and disappeared into history.

You can read a little more in the article 'One Size Didn't Always Fit All' on the U.S.G.A.'s website.

^{1. In June 2019, Callaway released the 1.732" Supersoft Magna as a game improvement gadget which "subtly raises the center of gravity of the ball and makes it easier for less-skilled players to get the leading edge of an iron or wedge under the equator of the ball to make solid contact."}

- Tony Hill

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Book Review - Open Fever

Dr Frazer's Australian Open Golf Championship by Colin Strachan

Reviewed by Vicki Stanton

In this handsome and well-presented hardback book, Colin Strachan has meticulously researched not only the life and achievements of Dr Ewan Frazer, and in particular his legacy to medicine and golf, but places Frazer and his family in the social context of the time. Strachan traces the emigration of the impoverished Frazers from their native Ireland to Sydney and how through entrepreneurial ventures rise in wealth and social status.

Strachan then narrows his focus to Ewan Frazer. He traces Frazer’s time as a medical student at Oxford University, his involvement with Royal Ashdown Forest and Tunbridge Wells Golf Club, his marriage and the death of his brother Arthur. The lens then pans out to a discussion on early golf in New South Wales; the formation and development of The Australian Golf Club, its people and its courses; and the founding of the Australian Golf Union and the Suburban & Country Golf Association of NSW.

Chapters 13 and 14 get into the real meat of the book. Ewan Frazer becomes secretary of The AGC and Strachan details the personal and financial commitment of Frazer to secure and construct the Kensington links and works tirelessly to extend the Botany course to play the first Australian Open. The book winds up with more on the life and pursuits of Ewan Frazer and his family.

Strachan writes with detail yet I never felt overwhelmed by information which is complemented by copious images selected from a wide range of sources illustrate the social, familial and sporting world of Frazer. This is a necessary story that is well told by Strachan. Frazer’s legacy is not only in the establishment of golf in the early twentieth century in Australia, including women’s golf, but also in his largesse to Oxford University’s pathology department without which the work on the development of penicillin could not have proceeded. For those wishing to follow up, there is a very helpful index, list of references and sources at the end of the book. The endpapers also feature a helpful family tree.

Open Fever: Dr Frazer's Australian Open Golf Championship by Colin Strachan (Sydney: Rightway Design & Print, 2017)
HB $50 plus postage (available from The Australian Golf Club)
ISBN: 9780646994703

Colin Strachan on Dr Ewan Frazer – Pioneer in Australian Golf

This talk by British golf historian, Dr Colin Strachan, was organised jointly by AGHS and the Australian Golf Club. It took place on the evening of Monday 27^th February at the Australian Golf Club. Seventy one people attended.

AGHS golf historian Michael Sheret introduces Colin (click for larger image).

Colin held the attention of his audience admirably with a well-researched interesting topic and an excellent PowerPoint presentation. The Frazer family is an interesting one, from rags to riches in Australia in the 19th century. Ewan Frazer was the Honorary Secretary of the Australian Golf Club. Over the period 1903 to 1905 he was the driving force in securing the land at Kensington for the Club’s present course, often putting his own money on the line for the land and the construction of the course and clubhouse.

Colin Strachan and some of his audience (click for larger image).

He was also the driving force in getting the first Australian Open up and running in 1904 and holding it at The Australian Golf Club at their Botany links. On his return to England both he and other members of the Frazer family were prominent in the development of Royal Ashdown Forest, Colin’s home golf club. A man of many parts, Ewan Frazer was also a pathologist and played a significant part in the development of the Department of Pathology at Oxford University.

The whole evening was a great success. Champagne on arrival, a riveting talk, a rapt audience, a gourmet dinner with unlimited wine, excellent service and a convivial atmosphere. All this in the beautiful setting of one of Australia’s most prestigious golf clubs. AGHS members interested in golf heritage and having an enjoyable evening at a bargain price, and didn't attend, missed out badly.

AGHS President John Buckley giving the vote of thanks.

A special thanks goes to Don Dunne, a member of both the Australian Golf Club and the Australian Golf Heritage Society, for his tireless work in publicising this event and making it a success.

- Michael Sheret

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Perry Somers - Ten Questions

Many AGHS members would be familiar with the name Perry Somers. A member of both the Australian and German PGA, Perry's hickory honours include being a twice winner of the Australian Hickory Shaft Championship (2009, 2010), winner of the World Hickory Open in 2010, twice victor at the L’Open de France (2009, 2012), winner of the International Dutch Hickory Open in 2016, and numerous 'podium' finishes.

Perry Somers - 2010 Australian Hickory Shaft Champion

Now based in Cologne, Germany, Perry was recently interviewed by North-West Hickory Players (U.S.) co-founder Robert Birman as the lead-off subject of a new series of interviews with avid hickory players.

The ten questions asked by Robert, and the replies follow:

1. The back-story - A diminishing number of passionate hickory golfers today know the names of the few-dozen men and women who championed the rebirth of the interest in this game. It is fascinating to me that the development and momentum of this interest has been steady across the globe in the last 10-15 years. What was your path, and who - if anyone - inspired you to get started in this niche of the game years ago?

Answer: Initially, there were no inspirational figures. I simply had a fairly superficial interest in the history of the game. I was member of the Golf Society of Australia who had organised a nine hole hickory outing on the fabulous Kingston Heath course in Melbourne. After just two holes I knew I had found what I had been missing in recent times from the game. Since joining the British Golf Collectors Society I have been inspired by Iain Forrester and the inimitable President Philip Truett.

2. The hardware - You've earned more than your fair share of trophies and awards in the hickory golf community globally - congratulations. You comport yourself with class and professionalism and are one of few truly global ambassadors for the game. First, what do you do with all of that hardware, and second, if you could only keep one item, which would it be and why?

Answer: I’d like to know what ones “fair share” would be actually. I don’t have many trophies at home, as most are of a perpetual nature. I have been fortunate enough to win some lovely medals over the years that have been beautifully inscribed with relevant motives. Forced to choose, which I would not enjoy doing, I would probably choose the first medal I ever won, which was the 2009 French Hickory championship. By the way this was my first, of many, head to head battles with Randy Jensen, as it was a handsome medal embossed with the scene of the opening day of the Chantilly G.C. in 1909.

3. The gear - Few hickory players travel and compete as much as you do. How many clubs go with you on a typical trip? Can you tell us about your favorite play clubs and comment on considerations you make in adding or subtracting clubs based on specific events?

Answer: Your readers are bound to be disappointed with my lack of information as I am well aware of the amount interest in the technical aspects around the US hickory scene. I carry seven clubs for parkland golf, ( Brassie, Baffy, Cleek, Mid Iron, Mashie, Mashie Niblick and Putter) a complete fruit salad of brands and makers, and two more for links golf. ( A Driver for a more penetrative flight in the wind and a Niblick for the Pot Bunkers. ) Favourite: possibly the Mashie Niblick.

4. The ladies - Social media allows us all to see the growing number of players who turn out for big and small events around the globe. I know you're a student of golf history and you (like me) admire Joyce Wethered, among other historical figures. How often, today, do you get to play rounds with female hickory golfers and what are your general observations about the growth of the women's game in our sport?

Answer: You are absolutely correct in your assumption to my Joyce Wethered allegiance. I am also considerably jealous of her life in general. On and off the course she led a charmed existence. Starting with a childhood full of summer holidays in Dornoch to the incredible success in tournament golf, playing matches in the US with the immortal Bobby in the “hard times” of the depression through to marrying into substantial wealth and becoming Lady Heathcoat- Amory! As to the ladies scene here in Europe, I can report a continued increase in female participation from event to event. The queen of the European Hickory scene is my friend Britta Nord from Sweden with whom I have been fortunate to play many times.

5. The competition - Match play and stroke competitions, in hickory golf, almost always combine an equal measure of affection and determined competition. Every player wants to win, but most would never trade that for the warmth and spirit of friendship that stems from our community of players. I have found that my favourite match was one that I was virtually certain not to win, and I didn't, but I enjoyed that round more than any other I can remember. Without naming names, unless you care to, can you reflect on a favourite match in your memory and what made it so memorable?

Answer: I couldn’t agree more. The matches we play in early June on the Norfolk Coast against Royal West Norfolk and Hunstanton G.C. respectively, for example, are the most pleasant golf days I have ever enjoyed. No pencil & card golf! Just foursomes followed by a convivial lunch.

6. The travel - Few have logged the miles you have in this sport. Are there any simple principles you can share about making hickory golf trips, and the act of packing, fairly efficient? We golfers often have to plan for inclement weather. How do you handle your own preparation, in terms of clubs, apparel and luggage?

Answer: Given the disgusting way baggage handlers around the world handle our luggage, I take the extra precaution of packing all my clubs inside a PVC tube that is superb protection for the shafts. See photo below. I make no extra plans for inclement weather. I play in a tweed jacket and that was good enough for Braid, Vardon, Taylor and Co. So I have to do the best I can in the conditions with the relevant clothing.

Perry's PVC Tube Club Carrier (click to enlarge)

7. The collection - I'm curious if there is any one club, ball, medal, or golf collectors' item you would choose, if you could find anything in all of golf history (and someone else would pay for it!) What might that be, and as important, what would you wish to have done with it once you are gone?

Answer: This is where I “out” myself as non hardline collector. I wouldn’t have a club or medal as such, however I dream of playing St. Andrews or any traditional links course with a traditional set of long nose play clubs and the feathery ball. That would be very special!

8. The off season - With your travel schedule, you may not have a clear cut off season, but my question is about care and maintenance of your play set. Do you have annual routines you follow to keep your clubs in peak playing condition?

Answer: I do indeed have an off season and by the way, I am no longer as active as previously. I do give my hickories a winter reconditioning. Generally a light sanding down and a light coat of shellac.

9. The shot-making - I think most golfers have a shot or two that we enjoy re-living in our memory when we reflect on our time on the links. Can you share one of yours - what course, which hole, what shot did you pull off?

Answer: One that springs to mind was in the re-enactment of the “1870 Great Match” against Randy Jensen. We had played for three days on three different courses St. Andrews, Prestwick and North Berwick and I was one up on Musselburgh’s 15th hole. The hole was a par four with a very difficult two tiered “table top” green. I had driven in the light whispy rough and suspected a “flyer” from the lie. I lay no more than one hundred and forty yards from the hole which was cut up on top of the table. There was no chance of stopping anything played high ( a modern shot) so I played what used to referred to in the hickory era, as a “push shot”. Basically a pitch shot with the mid iron out of my hands and arms only, that flew on a low trajectory, pitched in front of the green and scampered up the steep tier to settle eighteen inches behind the cup. The birdie set me two up and another followed on the par five seventeenth which brought the match to it’s conclusion.

10. The future - As someone who meets players all over the world, what's your prognosis for the future of hickory golf?

Answer: I most certainly do not have a crystal ball, however, I am very concerned at the lack of interest in the true traditions and the lack of effort to re-create the atmosphere of the early 1900s. Far too many corners are being cut and compromises too readily sought. Too many people using carts and trollies, too many wearing modern clothing, particularly in poor weather and far too many playing non traditional equipment. There will most certainly come a time when all the original hickory clubs have been purchased, used and broken, but that is thankfully not currently the case.

^{This article appears courtesy of the North West Hickory Players and  Mr. Perry Somers. The Australian Golf Heritage Society would like to thank them for their generosity.}

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Retrofitting Hickory Shafts

NOTE: Subsequent to this article being written, the Australian Golf Heritage Society has decided to follow the lead of the U.S. based Society of Hickory Golfers, and allow wooden headed clubs retrofitted with hickory shafts to be used in AGHS sactioned competitions. Refer to the updated ‘Golf Equipment Standard for Hickory Events’

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The published aims of the Australian Golf Heritage Society are to:

• Encourage the collection, recording and preservation of information that is connected to the history of golf in Australia,
• Verify the authenticity of physical items associated with the history of golf in Australia and provide a means of storing, restoring and displaying these physical items,
• Inform golfers, golf clubs and the wider community of this information and display these physical items in a manner which tells their story, and
• Promote hickory events as a celebration of the origins of the game.

In the past the Society and its members have managed to adhere to these guidelines reasonably well, but as interest in the history of the game increases, we find that these aims can sometimes come into conflict, particularly where hickory events are involved.

We have published - in our current ‘Golf Equipment Standard for Hickory Events’ - the following as our approved standard for wooden headed clubs:

Wooden Headed Golf Clubs, with plain wooden shafts:

• Must have Heads manufactured before 1940.
• Shafts may be repaired or replaced with an old or new shaft.
• Must have a ‘leather wrap’ grip.
• Weight may be added to the head.

Further to this, we say by way of ‘Explanatory Notes’:

It is understood that old golf clubs manufactured prior to 1940, may not be in very good condition and need different levels of repair and maintenance.

The above guidelines make it possible for the owner of these clubs to do his/her own repairs and maintenance, if he/she wishes to do so, without further expenditure.

Generally, any repair or renovation that would have been performed prior to 1940 is acceptable.

All enquires are welcome and should be directed to The Secretary, Golf Society of Australia Inc. or Australian Golf Heritage Society.

The supply of Australia specific clubs is – quite obviously – finite, and this is particularly true of the wooden headed clubs. As a relatively small market with a correspondingly small number of local club makers, it is also equally obvious – and counter-productive – to be using increasingly rare and increasingly valuable Australian clubs in play events.

It is indeed possible to buy clubs from the much larger United Kingdom and United States markets, but by the time that you have tracked down what you think are suitable clubs, purchased them sight unseen, and had them freighted down under, the cost is somewhere between prohibitive and extortionate . . . and there’s still no guarantee that they will be playable. But there is a ready solution at hand.

On the other side of the Pacific, the Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG) have recognised that a similar problem exists. They have arrived at a more comprehensive set of rules which caters for their much wider playing base. Included in the Rules is the following clause:

RETROFITTED CLUBS. – This category was created for clubs that were made PRIOR to Dec. 31, 1934. Any wood headed club offered for sale prior to 1935, regardless of shaft material originally installed at time of manufacture may be retrofitted with a wooden shaft and be permitted for play in SoHG sanctioned events.

Players must establish – independently or through the retrofitter or seller of these clubs – that the heads were indeed offered before 1935. No golf club made after Jan. 1, 1935 will be allowed in this category. It should be noted that no irons (iron headed clubs) have been approved to be retrofitted with a wood shaft for play.

Some time ago, Brisbane based AGHS member Ross Haslam took the SoHG supplementary rule on board, with the dual ideas of creating a hickory environment where the preserving of the precious local artefacts was possible, and obtaining a decent set of woods wasn’t a one-way ticket to the poorhouse.

Ross purchases his ‘raw material’ from the United States, and he chooses pre-1935 rather than pre-1940 (as per AGHS hickory playing guidelines) as it is generally much easier to identify a pre-1935 wood compared to a pre-1940 version. Up until circa 1935 large American club manufacturers such as Wilson and Macgregor were offering hickory shafts as an option in many club styles, even though they had long committed to producing and promoting steel shafted clubs.

By the late-1930's manufacturers were often using numbers (1, 2, 3) and/or traditional names on wood clubs, and the use of the "Phillips head" screws in face inserts and base plates was increasing. They were also experimenting much more with club head design compared to the first half of the 1930's. As a consequence it can be very difficult to differentiate between a pre or post 1940 steel shafted wood club.

All of the wood clubs Ross has chosen to re-shaft are very easy to identify as pre-1935 via catalogues and many are sold in both original hickory or steel shafted versions online. Ross has done the AGHS a considerable service by documenting his retro-fitting process and choosing – unselfishly – to pass his expertise on to a wider audience. Over to you, Ross . . .

How I re-shaft a pre-1935 steel shafted wood with a new hickory shaft

Once you have your pre-1935 wood the first, and usually the most difficult step, in the entire process is to carefully remove the steel shaft without causing too much damage to the wood head.

A circa 1935 steel shafted Leo Diegel “Banner” Wilson driver

The steel shaft of most pre-1935 steel shafted clubs was held in with 2 screws. The first is usually a longer screw, approximately 30mm long, running perpendicular to the hosel of the club and passing through the shaft to secure it into the clubhead. The second is a shorter screw approx 15mm long that skews back into the clubhead through the shaft where it penetrates through the base of the club.

On occasion you may find this screw is actually a pin that has been nailed through the shaft (these are difficult to get out). The other variation you may see, particularly in latter clubs, is that the screw through the hosel may have a very small head (making it very hard to extract) or may not have been used at all.

A steel shafted wood showing the 2 places where the shaft is usually screwed

The shaft removed showing the 2 fixing points

 

A pre-1940 Spalding Kro-Flite 2 wood with no hosel screw

Removing screws that have been in place for 80+ years can be a trying experience. They are nearly always slotted screws that are filled with dirt and other gunk and are often worn away leaving little slot for a screwdriver to fit into. A pair of loupes is essential for examining the condition of the slot and determining the angle that it is screwed into the club.

I use a Stanley knife blade to clean the slot as thoroughly as possible and make sure that I have a screwdriver that fits the slot snugly. You need to ensure the shaft of the screwdriver runs parallel with the angle that the screw has been inserted into the club and that pressure is exerted directly down the shaft, you only get one go to get these screws out. If not the blade can twist out of the slot and damage it to a point where you will be unable to apply any pressure to remove the screw.
 
If they refuse to budge (and they often do) I drill them out from the base with a bit that just fits into the hollow centre of the shaft. After drilling up through the shaft the head of the hosel screw usually sticks up enough to grab with a pair of pincers or fine pliers. Remember that the end of both screws will both need to be punched into the clubhead to clear the inner wall of the steel shaft. Once they have been punched clear the shaft should turn freely and can be pulled out. If the shaft doesn’t turn freely chances are one or both of the screws will not have been punched clear of the shaft.

The remaining clubhead can now be trimmed and bored out ready for fitting of the new hickory shaft. I cut the hosel at the point where the width of the hosel will match the diameter of the new hickory shaft. Because the hosel of a steel shafted wood is narrower where it meets the steel shaft you will need to cut the hosel closer to the clubhead than you would for a normal hickory shafted club. This in turn means that the whipping will run closer to the top of the clubhead than a normal hickory shafted club.

The angle of the hosel is much greater in a steel shafted wood

I bore out the hosel using a step-drill that steps from 4mm to 12mm in 9 graduations. I use the “CraftRight” brand from Bunnings which come in a set of 3. There are more expensive single bits that have 12 graduations but I find the Bunnings bits are fine. I have lengthened my bit by adding a hex bit from a socket set. This allows me to drill through the hosel with plenty of clearance. I drill the hosel by hand using a cordless drill with the clubhead secured in a vice.

I generally drill through the base until the 4-6mm graduation appears, from my experience this gives a hole in the base of a similar size to what is normally seen in hickory clubs. With the hole from the steel shaft already running through to the base of the club it is just a matter of using this as a guide and slowly advancing the step bit. You may shave a bit off the base plate, depending where the steel shaft exited the base, but being aluminium or brass the step bit handles this easily and will leave a neat oval shape (see the Kro-Flite above).

4 to 12mm step drill bit attached to hex bit

 

                                    ^{Examples of some clubheads trimmed and bored out ready for re-shafting}
Fitting the new hickory shaft is now simply a matter of carefully filing down the end of the shaft until it is a reasonably snug fit into the new bored-out hosel. I have a selection of files and rasps that I use for this. Once I’m happy with the fit I set it in place with “Ultra Clear” Araldite (you can use whatever glue you prefer). The important thing at this point is to ensure the grain of the shaft runs perpendicular to the face of the club.

^{I mark the grain on the butt end of all my shafts so that aligning the shaft is no problem.}

 

                                       ^{Re-shafted wood showing new hickory shaft protruding from the base}
Now that the shaft is set into place all that remains is the finishing of the club. To ensure a seamless transition where the hosel and shaft meet I use epoxy putty carefully sanded back. It is a time consuming process but if done well the taper from clubhead to shaft is as indistinguishable as it is in all hickory shafted woods. The nice thing about epoxy putty is that it will take stain so you can colour it to match the club head or shaft if you desire.

Re-shafted woods showing the epoxy putty prior to finishing

It can sometimes take 2 or 3 goes to get the join seamless from every angle

Epoxy putty join finished and stained

The finished join with whipping applied

The screw hole at the back of the hosel can sometimes be the only giveaway that a once steel shafted wood has been re-shafted with a hickory shaft. After experimenting with casting resin to repair a damaged face insert I decided that resin would be the ideal material to fill the hole left by the hosel screw. I place the club in the vice making sure the hosel area is level. The casting resin I use takes 5-10 minutes to set so when ready I line the hole with 5 minute Araldite and then carefully syringe in the resin to just overfill the hole. When set it can be filed or sanded down to the desired finish. I have begun stamping my resin plugs with the letter that represents the wood, so “B” for Brassie and so on. If the club has an insert face I try to match the plug colour to the colour of the insert.

Slightly overfilled resin plug in hole left by hosel screw

Green resin plug finished and stamped with “B” for Brassie

As a lefty it is difficult to come across decent playable hickory shafted woods. In championship play I use an original hickory shafted Alex Patrick Brassie from the tee and a Spalding 2 wood (with a repaired insert face) from the fairway. I've yet to find a playable original hickory shafted spoon for use in championship play. In social play I use a re-shafted 1935 Walter Hagen "Tom-Boy" spoon.

^{My 1935 Wilson "Walter Hagen Tom-Boy" re-shafted spoon}

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Early Golfers in Ireland, America, India and Australia

From the earliest days, military golfers have had a significant role in spreading the game of golf outside the British Isles. The mariners and civil servants of the British Empire also played their part in popularising the game in far foreign fields.

Bill with the Distinguished Service Award from Irish Golf Writers, 2011

On Thursday 28th April 2016, starting at 5 pm there will be an illustrated talk at the AGHS Museum by visiting golf historian, Colonel William Gibson. Bill is a retired army officer. He has extensively researched the history of his own club, Royal Curragh Golf Club in County Kildare. His research provided the evidence that Royal Curragh had its beginnings as far back as 1852, with military personnel posted to the area. Bill was made an honorary life member of Royal Curragh in 2009. He has also researched and published the definitive work on the very earliest golf known to have been played in Ireland, dating back to the early 17th century.

If you intend coming to the talk, contact the History Sub-Committee via the Contacts page. Alternatively, telephone the AGHS Museum, 10am to 4pm Sundays on 02 9637 4720 at 4 Parramatta Road,(above Golf Mart), Granville 2142.

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Peter Corsar Anderson - A Developer of Golf in Australia.

Barry Leithhead's collation of information on Anderson’s contribution to the history of Australian golf.

GOLF IN AUSTRALIA was founded by people from ‘the old country’ who brought it here, with ancient implements and the desire to find suitable ground on which to play. That foundation was developed by others who followed – men like Peter Corsar Anderson.

Peter Anderson had two passions in his long life – education and golf. He was already an accomplished Scot when at age 25 he arrived in Australia in 1896, having graduated from the old St Andrews University with MA and post-graduate studies in Divinity. Anderson had also graduated from the Old Course at St Andrews, where he played often and well, holding for half a season the course record of 80, which was four under bogey. His golf was so good that in 1893 when only 22, he won the British Amateur Championship at Prestwick, beating JE Laidlay in the final. However, he was in poor health with pleurisy and hoped for a better climate in Australia. Arriving in Albany, then the major port in Western Australia, he met his elder brother Mark who was a shipping agent there and also a fine golfer.

Albany is some 360kms south from Perth, where the Antarctic wind first assaults the golf course. Mark suggested Peter settle in Melbourne, where he had been Champion of the Melbourne Golf Club in 1893. Peter did not delay and within a short time had taken up a tutoring position with a well-to-do farming family at Mansfield, 90kms north east of Melbourne. Six months later he was appointed a master at Geelong Grammar School (GGS) and became a member of Geelong Golf Club (GGC).

If his golfing results are an indicator, Peter regained his health quickly. Within a year he had set the course record of 79 for GGC and he reduced it to 76 in 1898 and 75 in 1899, a record that stood until 1904 when his brother Mark reduced it by a single stroke. Peter won the first Championship held at GGC in 1898 and was Champion for six successive years until 1903¹. Not surprisingly, Geelong won the Victorian State Pennants Championship from 1899-1901 and tied with Royal Melbourne GC in 1902. It is reported that in 1904 Peter Anderson won a pennant match 16 up! The Riversdale Cup was an important event and he won that in 1898-9 and 1902. Mark had won that Cup in 1896, its first year.

Consider the clubs Peter played with, bought from Tom Morris, paying 2/- for a head and 1/6 for a hickory shaft from America. His most expensive club was a brassie which cost 5/6. He won the Amateur Championship of 1893 at Prestwick with six clubs: a brassie, a mid-iron, a cleek (for long approaches), a mashie, a niblick, and a wooden putter he also used for the short game. As a reserve, he had a driver, which he did not use. At Geelong GC is it said he used only four clubs; driver, cleek, mashie and putter and rarely carried a bag for his clubs.

PC Anderson was reported to be one of those who selected the new site for the Royal Melbourne Course when that club’s old links were becoming hemmed in by building projects². He is also credited with laying out the Barwon Heads course at Geelong although the course did not open until 1907, well after he had gone to Perth.³

A Geelong Grammar student recalls:

PC Anderson (‘Andie’) joined the school direct from a world golf championship at St Andrews⁴ and was naturally an idol in the eyes of the sports loving community. His very broad northern accent captivated us and he joined the boys (chiefly juniors) on their excursions into the bush then surrounding parts of Geelong. Knowing nothing whatever of Australia and its bush life, he welcomed these days and in them learned something of the conditions of his adopted country.⁵

The GGS Quarterly reports:

Mr Anderson has taken his golf clubs down to the river on several occasions, and has kindly given some of the fellows some hints on how to use them, in the race-course paddock. One of the fellows did not seem to be very enamoured of the game, describing it as ‘the most dangerous thing since Waterloo’. He, of course, spoke from sad experience.⁶

PC Anderson developed substantially as an educator in Geelong. He was a Master at the GGS senior school from 1896-99 and in charge of the Preparatory School from 1899-1900. In 1899 Anderson married Agnes Henrietta Macartney, the sister of the student he tutored at Mansfield and granddaughter of the Anglican Dean of Melbourne who in 1855 was one of the founders of Geelong Grammar School. Peter and Agnes became parents to six sons and seven daughters. He left GGS in 1900 to set up his own school, St Salvator’s, also in Geelong.⁷

Peter might not have contested the 1904 Geelong GC championship, having moved to Perth, and it was won by his brother Mark – the first of his three championships at Geelong (also 1907 and 1912). He was made a life member of GGC in 1917. Mark also won the Royal Melbourne Championship five times, the first time in 1893 (Easter – the event was played twice a year in 1893 and 1894) and then in 1894 (twice), 1895 and 1896⁸. There’s a nice quote in the RMGC history from RAA Balfour-Melville, who won an Australian Amateur title but could never beat him in a club event – ML Anderson always seemed to sink a long putt on the 18th!! Mark was runner-up in the 1905 Australian Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne. In the twelve years between 1903 and 1914, Royal Melbourne won the State Pennant Championship nine times.

In 1904, PC Anderson became Headmaster at Scotch College Perth, Western Australia, where the first four years must have been an all-absorbing challenge for Anderson, the educator. He was intent on developing the learning of students despite the school’s being in such a bad state on his arrival that the governors were thinking of closing it down⁹.

The school was sited in grossly inadequate temporary premises and was moved to a new site at Swanbourne, seven miles (10 km) west of Perth, where a benefactor offered land. Anderson at once insisted that, unlike his predecessor, he should participate in council meetings, and soon proved himself a vigorous organizer capable of ensuring the success of the move.¹⁰

Anderson brought to Scotch College a model of ‘godliness and manliness’, for he was a ‘typical product of a Scottish Presbyterian background’, tall at 6’4’’, a strong disciplinarian whose main interest was in sport, and, although not an educational innovator, he was a ‘reliable’ leader. The notion of ‘godliness and manliness’ is at the heart of late nineteenth-century ‘muscular Christianity’, a term coined in response to the work of Charles Kingsley, associated with magazines like the Boys’ Own Paper and a host of popular books like Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Coral Island, and in recent years portrayed in films like Chariots of Fire.¹¹

In 1908 we hear a mention of Anderson in relation to golf and then it is where no course or club exists. Scotch College is within sound of the ocean and Anderson and others thought vacant land on the water’s edge might be the making of a golf course:

Westward towards the coastal sand dunes, a rough gravel track struggled up the hill from Cottesloe Railway Station and lost itself in the scrub at Broome Street. It was early June 1908, and the group of men who trudged up the naturally vegetated hill, battled against a driving westerly wind to the coastline. Among them were FD North, one of the earliest residents of Cottesloe, J M Drummond, T Robertson and PC Anderson of Scotch College. Their common interests were a desire to play golf and to construct their own links. One, Anderson, thought wistfully of his native Scottish links, of his succession of triumphs that had carried him to the very pinnacle of golf as British Amateur Champion. What a contrast between Scotland and this almost inhospitable Australian coastline. Yet, beneath the drab scrub and sandhills of Cottesloe, Anderson could see the possibilities of first-class greens, tees and fairways. It was worth a try. A few nights later, on the 11th of June 1908, before a log fire in the local Albion Hotel Commercial Room, sixteen men met and agreed to form the Cottesloe Golf Club^{12 13}.

This was the origin of the Cottesloe Golf Club in 1908 and Anderson, along with NC Fowlie designed the course aptly named and still known as ‘Sea View’. The opening of the nine-hole course by the State Governor on 11th September 1909 was only fifteen months after the initial committee meeting. A year or so before, Anderson laid out the first nine holes of the Royal Fremantle course, a few miles south from Perth.

In the first two years Anderson won major events at the Sea View course, was appointed Captain in 1912 and one of the Club’s delegates to the Western Australian Golf Association in 1913. Fowlie set the initial course record, bettered by Anderson in 1913 (77) and again in 1914 (75). Fowlie was State Amateur Champion in 1914. Anderson won the Club Championship twice (1917, 1919) when his handicap was +4 and his age almost 50.

It is recounted that two Scotch College students, RD Forbes and KA Barker were invited by their illustrious headmaster to play a round of golf with him. Feeling very pleased with themselves after the completion of their game, one of the students on returning to the Clubhouse said ‘Sir, would you care for a drink?’ Anderson said, ‘Yes young man, I should like a sherry thank you’, whereupon the student dug deep into his pocket and produced a ten-shilling note which he laid on the counter. The change however, was picked up and pocketed by Anderson, a costly but subtle reprimand for the young players. Forbes would later win the Club Championship ten times between 1921 and 1938¹⁴.

Another story told of PC Anderson arose from the activities of a few boys from Scotch who developed a practice of trespassing on the course on Saturday mornings. When the chairman of Greens Committee asked ‘the Boss’ to exercise more control over his pupils, he received the reply: ‘I look after the little beggars five days a week – someone else can worry about them in the weekend’.

PC Anderson won the last of his four Club trophy events in 1928 at the age of 57. He was a committee member from the Club’s founding in 1908 until 1918 – in 1915 he was appointed Vice President, a position he held for 40 years until his death in 1955. He was appointed the Club’s first life member in 1936¹⁵. Cottesloe GC opened a new course at Swanbourne in 1931, near Scotch College, on seaside dunes/links land with few trees, five kilometres from Sea View. Anderson appears to have played no official part in the move, although the CGC History records that he ‘continued to make a valuable contribution to the establishment of the present course’. His name does not appear in any of the records of the committee who created that course. Perhaps the designers Rees and Stevenson consulted him informally, perhaps even regularly. Given their inexperience in golf course design, it would seem feasible for them to consult the club’s ’grand old man‘ who had designed a number of well known courses. However, the original CGC Swanbourne course would appear to have been largely or even solely the creation of WA Rees and TD Stevenson.¹⁶

There was evident dissatisfaction with this original design because the club engaged Alex Russell only a few years later (1934), to redesign the course completely. Russell’s routing, totally different from the original, embodied the then traditional single loop of eighteen holes – nine holes out and nine holes back, like so many famous courses, such as St Andrews. This Russell routing has largely survived today and surely it would have been more to Anderson’s liking. The Sea View course is still in play, bare of trees, on ground that slopes down to the sea.

PC Anderson’s brother, Mark returned to Albany, Western Australia, around 1913. He stayed there, apparently, for the remainder of his life, was Albany Golf Club President in 1922-23 and father of Bill and Jean who were dominant Albany golfers and golf club administrators of the next generation. It is not known from club records whether Mark won any Albany Club Championships (which would seem likely) but he quite obviously became the ’grand old man‘ of the Albany GC. Presumably the Anderson brotherhood started the long close relationship between the Albany and Cottesloe golf clubs which, if not as strong today as once it was, still involves annual club visits.

The extension of Albany GC from nine to eighteen holes (planned in the ‘30s but executed in the ‘50s), was apparently designed by another Cottesloe Anderson – David, CGC’s professional in the 1920s. The Albany GC history records that Mark was an eccentric soul who preferred to putt with a five iron. Tim Catling also tells the following story about his father, Tom, who played with Mark Anderson, when Tom was about fifteen:

Old Mr Anderson was a dour Scot, like my father’s father, given to playing golf in silence. Mr Anderson had two remarkable shots from very difficult lies, and each time Dad asked him how he did it and each time Mark explained, and apart from that did not speak at all. At the end of the round Dad thanked Mr Anderson very much and the reply was ‘that’s all right, you’re a nice lad but you talk too much!’ .

After WWI, PC Anderson seems to have been largely absent from the formal CGC administration. However, he continued to play regularly and was a delegate to the WAGA. It is likely that his perpetual vice-presidency was a largely ceremonial father figure role, a continuation of the ’grand old man‘, the legendary British Amateur Champion of long ago. As such, he gave the CGC a much increased status and aura of credibility. Club members really looked up to him with awe and respect as a figure of considerable stature. Of course, this was assisted by so many of his Scotch College pupils and masters becoming members of the club. There is a huge Scotch old boy contribution to the club to this day. CGC’s History 1893-1983 was compiled by Geoff Newman, a Scotch pupil who later taught under PC Anderson and eventually became the school’s Deputy Headmaster.

Anderson was headmaster of Scotch for 41 years, retiring in 1945. During this period annual enrolments rose from 59 to 410; more than 3,000 boys passed through Scotch in his time. The first decade of his regime was marked by the provision of science laboratories, a cadet corps, sports grounds and a boatshed. By 1914 Scotch was established as one of the four leading independent boys’ schools in Western Australia, and for the next 30 years Anderson was doyen among the Protestant headmasters, setting an educational model whose influence extended well beyond his own college. He was a masterful administrator, careful in times of financial stringency but insistent on bold planning whenever opportunity permitted. Impressively built and inclined to be set in his opinions, he earned the nickname ‘Boss’, but was respected for his scrupulous fair-mindedness and capacity for hard work. Legends generated around him, such as the yarn that he once caned the entire school in an attempt to put down smoking. He was awarded the CBE in 1947¹⁷.

Peter Anderson’s great passions for education and golf were played out in three distant arenas – St Andrews in Scotland, and Geelong and Perth in east- and west Australia. Not only was Peter Anderson’s passion for each at a high level but his persistence and determination through difficult times of world wars and the Great Depression were a significant testimony to his character, as was the quality of his golf. The history of golf in Australia is both how the golf was transplanted to Australia and the development of golf once there. Peter Anderson stands tall in both these dimensions of our history. The heritage of golf he brought to Australia, in how he played the game, the clubs he used and his understanding of the game and the course on which it is played, came from the foundation of golf, at the Old Course, St Andrews. When we think of people like Peter Corsar Anderson, we recognise and respect the people who were the founders and developers of golf in this country, on whose shoulders were the burdens of building courses and clubs and the standards of play, and whose passion was encouraging young golfers to play the game well, in its true spirit. These are the shoulders on which we modern Australian golfers stand. Such is the history of golf in Australia.

<sub>With generous contributions gratefully received from Alasdair Courtney, Archivist, Scotch College Perth, Malcolm Purcell and Fatima Pandor of Perth, Michael B de D Collins Persse, Keeper of the Archives, Geelong Grammar School, Ms Moira Drew, Museum Curator for Australian Golf Union/Golf Society of Australia and Archivist, Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Graham McEachran of Cottesloe GC History Group and recognising the encouragement from John Pearson, Editor of Through the Green,

Notes
¹ The History of the Geelong Golf Club by Gordon Long BA, Dip Ed (Hawthorn Press 1967)
² In The History of the Geelong Golf Club, quoting Golf World 1957 taken from the St Andrews Citizen
³ Geelong Grammarians 1855-1913 by Justin J Corfield and Michael Collins Persse (1996) page 711
⁴ Anderson was from St Andrews but he won the British (not world) championship at Prestwick.
⁵ From a 60 Years on memoir in 1955 by Noel Learmonth (1880-1970) GGS: 1895-98
⁶ The Geelong Grammar School Quarterly July 1897
⁷ Geelong Grammarians 1855-1913 by Justin J Corfield and Michael Collins Persse (1996) page 711
⁸ Information accompanying AGU Museum item; Melbourne GC became Royal Melbourne GC in 1895
⁹ Building a Tradition – A History of Scotch College Perth 1897-1996 by Jenny Gregory (UWA Press 1996)
¹⁰ Obituary by Professor Geoffrey C Bolton quoting Three Schoolmasters Melbourne Studies in Education 1976, S Murray-Smith Ed.
¹¹ Building a Tradition – A History of Scotch College Perth 1897-1996 by Jenny Gregory (UWA Press 1996)
¹² From The History of Cottesloe Golf Club 1908-1983 compiled and edited by GH Newman
¹³ Anderson was one of those who joined the club that night.
¹⁴ From The History of Cottesloe Golf Club 1908-1983
¹⁵ ibid
¹⁶ ibid
¹⁷ Obituary by Professor Geoffrey C Bolton</sub>
^{This article first appeared in the British Golf Collector's Society publication 'Through The Green' in September 2005, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author.}

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W. A. Windeyer, golfer: player, administrator and referee c. 1900-1930

The following article was written by AGHS member Jim Windeyer, grandson of W. A. Windeyer. Jim would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance given in the course of his research by fellow AGHS member Don Dunne.

W. A. Windeyer entered the golfing scene in 1900 as a member of the founding committee and quickly secretary of the Hunters Hill Golf Club. Of the initial thirty members only four had experience as golfers and he was not one of those. However in 1904 he was the club champion and a member of the team that won the Suburban and Country Golf Association Cup in 1907. On a bigger scene – after all the Hunters Hill course was very short confined as it was to the grounds of the Gladesville Mental Hospital – Windeyer also had some success. He was second in the Hampden Cup in 1911 – although the standard was reported as being ‘very poor, and badly in need of a tonic of some description’.1  The next year he just missed out on a place in the NSW amateur team. However Windeyer’s significant place in the early history of the game in Australia comes from his role as an administrator and referee. Left: W. A. Windeyer in 1926 - champion and captain of Hunters Hill Golf Club (Evening News, 16 August 1926).

Interclub competition had begun in 1901 when Hunters Hill played Concord. As competition expanded rapidly some overall organizing body was called for. It emerged from Hunters Hill as the Suburban and Country Golf Association in 1902 with Windeyer as secretary for ten years and president for another twenty. In the Hunters Hill club it was acknowledged that his energy and enthusiasm had been instrumental in developing the strong spirit of the club.

It had all been played in good humour including Windeyer playing one day in a top hat – to win a bet of a sovereign. As reported ‘Mr. Windeyer belongs to the legal profession and he didn’t let that sovereign pass him’.²

<sup>Standing: R. Colquhoun, l. Keep, Dr. Braithwaite.
Seated: Dr. Littlejohn, W. A. Windeyer, J. Kidd. A. Orr, C. T. Metcalfe.
* The rapid approach of a thunderstorm prevented the whole of the team being photographed.
(The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 12 November 1902 - click to enlarge)</sup>

The S&CGA did not include the metropolitan clubs, the Australian and Royal Sydney. Windeyer, wrote the constitution for the NSW Golf Council the umbrella body to cover all; he began as its secretary and treasurer and became its chairman. He really wanted one organization rather than two.

After long delays he produced a draft constitution for the NSW Golf Council and the S&CGA to consider. He was in a strong position, chairman of the former and president of the latter. The NSW Golf Association was born in 1930. The report of the discussion said of Windeyer he was ‘one of the most progressive administrators of golf matters in the state’.³

Competition required rules as well as regulation. As secretary of the council Windeyer approached the Royal and Ancient Club of St Andrews for a copy of their rules and rulings and arranged for their local publication in 1906. To his becoming, as secretary of the golf council and a lawyer, the local authority on the rules was but a short step.

Some decisions he explained in articles in the magazine Golf, Motoring, Tennis and letters to the Sydney Morning Herald. Within a year of the publication of the rules he was explaining the disqualification of E. P. Simpson when he was lying third in the Hampden Cup. No properly signed card had been submitted and in fact a further breach of the rules had occurred when his partner’s card had been retrieved and signed as the rule stated that ‘no alteration can be made to any card after it has been returned’. In conclusion Windeyer expressed the position that was to mark him in all such situations:

Everyone regrets the incident, but it is to be hoped that the publicity that has been given to the matter will induce players generally to acquire a better knowledge of, and to more rigidly adhere to, the rules of the game.⁴

Another letter concluded, ‘I would ask, why should not the rules be adhered to as strictly in golf competitions as they are in billiard competitions?’⁵

Two months later the issue was not third in the Hampden Cup but first in the Australian Championship. The Honourable Michael Scott finished eight strokes ahead of the next player, Dan Soutar. On one hole Scott had teed off from outside the teeing ground: a technical error from which he gained no advantage. But the rule was clear, ‘If a competitor play from outside the limits of the teeing ground, the penalty shall be disqualification’.

The competition was being played at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Scott was from there and Soutar from the Australian in Sydney. The committee refused to disqualify Scott. Both sides referred the matter to St Andrews. The Australian’s case was almost certainly prepared by Windeyer. In a long letter to the Herald he set out the case and said:

Never once has the Committee (the Rules of Golf Committee of St Andrews) departed from the principle of requiring strict adherence to the rules.

The necessity of strictness in the observance of the rules must be apparent to every player as the advantage that can at times be obtained over others by a player who did not adhere to the letter of the rules would be immeasurable.

It is certainly very much to the interest of the game that the present decision should not stand as a precedent… Personally I have no doubt that the Hon. M. Scott considers the decision incorrect and will welcome its reversal knowing that he has the sympathy of every golfer in Australia.⁶

That view was not universally shared ‘Observer’ in the Melbourne Argus was one of many who differed and said, ‘A little more reason, a little less rule, and a great deal less of the Royal and ancient authority of St Andrew’s would make golf a better game to play.’⁷

The word came back from St Andrews in July 1908: Scott should be disqualified. The Royal Melbourne did not change its decision.

Soutar himself in his work The Australian Golfer 1905 had said on rules:

But they are not framed for lawyers, and wherever a doubt arises as to interpretation, the practical commonsense of the golfer, rather than the keenness of the lawyer for exactness of expression, should be brought to bear in its elucidation.⁸

In 1912 the scene was rerun with minor modifications. The player back with the lowest score was from Royal Melbourne, Ivo Whitton. Five strokes behind him was Soutar. At issue was where Whitton had teed his ball having played it into a tea-tree thicket and lifted it for a penalty of two strokes: was it ‘impossible’ to have teed it behind where it lay? Windeyer put the matter to St Andrews. Again the answer was that the penalty should be disqualification. And again the Royal Melbourne took no notice.

Soutar’s response to the ruling was more generous to Whitton than an endorsement of Windeyer’s position:

Whitton on his play on the day richly deserved his victory. He is unquestionably a fine golfer. The finding of the higher authority is an undoubted triumph for Mr Windeyer, who is a great stickler for the Rules. It is a passion with him. I have no doubt if he saw the King of England grounding his club in a bunker, he would have His Majesty up before the Committee.⁹

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With the outbreak of World War I W. A. Windeyer promptly tried to enlist. He was rejected: he was forty-three, married with four children, the youngest only five months old. He transferred his patriotism to raising funds and enlistments particularly in Hunters Hill where he was an alderman and before the end of the war, mayor.

At the time of the conscription referenda he offered his services to the National Referendum Council as a speaker in support of the ‘Yes’ case. In the first referendum he spoke in the southern alps and the Monaro area as well as at meetings in Sydney. The council had been founded by Henry Yule Braddon a keen sportsman and with Windeyer a member of the Australian and Royal Sydney Golf Clubs.

When the referendum failed other recruiting structures were established at electoral and local government levels. Windeyer adopted an innovative but probably not very effective approach via his sporting passion. At the annual meeting of Suburban and Country Golf Association in March 1917 he, as president, proposed:

That this association suggests to the clubs that no unmarried man, who being fit and free, at any time during the war has failed to enlist shall be allowed to remain or at any time hereafter be admitted as a member of the club; and further, that the inclusion of such a rule in its constitution shall be made a condition precedent to the admission of any new club.

He said it was the duty of every individual and every representative body to support the war effort. As conscription had been rejected there was a duty to create a public opinion in which potential enlistments were ‘held up to shame and contempt by their fellow citizens for all time.’ ‘Let us do the right thing,’ said Mr Windeyer, ‘it was shameful to know that so many people in the community were content to sit back in comfort and leave the issue to the ‘other fellows’.’

He wanted the association to set a lead for other sporting bodies and proposed the motion ‘with every confidence that you gentlemen will recognise that it is a proper course for this Association to adopt, and one which is calculated to help in the present crisis by leading public opinion in the proper direction’. Another report said of Windeyer:

He means to set out immediately upon a crusade against the unmarried, fit and free of all athletic associations and clubs throughout New South Wales. He is particularly desirous of enlisting the support of the N.S.Wales Cricket Association, and he is sanguine the N.S.Wales Bowling Association, the polo clubs and the rowing and sailing clubs will subscribe to the idea when the national advantages of it are emphasised.

The columnist in the Referee, ‘Auld Reekie’, wrote: ‘On hearing Mr Windeyer’s speech I am quite open to admit I entirely changed my views on the proper way to vote, and I am convinced that a lot of the delegates did so like wise.’ Windeyer’s brother Richard, a delegate from the Newcastle club, also spoke strongly in favour of the motion. It was carried by eighteen votes to two but not without two important amendments. The onus was put on the proposer and seconder of a candidate not the candidate himself to state that he was eligible for membership in the circumstances. And it was only to apply to those wishing to join clubs not to existing members.

‘Sincerity’ another columnist in the same issue of the Referee was very critical both of a previous decision, to avoid drawing attention to the fact that people were still enjoying golf by not publishing any results, and of this one. He wrote:

The people of Australia have decided, rightly or wrongly, by referendum that men shall not be compelled to fight if they don’t want to, and the National Government members now before the electors have issued a public manifesto in the following terms:

We declare that the issue of Conscription, having been referred to the people of Australia and decided by them in the negative, is settled. We accept unreservedly the verdict of the people, and will give no support to any endeavour to again raise the question.

That is good enough for the leaders of public thought, but apparently it is not good enough for W. A. Windeyer. He says that, as Conscription is impossible in Australia, it is up to him – not to lay down his brassie and take up a bayonet, but to stop some other chap having an occasional game of golf when he feels like a knock round … Anyway, there won’t be enough of them in the Windeyer category to make a ha’porth of difference to the course of the war.¹⁰

Perhaps it was these efforts that lay behind the line in his entry in Who’s Who in Australia 1941, ‘one of three who raised the N.S.W. Sportsmen’s Battn’, because no other evidence for that claim is apparent. It was some months later, in June 1917, that a Sportsmen’s Recruiting Committee was established to arrange a big recruiting day on 27th July. H. Y. Braddon was chairman of the committee but Windeyer was not on it. In prominent advertisements sportsmen were urged to ‘ENLIST AT ONCE! You will shorten the war by doing so!’

After 1918 Windeyer was involved in the establishment of two competitions based on wartime links. In 1921 when in England he established the Highgate Australia Cup for competition between members of the Highgate club and visiting Australians – ‘as a token of appreciation of the kindness extended by members of that club to convalescent Australians during the War period’.¹¹  The cup was lost in the club’s fire in 1926 but the competition continued until 1963.

In 1926 Windeyer and R. Clement Kirk, president of the New Zealand Golf Association, set up the Kirk-Windeyer Cup for competition between the Australian states and New Zealand to be played in New Zealand and Australia alternately. As Windeyer said it too had a wartime link:

The expressed object of the donors of the cup had been to not merely to provide a golfing contest but by bringing together as many as possible of the golfers of the Dominion and the Commonwealth, to strengthen during peace the bonds of friendship between these two parts of the Empire established during the war.¹²

When it was first played in Sydney it attracted a lot of significant attention. It began with a civic reception and ended with a dinner at which the Governor General spoke as did others including Hughes the former prime minister, Sir Joseph Ward president of the Wellington Golf Club and twice prime minister of New Zealand and Henry Yule Braddon, now Sir Henry. But much to Windeyer’s disappointment the competition was a casualty of the depression and after no match in 1931 or 1933 the last was in New Zealand in 1934 – won by New Zealand.

The high point for Windeyer in the golf world was probably the dinner in Country Week 1931 at which representatives of all the golfing bodies were present. It was reported in the Sun:

FORCE IN GOLF
W.A.WINDEYER HONORED
30 YEARS’ WORK

The proposer of the toast said, ‘His name was written largely in the annals of the game in Australia, and his vast knowledge of golf was freely at the disposal of all’.¹⁴

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^Notes

^{1    Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July 1911.
2    Sydney Mail, 12 Nov 1902.
3    SMH, 7 Aug 1929.
4    GMT, 18 Jul 1907.
5    SMH, 11 June 1924.
6    SMH, 18 Oct 1907.
7    Argus, 30 Dec 1907.
8    Dan Soutar, The Australian Golfer, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1905, p.198.
9    Quoted in Terry Smith, Australian Golf, the first 100 years, Lester & Townsend Publishing, Sydney, 1982, p.89.
10  Papers of Sportsmen’s Recruiting Committee, AWM 2DRL/1121; Arrow, 3 Mar 1917; The Referee, 14 Mar 1917; SMH,       9 Mar 1917; SMH, 25 July 1917.
11  Golf in Australia, 9 Feb 1928.
12  SMH, 12 Apr 1930.
13  SMH, 25 Jul 1917.
14  SMH, 15 Sept 1931.}

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Since the above article was published, new research – using archival material from the R&A, the AGU, the NSW Golf Council and contemporaneous newspaper reports – has shone more light on the 1907 and 1912 Opens. The research was published in the May 2018 and November 2019 issues of Sporting Traditions, which is lodged in the National Library of Australia and catalogued.

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Golf in Sydney in 1839

Alexander Brodie Spark was born in Elgin, Scotland, in 1792. He arrived in Sydney in 1823. As a merchant entrepreneur he became a wealthy and respected member of colonial society. He died in Sydney in 1856. Spark is important to historians because he was an
assiduous diarist and his diaries have been preserved. His diaries are important to golf historians because they give us the first reliable, stress reliable, evidence of golf being played in Australia. It was played on Grose Farm, land now occupied by Sydney University, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Victoria Park. The first two entries from the 1839 diary relating to golf are reproduced here in their original form. 

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Tempe House Display - 11-12 April 2015

AGHS has donated material for the permanent exhibition in the Tempe House Interpretation Museum Room. The material outlines the important part played by Alexander Brodie Spark in the earliest known golf played in Australia in 1839. There was an unveiling ceremony on the Friday night. Putting on the lawn with replica featheries and authentic putters of the time was enjoyed by many visitors. Tempe House was open to the public during this weekend as part of Australian Heritage Week – 11 to 19 April, 2015.

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Early Golf in Tasmania

Norman Richardson dispels some myths and misconceptions regarding early golf in Tasmania

Published in 1975, Muir MacLaren’s 5th edition of The Australian and New Zealand Golfer’s Handbook contained in a chapter on the Royal Hobart Golf Club by R C Porter was the following paragraph,

Denis Crawford, in his researches into golf history, reveals that Tasmania has the honour of introducing golf to Australia, some twenty years before Melbourne‘s first golf links. Mr Alexander Reid, a pioneer of Bothwell in the Midlands of Tasmania, brought with him his golf sticks and golf balls from Scotland in the 1820’s and the game of golf was played at Ratho and the Logan Flats during the 1830’s. Again a copy of the Colonial Times reports in 1827 a game of golf being played by two young Scotsmen. It is unfortunate that no details are given of where the game was played in Tasmania and who the young Scotsmen were.

Unfortunately R C Porter did not check Denis Crawford’s research and for 35 years the statements made were perpetuated by golf writers to the point that the above statements are generally accepted as fact. New findings dispute this.

The Importance of Primary Sources

Firstly, regarding the incident of the two Scotsmen playing golf without details given in the report of where the game was played, the Colonial Times dated 6th April, 1827 named the game as shinty and gives a description of what is clearly a game of shinty – a lively Gaelic team sport similar to hockey. Unfortunately, the original report confuses the game with golf.

Secondly, Crawford’s apparent source for his research on Alexander Reid was The History of Bothwell and its Early Settlers written in 1958 by K R Von Stieglitz in which Von Stieglitz interviews Alexander Reid’s grandson, A. A. Reid. After describing his involvement in football and cricket matches, Reid talked about golf.

The first golf links were laid out at Logan, which was just over the Clyde from Ratho, but the ground was not really suitable. Then we started links at Ratho, and the club has been there ever since. I think my family must have been one of the first to introduce golf out here, and I can remember seeing some very old fashioned golf clubs and golf balls in the early {eighteen} seventies, before I went to school. They were kept in a long box with some croquet mallets, but were given to a schoolmaster who afterwards went to live in New Zealand, and I have no idea where they are now. They could have been brought out in 1822, with my grandfather’s things, but I think more likely they arrived in 1839 when my people returned from a trip to Scotland. 

From this, Von Stieglitz concludes in his summary of sport in Bothwell, that golf was played on links at Ratho and Logan Flats during the 1830s, with primitive clubs and golf balls brought out by pioneer Alexander Reid. The Australian Dictionary of Bibliography states that: “Von Stieglitz was best known for his contributions to local history. The books lacked a chronological or thematic framework, and included unverified stories …’

The Williams Correspondence

In January 2010, I located a letter from Mrs Jane Williams to The Mercury newspaper published on 28th July I890, which puts the introduction of golf to the Bothwell district as about 1860. The letter was in response to a report in The Mercury of 22nd ]uly 1890, where the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Robert G Hamilton expressed a wish to see golf introduced to Australia.

Jane Williams’ letter 1890 to the Mercury newspaper. The spelling of Dunedin as Dumashee was corrected in the Mercury of July 31st, 1890.

The new information from Jane Williams is of great significance as she was the eldest child of the 1820s pioneer, Alexander Reid. Jane was born in 1814 at Leith, Scotland, and was eight when she arrived with her family in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania. Soon afterwards the family moved to granted land at Bothwell and named the property Ratho. In 1829 she married a British Army Captain, William Williams, who at the time was the Bothwell Police magistrate. In 1830 Jane travelled with her husband to Madras, India but he died there in 1834 whilst serving with 40th Regiment. A widowed Jane returned to Bothwell in early 1835 and spent her remaining years with her parents and brother at Ratho except for the period of the family’s return to Scotland from 1838 to 1842.

Jane was considered an authority on the history of Bothwell and her writings, journal and letters are an integral part of the Clyde Company Papers. These are reproduced in a seven volume history of The Clyde Company, which was an extensive pastoral business, and are the main reference work for the Bothwell Historical Society. Alexander Reid,  Jane’s father, died in 1858, having suffered from chronic illness for about ten years. Jane died in March 1897.

William Blackburn Wood, mentioned as the originator of golf in Tasmania, was the son of Captain Patrick Wood of the Madras Army. In 1822 Captain Wood led a party of Scots to settle in Bothwell, Tasmania. He was given a land grant and established the Dennistoun Estate and was an original partner of The Clyde Company. The Wood family left Bothwell in 1839 and returned to Edinburgh, Scotland, where William Wood and his brothers were educated at Edinburgh Academy (Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, 29th ]uly, 1850).  The Hobart Town Daily Mercury of the of 23rd of February 1860 gives an account of William Wood returning to Tasmania on the ship Aurora Australis. Wood settled on the famiiy’s estate, Dennistoun, where, we might reasonably assume, he played his golf. A keen sportsman, William was the opening batsman for the Bothwell cricket team and was actively involved in the Melton Mowbray Steeplechase Club and the local hunt club the Mowbray Hounds, who would often run on the Dennistoun Estate. He died suddenly on 1st August, 1866, at the age of only 30 and was buried at Dennistoun Estate.

The state schoolmaster was John Brown Park, who was appointed as a senior teacher for Tasmania in 1855. Park was born at Strathbungo, Glasgow , Scotland on the 14th January, 1821. He was a teacher at Loanhead near Edinburgh prior to his arrival in Tasmania. After a dispute in the reduction of his teaching salary  he resigned and left Bothwell in 1864 for New Zealand to become schoolmaster at Dunedin South School. In the 1870s Park was Secretary of the Dunedin Golf Club, which when founded in 1871, earned the distinction of being the first golf club in New Zealand. John Brown Park died in Dunedin in 1891.

The letter from Jane Williams suggests that:

1. William Wood introduced golf to Tasmania around 1860.
2. He played in the Bothwell district, probably on the Dennistoun Estate.
3. Alexander Reid II (Aleck) gave Wood’s clubs to the former Bothwell schoolmaster some time after Wood’s death in 1866.

The reliability of the information given in Jane Williams’ letter is further strengthened in a letter written by A. A. Reid to Harry Culliton, golf columnist, and published in the The Australasian on 8th March I930.

I thought it might be interesting to know I came upon an old letter written by my father in the early (eighteen) sixties, where he said they are forming a golf club here at Bothwell with 15 or 16 members. I myself can just remember the queer shaped old clubs which were kept in a long box and remained for a good while. They were eventually sent to a schoolmaster in New Zealand who had asked for them – for which I am extremely sorry, as they would have been great curios now.

Ratho Links and Bothwell Golf Club

It is significant that Mrs Williams’ letter does not mention her father, Alexander Reid, playing golf; nor did it mention a golf course at Ratho, either at the time of writing or previously. Instead she states that ‘golf ceased to be practised in Bothwell’ and that ‘the implements of the game’ were sent to New Zealand, these events occurring in the 1860s. Mrs Williams’ letter states that golf was introduced to the Bothwell area 30 years prior to 1890, i.e. about 1860. This evidence runs counter to the belief that Ratho ‘golf links’ date back to much earlier. This led the current author to wonder how old the Ratho ‘golf links’ were.

We are indebted to AGHS member, Ross Baker, for providing the earliest known primary evidence of golf played on Ratho. This evidence was found by Ross in the diary of Frederick (Fred) McDowall. Fred McDowall was son of Archibald McDowell of Logan, and had grown up as a great friend of A. A. Reid sharing a common interest and participation in most sports. His diary records on 24th August 1901 that Fred McDowell ‘had first game of golf at Ratho links. A. Reid 67, Griffiths 76, Fred McDowall 85 for 9 holes”. Evidently these three were novice golfers.

The current Bothwell Club was formed at a meeting on 3rd ]une, 1902. From the minutes of that meeting we know this motion was carried — “That with the consent of F. McDowall The ‘Links’ be laid out on ‘Logan’.” At a club meeting at Logan on 10th June, 1902 it was agreed “That funds be applied towards making and upkeep of links “. Fred McDowall, A. A. Reid and Police Sergeant Charles Griffiths were amongst the foundation members. During that year their golf had noticeably improved since their first games at Ratho, with Reid (from the diary) getting round 18 holes in 110 and McDowall in 112; by 1903 Griffiths, McDowall and Reid had handicaps of 3, 3 and 4 respectively. The golf course remained at Logan until 1910. This is determined by the Annual General Meeting of the Club, reported in The Mercury newspaper. Up until 1905 Mr Archibald McDowall (III), owner of Logan, was given a vote of thanks for the use of ‘the links’, whereas in the period 1906 to 1910, Mr Norfolk, Wise, Mrs Wise (Archibald McDowall’s daughter) and Miss McDowell (Mrs Wise’s sister) were thanked.

In 1911, the Tasmania Mail reports that Cluny ‘links’ were being used. Cluny Farm was owned by Lawrence Cleghorn Cockburn. It seemed to be a temporary course until the course was completed at Ratho Estate.

From July 1911 we start to get evidence of Ratho becoming established home of the Bothwell Golf Club. The Tasmanian Mail’s golf column of ]uly 20, 1911, reported that:

…next Saturday the new links on the Ratho Estate are to be opened and a mixed foursome competition has been arranged to celebrate the event. I have been told that the natural turf is far more suited to golf than the present links, so l presume that Ratho will ultimately become the recognised Bothwell course.

The Tasmanian Mail golf column reported the following week that the Ratho course opening had been postponed until 5th August, 1911. The formal opening did proceed and the Mercury of 8th August, 1911 gave the following report.

Mr and Mrs Reid gave a golf afternoon on the newly laid out Ratho
links at Bothwell on Saturday… The new course is a really excellent
one, the turf being naturally suitable for golf, the grass greens are all
wonderfully good. Every hole has its difficulties, and the sporting
nature of the course adds to its attractiveness. The length of the
course (9 holes) is 2551 yards. Mr and Mrs Dennistoun Wood and
other visitors were present.

From the minutes of the Bothwell club, at the Annual General Meeting on 2nd March 1912 Mr A. A. Reid offered to place the Ratho links at the disposal of the club. As a compromise it was resolved, “That for the coming season matches be played on alternate Saturdays at Logan and Ratho.” Mr N. Wise, who objected to the motion then stated, “that the club must discontinue playing as a golf club on Logan”.

The newspaper reports tally perfectly with A. A. Reid’s recollections of golf in Bothwell in the Von Stieglitz book, as he was talking of his time in the current Bothwell Golf Club, and as he is quoted as saying in that book ‘and the club has been there ever since’. So 2012 was the centenary of the Bothwell Golf Club’s move to Ratho Links.

Von Stieglitz made the error of associating Logan course (1902) and Ratho course (1911), with A. A. Reid’s conjectures about the golf clubs in his parent’s home and linking this to the return of his forebears from Scotland in what he thought was 1839. It has been perpetuated by writers since the time of MacLaren’s book, and hopefully now the error stands corrected.

Bothwell still has much to be proud of regarding its golf history; as it stands now it was the first place in Tasmania to play golf — about 1860 —and still very early for Australia. Only 1839 – Grose Farm in Sydney, in 1847 – the vicinity of  Flagstaff Hill in Melbourne, in 1852 – Homebush in Sydney and in 1857- Hyde Park in Sydney have been found to have beaten them to it.

References

Additional Bibliography

Colonial Times, The Mercury, Tasmanian Mail, Launceston Examiner: The Australasian
Newspaper resources were researched using the Trove search engine of the National Library of Australia.
Minutes of The Bothwell Golf Club 1902 -1919 held at the State Library of Tasmania, Hobart.

Information on John Brown Park was given by his great great grandson Stuart Park, Kerikeri, New Zealand.

Note: This article is a revised and updated version of an article entitled  Australia’s Honour? published in the June 2011 issue of Through the Green, magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society. It was also published in the Summer 2015 edition of The Brassie

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Development of Golf in Tasmania

by Norman Richardson

In The Mercury of July 21st, 1892 a report on the committee meeting for the Tasmanian Racing Club, at Elwick racecourse, in Hobart’s northern suburbs, mentions,

“A letter was received in reference to the use of the grounds at Elwick for a golf club, but it was decided to ask for more information before coming to any decision in reference to the matter”.

In The Mercury of November 7th, 1895, under the heading ‘A week in Carnarvon, the beauties of Port Arthur’, was the following extract,

“Carnarvon boasts of having started the first golf links in the colony, and as at present, the only one in the south.”

On June, 4th, 1895 the Launceston Golf Club became Tasmania’s first club; the Reverend W. H. Webster was appointed Secretary / Treasurer. Mr Edmund King granted permission for the use of his ground above the South Launceston reservoir, they also played on Lawrence’s paddocks. The Club’s first matches were played on Saturday, June 8th, 1895. Dr. Gutterridge was President.

The Club flourished for two seasons before interest subsided, partly due to the distance of the course from town and only a few dedicated enthusiasts were left playing on Lawrence’s and Newstead’s paddocks. Efforts were made in 1897 to find links closer to town.

Another club was established in Launceston in July 1899, playing on links at Mowbray Racecourse, before moving to Kings Meadows in June 1901. The Mowbray Golf Club would later be called the Tasmanian Golf Club and finally, as it is currently known, the Launceston Golf Club. Their course appears to be the oldest in the state.

In March 1896 a club was formed at Devonport, playing on ground owned by Mr G.E. Harrap. The links were formally opened on April 25th, 1896. By 1900 a second club, the Mersey Golf Club, was operating on the eastern side of the river. Sheffield followed soon after, forming a club in December 1896, Mr Roberts and the Hope brothers being among the founding members.

In September 1898 the Longford Club began playing at the local racecourse and then later at Mr T.C. Archer’s estate, Woolmer. In 1903, The Mercury was reporting:

“that there were thirteen golf courses within the same number of miles of Longford.”

The Sassafras Club started in October, 1899, playing over links on Mr John Rockcliff’s estate, Westfield. In 1900 the Club’s links moved to two paddocks owned by Mr Charles Rockcliff.

In the south at Hobart, Mr Macfarlane laid out a short course, approximately 1½ miles in length, at the rear of his property, Newlands on Augusta St, New Town. He sent out circulars to prospective members and a club was formed in April 1896. Dr W. Giblin was foundation Secretary.

The Club was in existence until 1907 when the Newlands property was sold for building lots. The members of the Newlands club commenced play at Mr H. Wright’s property Grove, at Glenorchy and the name changed to the Grove Golf Club, which survived until the First World War.

By October, 1896 Newlands was organising to visit the Jericho links and the Tinderbox Bay golfers. A small course was also in existence in 1897 at Bellerive. The Lindisfarne Golf Club commenced in August, 1900 at Beltona.

The Hobart Golf Club was formed in December, 1900, on the Blink Bonny estate at Sandy Bay. The Club lost these links when it was commandeered by the Defence Department and an internment camp was created when war broke out.

In 1916 the Rosny estate was purchased and a 9 hole golf course was laid out to the design of C. Fawcett and Mr L. A. Cluff. The Club was granted Royal status in 1925.

In the Midlands, in August 1897, golf clubs were sent up from Hobart for the newly formed Bothwell Golf Club. Play soon commenced at links on the Dennistoun Estate. This Club didn’t last long and another club was formed in 1902. The Club played first on the Logan estate until 1910, then temporary links were used at Cluny estate.

Research by GSA member Ross Baker has found a reference to a course, and play, at Ratho in August 1901; this is the earliest documented evidence of a golf course at Ratho.

Oatlands Golf Club was formed in April, 1902 after members of the Club had been playing on the paddocks of Messrs. Sturgeon and Jones the previous year. Also in 1902, the Midlands Golf Club was formed in Ross playing on the Chiswick links.

Other clubs playing golf in Tasmania prior to 1914 include Deloraine 1898, St Leonards 1899, Evandale 1899, George Town 1900, Ouse 1902, Swansea 1903, Swanport 1903, Glamorgan 1904, Brighton 1905, La Trobe 1907, Stanley 1909, Ulverstone 1911 and New Norfolk 1912.

The Northern Tasmanian Golf Association was formed in 1900, and the Southern Golf Union in 1902; together they inaugurated the first North and South matches and State Amateur Championships in 1902. The Tasmanian Golf Council commenced in 1908.

In 1902 Mr H. N. Giblin won the first men’s state championships and Miss D. Nicolas won the Ladies’ event. Eustace Headlam won the first Tasmanian Open Championship. Early Tasmanian success at Australian Amateur championships includes Miss Elvie Whitesides in 1906, Clyde Pearce in 1908 – as well as the Australian Open that year, Mrs Harrison in 1913 and Len Nettleford in 1926 and 1928.

James Hunter from Edinburgh was the first professional in Tasmania and was attached to the Hobart Golf Club; during his time there he laid out the Sandy Bay links. Amongst his pupils were Clyde and Bruce Pearce. James Herd was the first professional in the north of the island working for the Launceston Sports Depot.

In more recent times, 1954 Australian Amateur Champion, and GSA member, Peter Toogood has won the Tasmanian Open eight times and the Tasmanian Amateur ten times, among his many achievements, and was the founder of the Australasian Golf Museum at Bothwell; well worth a visit for anyone interested in Tasmanian and Australian golf history

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The Hunters of Midlothian

Norman Richardson identifies a family that helped spread golf on three continents.

Although St Andrews is known as the Home of Golf, the commons of Bruntsfield and Leith at Edinburgh , have a claim to being the cradle of organised golf. Some of the earliest references to club-makers in the 1600s and 1700s were from Bruntsfield and Leith: William Mayne, Thomas Comb, and the Dickson, Clephan and Cossar families. Club-making at this time was a part-time occupation. They shared these duties with such trades as bow-making, joinery and cabinet-making. In 1770 in Edinburgh, James McEwan, a joiner by trade, established the McEwan club-making business – a business that existed for four generations until 1897. When the Bruntsfield and Leith Golf Societies relocated to Musselburgh, the McEwans followed soon after in 1847, leaving opportunities for new clubmakers at Bruntsfield.

The descendants of William Hunter and his wife Janet are one of the unheralded families of club makers, ball makers, professionals and course designers, whose influence extends to the early days of golf in England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Not a lot is known of the Hunter family and little appears in golf reference books.

William Hunter, b.1828

^{21 Leven St}

William Hunter was born in Newton, Edinburgh in 1828. He was listed in the 1851 census as a cabinetmaker and journeyman, married to Janet, living at Randolph Place Lane, Edinburgh. At the time of the 1861 census, William Sr. is listed as master cabinetmaker employing three men, and living at 21 Leven St, about 150 yards from the Bruntsfield Links and from the Golf Tavern, used as one of the city golf club houses until the 1890s.

By 1871, William had commenced training his sons, and by 1881 all three of them, Ramsey, Henry and William were all working as joiners for the family business, which was still operating from Leven St.

Ramsey Hunter (1852-1909)

Ramsey Hunter was born in 1852 at Edinburgh, and had his early training as a carpenter and joiner. His introduction to golf was at Bruntsfield Links and in 1887 he was recruited by Dr W Laidlaw Purves (Edinburgh-born and another former Bruntsfield golfer) as greenkeeper, club-maker and caddies superintendent for the new golf links at Sandwich, Kent (later to become Royal St George’s). He laid out the course with Laidlaw Purves and in addition to club-making, Ramsey also produced guttie balls named The Hunter Special.

In 1891, he had his brother William working as a clubmaker at Sandwich and had, as an apprentice, Albert J Milliner, who was to become the first professional at The Australian GC, Queens Park, Waverley, in 1897. Milliner soon left for Dunedin, New Zealand, becoming one of that country’s earliest professionals. In 1902, Ramsey, sacked by Sandwich GC for ‘being worse for drink’, became professional at Shooters Hill, GC London.

In 1892 Ramsey designed the first nine holes at Deal GC, Kent; in 1895 he designed the course at Royal Porthcawl GC in Wales; and he laid out the first nine holes at Hythe GC in Kent. In 1909, he advised improvements for St Augustine GC in Kent and also for Mid-Kent G C, Gravesend, the latter with the help of Willie Park Jr. Horace Hutchinson and Bernard Darwin acclaimed Ramsey for his role as greenkeeper at Royal St Georges. He joined the British PGA in 1902. Ramsey died in 1909, whilst professional at Mid Kent GC, Gravesend.

William Hunter, b.1858

William Hunter was born in Edinburgh in 1858 and was apprenticed to his father. By the time of the 1881 census he was working as a joiner and was married to Ellen, with whom he had sons William (born 1878) and James (born 1880). Ten years later the census lists him as living in Sandwich, Kent with his son William and working as a club-maker for his brother Ramsey. His two sons would become golf professionals.

Henry Hunter (1860-1935)

^{Harry Hunter}

Henry (Harry) Hunter was born in 1860 in Edinburgh and was working as a joiner at the time of the 1881 census. He was a member of the Bruntsfield & Allied GC (also known as the ‘Club-makers Golf Club’) in the 1880s, playing in team challenge matches against other Edinburgh clubs. In 1887 Harry (left – at Cinque Ports GC c.1897) travelled with Ramsey to join the workforce laying out the Sandwich links, and he became an assistant to Ramsey once the course was finished. Harry commenced work as a club-maker/professional at Ashdown Forest GC in Kent in 1890.

By 1892 he was employed at Cinque Ports GC, Deal, Kent where he was professional, club-maker, greenkeeper and caddy master. He began by constructing the first nine holes then designed and built the second nine. Harry was also a guttie ball-maker – the Cinque Ports ball – and was to remain at Deal for 43 years. Harry also designed and constructed the course for Sittingbourne and Milton Regis GC between 1929 and 1931. Two of his sons, two of his grandsons and a great grandson would later become golf professionals. Harry died in July, 1935 aged 75.

William Hunter b.1878

William (Willie) Hunter was born 1878 in Perth, Scotland was the son of William (b.1858) and Ellen Hunter. Willie was apprenticed to his uncle Ramsey at Sandwich. He commenced professional duties at the Glamorganshire GC, Wales in 1896, laying out the second nine holes of their course in 1897. Willie spent the summer season at Shelter Island GC, New York in 1897 and North East Harbour, Maine in 1898. A Mr Martin of James Martin and Co (a store in Sydney, Australia, importing and selling golf clubs, balls and bags) acted as a go-between for The Australian GC and Ramsey Hunter. As a result, Willie was appointed professional for The Australian GC, at Botany, arriving by the Orotava in June, 1899. He was appointed ahead of WD More, who had applied for the professional’s position from Johannesburg, South Africa, and who later became professional at Royal Melbourne Golf Club over the period 1900–01.

^{Scott & Hunter 1901}

Willie was described by the golf columnist, Foozler in the Sydney Mail of May 6, 1899, as being

‘young and a player with an easy style much like that of the Bondi (Royal Sydney GC) Professional, James Scott’. (Scott was a brother of A. H. Scott, the well-known professional and clubmaker from Elie, Fife.)

In July 1900 Willie played in the first professional match in New South Wales against James Scott, over 72 holes (36 at Botany and 36 at Bondi) running out as 9/8 winner. He impressed spectators with his approach play and putting, and won fourteen pounds stake money. At the completion of the match, Willie (pictured here on the right) and his fellow-Scot James Scott issued a challenge to the two Victorian professionals, Richard Taylor (Surrey Hills GC) and More of Royal Melbourne, both Hoylake men, to a match, which was declined.

Willie lowered the course record at the Botany Links on four occasions, his lowest being a 74 (with guttie balls) after the course had been extended. These links at the time were acknowledged as the longest and toughest links in the colonies. Willie and James Scott jointly designed and laid out the first nine-hole course for Lindfield GC (now Killara GC) in December 1900.

Willie left The Australian in 1901, went back to the USA to Shelter Island GC, New York and competed in the US Opens of 1901 and 1902, before being appointed professional at Richmond GC in Surrey in 1903. At Richmond in 1906, Willie played in probably his strangest challenge match, competing against Richmond GC member and eccentric, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey. Payne-Gallwey was an expert on golf balls, ballistics, crossbows and other weapons. In a match similar to one played by Tommy Morris some 30 years earlier, Willie used his normal set of golf clubs while Sir Ralph used an antique Turkish bow and arrow. Taking turns, Willie hit the ball and Sir Ralph fired his arrow towards the holes. Willie won the match, 71 to 73.

Willie left Richmond GC in 1915, and travelled with Wilfred Reid to the USA. In Golf Illustrated, 1915, Bernard Darwin wrote:

“I see you are taking two very good professionals from us, Wilfred Reid, who goes to the Seaview Golf Club and Willie Hunter to a St Louis Club. … Hunter is somewhat older than Reid having been born in 1878 as compared with 1884, is likewise an international player having represented Scotland in four matches. … He has played some wonderful rounds and his game is essentially a graceful and accomplished one.“

Willie was appointed professional at St Louis, CC, Missouri and was Professional at Onwentsia, CC, Lake Forest Illinois from 1919. In 1921 at Onwentsia, CC, Willie and his assistant Willie Marshall, played an exhibition match against the Australian pair Joe Kirkwood and J Victor East, who were touring the US. The match was tied. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported on September 5th:

“Excellent putting from Hunter and terrific driving by Kirkwood were the features of the match. Hunter won the second hole by sinking a long putt. Marshall made it 2 up at the Sixth. At the Eighth, or Boomerang hole, Kirkwood lofted high over the trees for 260 yards and won with a birdie 3. He squared the match at the Eleventh. A 40ft putt by Hunter at the Sixteenth gave a short-lived advantage, as Kirkwood evened the count at the Seventeenth with a fine drive and a good approach. As a bit of history Hunter played the first professional match in Sydney,  Australia 21 years prior against Jim Scott, and East was his caddy that day.”

Individual scores were Kirkwood 71, Hunter 72, Marshall 79 and East 80. Willie was the inaugural President of the Missouri PGA and spent two terms as president of the Illinois PGA. He finished as Professional at Onwentsia in 1930, but continued as Greenkeeper. Willie was a regular entrant in The Open, the US Open and the PGA Championship, his best finish being twelfth in the Open at Muirfield in 1906. East later went on to make clubs for Bobby Jones and design clubs for both Spalding and Wilson.

James Stevenson Hunter (1889-1926)

James Stevenson Hunter was born in 1880 at Newington, Edinburgh, the second son of William. He learnt clubmaking and greenkeeping at Sandwich with his Uncle Ramsey before being appointed professional at New Brighton in 1897. In mid-1899 James travelled with his brother Willie hoping to secure a position in Australia. He attained several short-term teaching appointments at Brisbane GC, Chelmer, Queensland in 1899. Whilst there, he also supervised the laying out of the tee grounds and gave instructions for maintenance of the course. James also travelled to Townsville, Bundaberg and other North Queensland courses to fulfil coaching engagements. Being the only professional in Queensland, he was much in demand. The Queenslander newspaper in April 28, 1900 described the tuition:

‘Hunter is fortunate in combining, with a clear and convincing method, a courteous patient manner, which will help him get some improvement out of the dullest pupil. He is most popular. I see his elder brother, who came out under engagement to a Sydney club is appreciated there.’

^{James Hunter at Australian Open, 1904}.

Impressed by his coaching, Brisbane had hoped to offer James a full-time position, however, it was Hobart GC at Newlands, Tasmania that secured his services in 1901. James Hunter became Tasmania’s first golf professional. While he was there, James taught champion amateur golfing brothers Clyde and Bruce Pearce. Royal Melbourne GC, Victoria approached James in 1902 following the death of their professional, WD More. He took up the position there and remained until 1903, resigning when Royal Melbourne refused his request for two months leave of absence. He was working for James Martin and Co in 1904 and  competed in the first Australian Open that year.

James next turns up in the 1911 UK census working as a club-maker for brother Willie at Richmond GC, Surrey. After serving in the Great War with a Scottish Infantry Regiment, James followed his brother to Illinois to be assistant to Willie at Onwentsia GC in 1919, before becoming professional at the Monroe Country Club during the summer months and conducting winter golf schools with Willie at a department store in Chicago. James died suddenly in his hotel room in March 1926 while teaching at the winter school. He left a wife and three sons.

William Irvine McGregor Hunter (1892-1968)

William Irvine McGregor Hunter was born in 1892 at Forest Row, Sussex, the son of Harry Hunter. Wee Willie, as he was known, learnt his golf at Deal, Kent, where his father was the professional. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers and served in France in the First World War. Willie departed from the usual Hunter profession of golf, instead working as a telegraph operator for the Post Office. He forged a successful amateur career whilst a member of Walmer and Kingsdown GC, Kent. Willie played in the 1920 Open Championship at Deal and finished top Amateur, in 26th overall place, to win the Silver Medal. In 1921, he won the Amateur Championships at Hoylake, defeating home club member, Alan J Graham, 12 and 11 in the final, a record at the time. Grantland Rice, writing in the American Golfer, described Willie as:

“… a lithe a slender Scot who has a firm, compact style, hits the ball crisply and yet only takes about a three-quarter swing. He is a very good putter indeed and handles an iron in the firm professional manner. He has the same tawny-coloured hair that Jock Hutchison wears but lacks Jock’s nervous eagerness. He is without question a very good player, he is a trifle fast on the backswing, but there is no jerky motion attached and keeps the ball straight on the pin.”

^{Wee Willie Hunter 1921}

Willie travelled to the US with the 1921 Scottish Amateur Champion, Tommy Armour, to compete in the US Amateur Championship at St Louis. On arrival, he was described in the August 30th edition of the New York Times, as ‘sandy-headed, a little below average height and weight but with a “springiness” in his step that denotes the athlete’. Willie reached the semi-finals, defeating Bobby Jones 2/1 in a memorable match along the way. The Atlanta youth was 2 up after eighteen; in the afternoon Hunter had a lion heart however, winning the Third, Ninth and Fourteenth before taking the lead at the Fifteenth for the first time in the match.

In 1922 Willie reached the semi finals of the British Amateur and won the Lord Brassey Challenge Cup at Deal. If the repetition of the name Willie is confusing throughout this article, readers will understand how in 1922, when Willie returned to the US, he was declared by the USGA to be ineligible to compete in the US Amateur Championship one month before it was to be conducted in Brookline Massachusetts. The confusion came about from his cousin Willie Hunter, the Onwentsia Professional, entering the US PGA Championships, the following week. However, after clarification, Willie Irvine Hunter was reinstated in the US Amateur. Willie did turn professional in 1923 and won numerous titles in the USA, including the Californian Open in 1926 and 1927.

He served at Brentwood GC, Montebello Park GC, California CC and Fox Hills GC before settling at the Riviera CC in 1936. It was at Riviera that Willie rubbed shoulders with movie stars, moguls and millionaires. He saw the filming of Pat and Mike, Follow the Sun and The Caddy on the Riviera Course. It was also here that his Scottish bluntness saw him lose his richest, most obsessive client, Howard Hughes. A three handicapper, had been having lessons every day for three months when Hughes asked Willie if he could win the US Amateur. Willie replied: ‘qualify maybe, win, definitely not!’ On hearing this Hughes left the course, never to play golf again.

In 1932 torrential rain sent a six-foot wall of water through the Riviera golf course, destroying the seventh to thirteenth holes, which Willie rebuilt. He was also responsible for preparing the Riviera course to meet USGA specifications to host the 1948 US Open. He was criticised for making the course too hard; however Ben Hogan tamed the course to win his first US Open. Willie’s two sons became golf professionals. In the late ‘40s and ‘50s Willie played many tournaments with either one or both of his sons. In 1949 he returned to England for the first time in eighteen years to play in The Open, to be played at Royal Cinque Ports at Deal – the course where he first learnt to play. Unfortunately the sea wall broke, inundating and ruining the course; The Open was moved to Royal St George’s.

^{Willie Hunter circa 1960s.}

In the 1952 Open at Lytham and St Annes, as a 57-year-old, Willie shot 74, 83 finishing 69th. As a 65-year old Willie shot his age in 1957 on the Riviera course. In 1964, aged 72, after 28 years at Riviera, Wee Willie announced his retirement. The highlights of his career included winning the 1921 British Amateur, winning the Southern Californian Open six times, the Southern Californian PGA Match Play once and twice coming runner-up in the LA Open. His best finish in a major was eighth in the US Open in 1926, at Scioto CC, Ohio. He served as President of the Southern Californian PGA thirteen times. He also wrote the instructional book Easy Way to Winning Golf. Willie died in 1968, aged 76 at Palm Springs.

Ramsey Hunter b.1894

Ramsey Hunter was born in Deal, Kent in 1894 – son of Harry Hunter, professional at Royal Cinque Ports GC. At the time of the 1911 census, seventeen-year-old Ramsey was listed as assistant to his father and as a club-maker. In 1914 he followed his cousin Willie Hunter to the USA and worked as assistant to Jim Barnes at Whitemarsh Valley GC and then at Rivercrest CC, Texas in 1917. He served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps during the Great War.

On being discharged in 1919, Ramsey became assistant to Jock Hutchinson at Glenview GC in Chicago. In 1920 he was professional at Fort Wayne CC, Indiana, where a young Gene Sarazen was Ramsey’s assistant. His next move in 1921 was to Shannon CC at Pittsburgh. While at Shannon, Ramsey had a visit from his brother Willie, then current British Amateur Champion. The two brothers paired in an exhibition match against Shannon Professional Eddie Towns and Richard C. Long, President of the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association.

In the same year he moved to New Castle, Pasadena, as assistant pro, and then on to the Westchester-Biltmore CC in 1923. He followed this by becoming professional at Linwood GC in 1925. In 1930 Ramsey took over duties at Whitter GC, California, before opening a golf shop in Los Angeles in 1944. Ramsey played in the 1917 National Open Golf Tournament, the 1921 US Open and Western Open, and the 1925 US Open. Ramsey also played in a four-ball team tournament in 1921 that pitched home-bred against foreign-born professionals. Ramsey and Carnoustie-born Willie Ogg won their match. The event was one by the home- bred professionals 4 matches to 2.

William Hunter (b. 1924)

William Hunter Jr was born in California in 1924, son of William Irvine Hunter and his wife Josephine, née Koch. After the 1929 LA Open the Los Angeles Times reported:

“Willie Hunter Jr, approximately four years of age, provided the gallery around the scoreboard with a fine exhibition of stance and driving. The Montebello Park pro’s infant son has a driver all his own and knows how to use it”.

After serving in the US Army in the South Pacific during the Second World War, he attended UCLA and played local amateur events. Willie Jr played in the US Amateur in 1947 along with his brother. In 1948, the ‘husky 24-year-old’ turned professional and served as his father’s assistant at the Riviera, CC. He was a regular on the US PGA tour in the late 1940s and 50s and still knew how to use his driver.

At the 1950 LA Open, the tournament committee measured all week the drives on the 575 yard Seventeenth, Willie Jr averaged 262 yards and was a close second to the longest hitter Sam Snead who averaged 265 yards. He was assistant professional to his brother at Riviera, after his father’s retirement in 1964. He played in the qualifying rounds for the 1962 Open at Troon, finishing two over the qualifying mark.

Harry McGregor Hunter (b.1929)

Harry McGregor Hunter, known to his friends and family as Mac, was born in California in 1929, the son of Willie Irvine Hunter and his wife Josephine. Mac was a talented amateur, winning the Riviera GC Championship at the age of fourteen in 1943, and again in 1947 and 1949. In 1946 Mac became the US National Junior Champion beating a seventeen-year-old Arnold Palmer in the finals by 6/5.

In 1949 Mac won the Mexican Amateur and the Californian State Amateur Championships, defeating Gene Littler, in a nail-biter, all square after 36 holes. On the first play-off hole Mac caught a bunker with his approach shot and Littler was 40ft from the hole. Mac played first holing his bunker shot. Littler then halved the hole by chipping in. Mac won at the 39th hole.

^{Mac Hunter}

In 1950 Mac enlisted in the US Marines then in 1952 he relinquished his amateur status to become Riviera GC’s playing professional. Mac played US PGA tour events including championships, and in US Opens and The Open, his best finish was tied nineteenth in the 1959 Open at Winged Foot GC. Mac became Riviera GC’s professional in 1964 on his father Willie’s retirement – a position he held until 1973, when he resigned to become Director of Marketing for Aldila Golf Shaft Company.

He soon left this position to set up Mac Hunter Golf Inc, designing and making clubs along traditional lines. His Auld Classic Irons retro-looking blades, putters with hickory shafts that were named after forbears, one a bullseye style putter called Auld Jessie – the name of his Aunt and great Aunt. His shaft labels had the slogan, ’Mac Hunter Company – a family tradition since 1887’, the date his Great Uncle Ramsey and his grandfather Harry left Edinburgh for Sandwich.

Due to a setback with his health and poor sales, Mac sold the company and returned to duties as a head professional. In the 1980s Mac was Director of Golf at the Princeville Makai Golf Course in Hawaii. As a golf course architect, Mac designed the Bridger Creek Golf course in Montana in the early 1990s. Mac won the Southern California PGA title in 1967, the same event his father had won in 1939 and 1942. In 1973 he wrote an instructional book: Golf for Beginners.

McGregor Hunter Jr, (b.1956)

McGregor ‘Mac’ Hunter Jr was born at Pacific Palisades, California in 1956, son of Mac Hunter Snr, professional of Riviera GC and his wife Doris. Mac Jr followed in his father’s footsteps as a talented young amateur. 1972 was a stellar year for sixteen-year old Mac Jr. He won the Californian State Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach GC, where he squandered a 5-up lead but hit three perfect shots on the final hole to beat Bob Roos, 2 up and became the youngest-ever winner of a title that had been won by his father in 1949. A few weeks later he won the Riviera CC Championship and soon after he equalled the Riviera course record with a 66 from the back tees.

He then won the Southern California Amateur Title, also won by his grandfather Willie Irvine Hunter in 1923. Mac Jr turned pro in 1973 and won his US PGA tour card at qualifying school in 1977.

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Further investigation needs to be done on the family and there is an intriguing possibility of a link to the famous Hunter family of Prestwick, at this stage unconfirmed. Two references hint at this: one, an 1898 article in an American magazine, Outings Monthly, describing Shelter Island professional Willie Hunter as ‘a newly-arrived scion of the Hunters of Prestwick’. And in the Australian newspaper in 1902, on James’ appointment as the Royal Melbourne professional:

‘his name is Hunter and he is the brother of the late professional of The Australian Club, Botany, who went to America. His uncle has been keeper for many years of the celebrated green at Prestwick in Ayrshire. Hunter therefore comes of a good family for golf.’

The Hunters were a close-knit family, looking after one another, who rode the wave in the growth of golf from the 1880s to the 1920s. Importantly, William, (b.1828) was a master cabinetmaker, whose skills were passed on to his sons ready to be adapted to clubmaking. The location of his business a short stroll from Bruntsfield Links, where they were exposed to golf, was significant. William’s grandsons were good ambassadors for the game, taking playing, greenkeeping and clubmaking skills to the New World. On the course, the Hunters have played alongside the Who’s Who of the sport; they were supporters of their professional associations and participated in the transition of old-time professional/greenkeeper/clubmaker, to full-time playing professional on a PGA tour.

^{(This article first appeared in the June 2010 issue of ‘Through the Green’, the journal of the British Golf Collectors Society, and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Society, and the author).}

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Non-Confirming Hickories

An issue explored by Michael Sheret and Perry Somers

One of the co-authors of this article, Perry, found himself in the middle of controversy1 in October last year when he wanted to play with his hickory clubs in the Australian PGA Seniors Championship, held over three rounds at Killara Golf Club in Sydney. As readers of TTG will know, Perry plays frequently with his hickories and using them he is capable of turning in scores of around par. 2011 was the centenary year of the PGA of Australia. Perry’s reason for wanting to play in the tournament with his hickories and dressed in plus fours and jacket was to contribute to the PGA’s celebration of its 100th year.

The organisers of the event had some doubt as to whether Perry’s hickories would be considered as conforming clubs. From the PGA the matter was put to Golf Australia, the governing body of golf in Australia with responsibility for administering the rules of golf. For whatever reason Golf Australia felt it necessary to get a decision from the R&A, and photographs of Perry’s clubs were duly sent to St. Andrews. Somehow Perry’s notes, which should have accompanied the photographs, did not reach the R&A. The notes would have explained his reasons for wishing to play with hickories in the tournament and described how they gave no advantage over other players.

The Decision

The reply came back from the R&A Rules Ltd (Equipment Standards) with regard to the submitted photographs of the iron clubfaces. These clubs ‘would not conform to the modern rules’ because the grooves ‘are nor parallel – they are slightly radiating’ and ‘Appendix II, 5a (sic) states that the grooves must be straight and parallel’2. As one can see from the photograph of Perry’s mashie, this is a perfectly correct ruling from the R&A. It is indeed the only answer to the question: Is this club conforming or non-conforming under the current rules of golf?

However, the ruling by the R&A brings up three issues:

• Was there some way that Perry could have competed with his hickories?
• Are the modern clubs currently in use that are non-conforming under the same Rule?
• What are the implications for hickory golfers?

Competing with Non-Conforming Clubs

This is a difficult issue. The conditions of play for the Australian PGA Seniors Championship stated clearly that the competition was to be played under the Rules of Golf and any local rules in force on the day. It is interesting that the R&A did not specifically say that Perry’s hickories could not be used in the Championship. So what could the Championship Committee done to allow Perry to compete with his non-conforming hickories?

A simple solution would have been for the Committee and the sponsors to set up a competition within a competition, Under such an arrangement Perry would play with his hickories alongside the other players but would not be competing for the Australian PGA Seniors Championship. He would be competing for a separate prize pool, say a prize of the same value (with perhaps an upper limit) as his score would have won in the main event. this is a simple solution, but an unsatisfactory one on several counts.

The Committee might have considered an exception for Perry under ‘equity’ or a ‘local rule’ or the ‘condition of the competition’ and allowed him to compete in the main event. These terms, however, appear in the Rules of Golf, which make it clear that their use must not override a Rule of Golf. Suppose the Committee, as an addendum to the conditions of the competition, stated that: ‘As a special exception for this tournament, a player may use wooden shafted clubs manufactured before 1935, provided that the Committee is satisfied that they give no advantage to the player over modern clubs as specified in Appendix II of the Rules of Golf’. We are quite confident that there would have been no protest from other players in the field. but we wonder how the ruling bodies in golf would view such a statement.

Modern Clubs

The Rules of Golf are written to be unambiguous. Therefore they can be interpreted literally, as in the case of the radiating grooves. We believe that at the present time there are new clubs on sale and modern clubs being used by thousands of golfers that are non-conforming under the Rule: ‘Grooves must be straight and parallel’.

Perry's Mashie

Modern Non-Conforming Iron

The photograph shows a popular modern iron by a major manufacturer. Most of the grooves are parallel from heel to toe, but the two white grooves run from crown to sole. The club face has two sets of grooves, one at right angles to the other, the very antithesis of parallel. The clubface clearly does not meet the criterion: ‘Grooves must be straight and parallel’.

It might be argued that the two crown-to-sole grooves are permitted under Appendix II, 5 Club Face; d. Decorative Markings ‘. . . . Decorative markings are permitted outside the impact area.’ This argument is, however, invalid on two counts. Firstly, the two grooves are not decorative, they are put there as an alignment aid. Secondly, they are not outside the impact area. The term ‘impact area’, although used in different parts parts of the Rules, is not defined with any great precision.We note that impact area and point of impact are two different things. The point of impact may be a little off centre but, as the ball flattens under compression, the impact geometry changes from a point to a roughly area with a diameter getting on for 1.68 inches. A little off-centre initial impact would at maximum compression easily include the two crown-to-sole grooves.

We are conscious that the above reasoning concerning modern clubs will strike some readers as somewhat pedantic. We would argue that it is no more pedantic than pointing out that some old clubs have grooves that radiate slightly. To quote Richard Tufts: ‘Golf is a complex game and we must anticipate that the Rules will reflect this fact.3 We might add that interpretation of the Rules is an equally complex affair.

Implications for Hickory Golfers

We see no problem for purely hickory events where players may be using clubs that are non-conforming under the strict interpretation of the current rules. BGCS stipulates that clubs must be from the hickory era, up to and including 1935.4 It might be wise to add a clause that they should be clubs that were conforming to the standards applicable in the year of manufacture. In purely hickory events it is unlikely that scores will be used for national handicap returns and unlikely that appeals regarding the Rules will be made to the R&A Rules Committee.

There are likely to be problems for players who use their hickories for all their golf, both at club and higher levels. Radiating grooves are fairly common in hickories, as are criss-cross grooves and other imaginative patterns. At club level it is likely that the match committee would, we believe, regard the lone hickory player as rather eccentric and would not get in a tizzy about whether his or her clubs were conforming or not. For hickory players who play at higher levels, where the rest of the field is using modern clubs and is bound strictly by the current Rules of Golf, there are definite problems.

There is, however, a fairly simple solution. Between 2011 and 2012 things changed with the new edition of the Rules of Golf, 2012-2015. Note 1 has been added to Appendix II 5c: ‘The groove and punch mark specifications above indicated by an asterisk (*) apply only to new models of clubs manufactured on or after 1 January 2010 . . .’. Unfortunately, an asterisk does not appear next to ‘Grooves must be straight and parallel’, but it would be reasonable for the R&A Rules Committee to put one there. That would, at a stroke, remove the principle reason why so many hickory clubs are considered non-conforming under the current Rules. As for water irons, rake irons and niblicks with concave faces . . . well, that is another matter.

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<sup>Notes
1.    Users of Facebook can view a short news segment made by the Australian Channel 10 Television about the            
       controversy. Key in ‘Hickory Golf Passion’ to bring up Perry’s Facebook page. The video is titled ‘It’s a crazy world!’
       and was posted on March 9, 2012. Bear in mind that there was a great deal of editing of the total material recorded.
       Viewers will see a good example of a common reaction to the R&A ruling, namely to castigate the R&A. That was
       not the action of the authors of this article. Once the R&A was put in a position of having to give a ruling they had
       no choice but to give a correct ruling according to the Rules. our reaction was that there was something of an
       anomaly in the situation. the rules regarding club design were made sure that clubs are not ‘substantially different
       from the traditional customary form and make’,. The rules with regard to grooves are clearlt intended to prevent
       excessive backspin on iron shots to the green. We do not think the current club specification are intended to    
       prevent players from using old-fashioned hickories with rather ineffective groove patterns. We were concerned
       about ways in which Perry could have been allowed to use his hickories in the Australian PGA Seniors
       Championship. We were also concerned at how the R&A ruling would affect hickory play in general, especially
       given that the ‘hickory movement’ is a growing one.
2.    The Rule is in fact Appendix II, 5 Club Face; c Impact Area Markings; (i) Grooves, dot point 2 in the 2008-2011 edition
       and dot point 1 in the 2012-2015 edition. The Rule is clear: ‘Grooves must be straight and parallel’.
3.    Tufts, RS. The Principles Behind the Rules of Golf. Pinehurst Publications, 1961, p7
4.    Through the Green. BCGS. June 2009. p5

(This article first appeared in the September 2012 issue of ‘Through the Green’, the journal of the British Golf Collectors Society, and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Society, and the authors).</sup>

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