History Nuggets
August 2017 Nuggets
Question #1. When and where was the first Australian Open Golf Championship played?Answer #1. The Australian Open was first played in 1904, over two days, 36 holes on Friday 2 September and 36 holes on Saturday 3 September. The venue was the Botany course of the Australian Golf Club. It was won by Michael Scott of Royal Melbourne with a score of 312, seven strokes ahead of runner-up H J Hyland.
There is a report of the Open on page 4 of the Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 5 September. The Open was part of a week of golf organised by the Australian Golf Club. The newspaper gives high praise to Dr E Frazer and Mr E J B MacArthur for the well run event.
Michael Scott had a sterling amateur career. He born in England in 1878 and spent about 14 years in Australia as a gentleman farmer. In Australia he won the Open twice and the Amateur Championship four times. He was the star of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team in 1924 and was playing Captain of the team in 1934. Also, in 1934 he led a British team of amateur golfers to play against Australian golfers in what was hoped to become a regular “test match”. His crowning achievement was to win the British Amateur Championship, a gruelling major event, in 1933 just shy of his 55th birthday, still the oldest winner of the event.
Question #2. A 17th century Edinburgh medical student named Thomas Kincaid is important in the history of golf. Why?
Answer #2. Thomas Kincaid kept a diary. The original from January 1687 to December 1688 has survived and is kept in the National Library of Scotland (Call# Adv.MSS.32.7.7). The diary records not so much what Kincaid did on a particular day, rather what his thoughts were for that day. Being a golfer, Kincaid thought a lot about golf.
Most golfers know that the first mention of golf in historical archives was in 1457. Through an Act of Parliament in 1457 King James II of Scotland banned the playing of golf and football in favour of archery practice. That first mention doesn’t tell us anything about how the golf was actually played. In 1457 golf may or may not have had much resemblance to golf as it is played today. It wasn’t until 1744, when the first rules of the game were published and the game could be clearly recognised as the golf we play today. Kincaird’s diary is an important step in that increasing knowledge of what golf was about.
Kincaid described in detail his opinion on the ideal golf swing, a full swing to strike the ball, not unlike the modern swing. He described the qualities of a good featherie golf ball and a good club with the right springiness in the shaft. He mused on handicapping and methods of betting on the outcome of a match. These and many other insights into how golf was played are in the Kincaid diaries.
An excellent book on many of the important early documents on golf is published by the National Library of Scotland. A Swing Through Time: Golf in Scotland 1457 – 1744 by Olive M Geddes is available through <www.nls.uk> for about A$25 landed or second hand through the usual online booksellers.
July 2017 Nuggets
Question #1. Which Australian golfer has won the most golf majors?
Answer #1. The best answer is Karrie Webb. She has won
seven majors.
1999 - Du Maurier Classic.
2000 - ANA Inspiration (sometimes described as the Nabisco
Championship).
2000 - U.S. Women’s Open.
2001 - L.P.G.A.
2001 - U.S. Women’s Open.
2002 - Women’s British Open.
2006 - ANA Inspiration (sometimes described as the Kraft Nabisco
Championship).
There is a caveat with regard to the women’s majors as they are
not as stable as the men’s. For example, Webb won the Evian
Masters in 2006 before it was declared a major in 2011 and then
changed its name to the more appropriate Evian Championship in
2013. Also, in 2001 the Women’s British Open gained status as a
major, replacing the Du Maurier Classic. Webb won the Women’s
British Open in 1995 and 1997, before it was considered as a
major. Such is the power of the media and the fickleness of
sponsorship.
The men’s four majors have been stable for a long time and show no
signs of changing. Into the 1960s the British and US Amateur
Championships were considered as majors and then slowly began to
be not considered as such. The big change in these two
championships was that the gradual domination by young golfers on
the verge of turning professional and the increase in golfing
scholarships for young talented golfers.
Three Australian men have been multiple winners of the majors.
Peter Thomson - British Open 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1965.
David Graham - U.S.P.G.A. 1979, U.S. Open 1981.
Greg Norman - British Open 1986 and 1993.
Question #2. What is the game being played in the image below?
(click for larger image)
Answer #2. This is a painting dating between 1425 AD and
1435 AD of the Emperor Xuande playing the ancient Chinese game of
Chui Wan. The ball-and-stick game has similarities to golf. In the
painting it looks like a putting game played in an enclosed space.
Recent research (Chui Wan: an ancient Chinese golf-like game by
Anthony Butler et al, Partick Press, St Andrews 2017) has produced
reliable translations of ancient Chinese text to tell us a bit
more about the game.
There is some evidence that Chui Wan was played as early as the
11th century. By the 17th century it had disappeared without a
trace. The game was played over roughly prepared terrain, striking
a wooden ball with a club. The objective was to get the ball into
a hole in the fewest strokes possible. The game was played over a
distance of between 25 to 40 metres to the same hole over and over
again. There were different clubs for low and high shots, but
there is considerable doubt about how much of the game was
through-the-air. The ball could be placed at the start of a hole
and then played as it lies. There was great emphasis on etiquette.
Overall the game was not unlike pitch-and-putt.
Claims have been made that Chui Wan reached Europe, carried there
by the great Genghis Khan or by traders along the Silk Road and
that the game then influenced the development of golf. This is
highly unlikely and, without evidence, is quite fanciful.
June 2017 Nuggets
Question #1.
Who was the first Australian-born golfer to win one of golf’s majors.
Answer #1. Walter J Travis was born
at Maldon in Victoria in 1862. In 1886 he moved to America and
became an American citizen in 1890. He died in Denver Colorado in
1927.
Travis took up golf in 1896, when he was 34 years old. He won his
first major, the US Amateur, in 1900. He repeated his win in 1901,
the first player to win a major using the recently invented
rubber-wound Haskell ball. He won his third US Amateur in 1903.
His fourth and final major win was in his only attempt at the
British Amateur 1904 at Royal St George’s, where he out-putted
every opponent he came up against.
In 1902 the centre-shafted Schenectady putter was invented and put
into limited production. In 1902 Travis started experimenting with
the Schenectady putter with its innovative centre shaft. He then
used it in the 1902 US Open to come second. He used the
Schenectady for the rest of his golfing career. Largely due to his
successes with the Schenectady it became one of the most popular
and highest selling putters of its day. The AGHS Museum at
Granville has a Schenectady putter dating from about 1910.
Visitors to the Museum can try it out and be surprised at how good
a putter it is.
In addition to being a crack golfer Travis was an influential
journalist and writer on golf. He was also a noted golf course
architect and one of the leaders in the move from punitive to
strategic course design.
Walter Travis with his Schenectady and trademark cigar (click for larger image)
Question #2.
When were the first surviving rules of golf written? (Hint: These were not drawn up by the R&A).
Answer #2. In 1744 what was then
loosely known as The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, now The
Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers based at Muirfield in
Scotland, drew up a set of thirteen written rules. These are the
first extant rules of golf.
It’s important to realise that a golf club in 1744 was very
different from a modern club. They generally played on shared
common land and did not own their own clubhouse. A golf club was
simply a group of friends who played golf together regularly. It
certainly would not have been a formal legal identity. Many golf
historians prefer to call these groups of golfing friends golf
cliques rather than golf clubs. Most play was match play. The
members of a small clique did not need written rules.
In 1744, however, the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith decided to hold
an annual competition open to “as many Noblemen or Gentlemen, or
other Golfers from any part of Great Britain or Ireland as shall
book themselves eight days before”. Hence the need for written
rules arose, to cater for any visiting golfers who would not have
exactly the same rules as the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith. The
Clique persuaded the Edinburgh Town Council to donate an
ornamental silver golf club as a trophy. As a condition the
Council insisted on a scroll to be drawn up setting out the
“proper regulations to be observed be the gentlemen who should
yearly offer to play for the said silver club”.
The following is a transcript of the original thirteen Rules.
1.
You must Tee your Ball within a Club's length of the Hole.
2. Your Tee must be upon the Ground.
3. You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the Tee.
4. You are not to remove Stones, Bones or any Break Club, for
the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green within
a Club's length of your Ball.
5. If your Ball comes among watter, or any wattery filth, you
are at liberty to take out your Ball & bringing it behind
the hazard and Teeing it, you may play it with any Club and
allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.
6. If your Balls be found any where touching one another, You
are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.
7. At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole,
and not to play upon your Adversary’s Ball, not lying in your
way to the Hole.
8. If you shou'd lose your Ball, by it's being taken up, or any
other way, you are to go back to the Spot, where you struck
last, & drop another Ball, And allow your adversary a Stroke
for the misfortune.
9. No man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed, to mark his
way to the Hole with his Club, or anything else.
10. If a Ball be stopp’d by any Person, Horse, Dog or anything
else, The Ball so stop’d must be play’d where it lyes.
11. If you draw your Club in Order to Strike, & proceed so
far in the Stroke as to be bringing down your Club; If then,
your Club shall break, in any way, it is to be Accounted a
Stroke.
12. He whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to
play first.
13. Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the preservation of
the Links, nor the Scholar's Holes, or the Soldier's Lines,
Shall be accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out and
play’d with any Iron Club.
The original Rules are kept in the National Library of Scotland on behalf of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. If you are in Edinburgh and make a formal request in advance, you may be privileged to have the HCEG minutes book containing the Rules brought out from high security and placed on a table before you. Reading and touching them is a surreal experience.
Parading
the Silver Trophy in 1787
May 2017 Nuggets
Question #1.
When and where was the first interstate team golf match in
Australia played?
Answer #1. It was first played on Wednesday the 18th of
August 1897 at the Sydney Golf Club (later to become the Royal
Sydney Golf Club) between a women’s team representing Victoria and
one representing New South Wales. Victoria won comfortably 23
holes up against 4 holes up, as you can see from the image taken
from the Sydney Morning Herald of the 19th of August 1897. The
newspaper correctly describes the match as intercolonial rather
than interstate. Representation on the teams was not exactly
colony wide as the Victoria team came from the Geelong and Royal
Melbourne Golf Clubs and the NSW team from the Sydney Golf Club.
This probably reflects the distribution of women’s golf in 1897.
Note that the method of determining the result was not by the
number of matches won. A common way of determining the winning
team in 1897 was to continue each match to the 18th hole, record
the number of holes up and then add the holes up for each side. In
the annual hickory match between the Australian Golf Heritage
Society (Sydney based) and the Golf Society of Australia
(Melbourne based) the older method is still used. Readers with a
mathematical/ statistical bent will realise that the older method
is a better way of measuring overall team performance as it gives
more weight to a big margin win than a small margin win.
Question #2.
When did the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St Andrews,
Scotland, take on the responsibility for setting the rules of
golf for other golf clubs?
Answer #2. Throughout most of the 19th century each golf
club had its own set of rules. While the rules from club to club
were similar there were subtle but significant differences. In
1897 the leading clubs in the United Kingdom got together and
decided to ask the R&A to draw up a common set of rules that
would be used by all golf clubs. 1897 therefore marks the
beginning of the R&A Rules of Golf Committee. The Committee
issued the first unified set of rules on the 26th of September
1899.
The USGA in 1899 followed the Rules as set by the R&A. Slowly
differences began to appear. In 1951 there was a great coming
together of the two governing bodies and in 1952 they issued a
unified code. The USGA has responsibility for the USA and Mexico.
The R&A has responsibility for the rest of the world.
At the present time, what is now called the Rule and Equipment
Committee is part of R&A Ltd, which has a legal identity
separate from the R&A Golf Club. Membership of the Committee
has a wide range of representation.
April 2017 Nuggets
Question #1
Which is the oldest golf club in Australia still operating as
a club today? (It should go without saying that the claim to be
the oldest must have good supporting evidence)
Question #2
The picture below, captioned "St Andrews 1800", is a hand-coloured engraving by Lawrence Josset. Can you spot a glaring historical error?
St Andrews 1800 (click for larger image)
The Australian Golf Club in Sydney can trace its origins back to
1882. If you have the chance to visit their clubhouse at
Kensington, there is an excellent wall display on the history of
the Club. Like many golf clubs The Australian had modest and
somewhat informal beginnings. In 1882 The Australian Golf Club
began as an offshoot of the Union Club in the city. Evidence for
this date can be seen in the Club’s wall display in the form of a
letter to the City Council asking for permission to play at Moore
Park and in the published recollections of the second Honorary
Secretary, J. W. Fletcher. In February 1884 the Club advertised
with a view to increasing the membership. In June 1884 a meeting
was held, the membership duly increased, a provisional committee
was elected and thus The Australian Golf Club became a much larger
and more formal golf club. Evidence for these events can be found
through Trove,
the search engine of the National Library of Australia.
Like many golf clubs The Australian started playing on common or
leased land. They first played on Moore Park, then Queen’s Park,
then Botany before settling at Kensington in 1905 on land which
the Club owns. Between Moore Park and Queen’s Park there was a gap
when the Club had no home course, a gap of seven years, 1888 to
1895. It is not known if they played elsewhere during that period.
There is, however, strong continuity of membership from 1888 to
1895. Moreover, the name, The Australian Golf Club, was preserved.
The pre-1888 trophies continued to be played for, the clubs and
balls belonging to Club in 1888 continued to be used in 1895 and
the Club’s bank account had been kept open. Again, evidence can be
found in Trove.
The Australian Golf Club, however, is not the first golf club in
Australia. That honour belongs to the N.S.Wales Golf Club
instituted on 1 June 1839, playing on Grose Farm, which is now
part of urban Sydney. The 1839 golf club was short lived and has
no connection to the present day New South Wales Golf Club at La
Perouse.
Answer#2.
The R&A clubhouse appears in the engraving, but it was not
built until long after 1800. It was built in 1854. Prior to that
the R&A would meet at various inns in the town, and from about
1835 they used the Union Club, a gentlemen’s club, situated about
100 metres to the south of the present clubhouse. Also, the
golfers’ uniforms are a bit suspect as the tricorn hats really
belong to an earlier period.
The engraving is by Lawrence Josset, 1910 – 1995. He was much
sought after as an engraver. The engraving in the image shown is
original. It is hand-coloured and is of very good quality.
However, the engraving has been copied many times to appear on
biscuit boxes and the like. The engraving is said to be based on a
painting by Frank Paton in 1894. Frank Paton, 1856 – 1909, was
also a fine engraver. Other sources show an uncoloured engraving
attributed to Paton and titled “Royal and Ancient (St Andrews
1798)”. So the engraving has ambiguous origins.
There are two lessons here. One is that artistic depictions are
not always reliable evidence of history. The second is that when
buying golf art or any other kind of art, you can’t be sure of
what you’re getting.
June 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
How many majors did Australian-born Jim Ferrier win?
Jim Ferrier (1915 – 1986) won the 1947 PGA Championship, played at the Plum Hollow Country Club in Michigan. In the 36 hole final he defeated Chick Harbert by 2 & 1. The match play format at the time was particularly gruelling, 216 holes played over seven consecutive days. The 1947 PGA was Ferrier’s only win in a major. He was runner up on three occasions: the British Amateur in 1936, the Masters in 1950 and the PGA in 1960.
Ferrier learned his golf in Sydney at the Manly Golf Club, where his father was the Secretary. He had a sterling career as an amateur in Australia in the 1930s, winning the Australian Open in 1938 and 1939 and the Australian Amateur in 1935, 1936, 1938 and 1939.
In 1940 he went to the USA as a golf journalist. He was disappointed to find that he could not enter the 1940 US Amateur as, under American rules, his receiving royalties from an instruction golf manual he had written cost him his amateur status. He turned professional in 1941 and stayed on in America. He became an American citizen in 1944 and served in the American Army 1944/45.
He died at Burbank, California, on 12 June 1986.
Question#2
For many years there was no effort to standardise the size and weight of a golf ball. When were these golf ball characteristics first standardised by the ruling bodies?
For many years there was no effort to standardise the size and
weight of a golf ball. When were these golf ball characteristics
first standardised by the ruling bodies?
Answer. During the eras of the featherie and the guttie, the golf
ball could have any size or weight. The same was true of the early
rubber-wound balls, invented by Coburn Haskell in America. Yet the
size and weight of these early balls were not wildly different
from those of a modern standardised ball. There are sound reasons
why, through trial and error, the old balls came to be the size
and weight they were.
To explain fully what happens during impact between clubhead and ball and the subsequent flight of the ball through the air requires some understanding of physics. If you simply want a ball to go far when played from the tee, you would make it quite small. The smaller the ball the less it is held back by air drag and blown off course by side winds . But if the ball is too small it would not sit up very well for the next shot from the fairway. So a ball about the size of a modern ball is a compromise. The big advantage of a heavier ball is the same, i.e. the heavier ball is less effected by air drag and side winds. The disadvantage of extra weight is that the ball does not sit up so well on the fairway and a heavier ball could, especially with old style golf clubs, result in club breakage. On the other hand, if the ball is too light air drag and side wind will have a greater effect. So a ball about the weight a modern ball is a compromise
From about 1902 the rubber-wound ball became the ball of choice. It flew much further than the superseded guttie. The ruling bodies and golf writers began to express their concerns that the game was being made too easy and many golf courses were now too short to present a real challenge. Same old story! Balls that were slightly heavier and smaller than average, and therefore flew further, were rightly viewed as the big threat. After long discussions the R&A and the USGA, both decided on a standard. The R&A issued this rule effective from 1 May 1921: The weight of the ball shall not be greater than 1.62 ounces avoirdupois, and the size not less than 1.62 inches in diameter. The Rules of Golf Committee will take whatever steps it thinks necessary to limit the power of the ball with regard to distance, should any ball of greater power be introduced.
The R&A stuck with the 1.62/1.62 standard, but the USGA kept to it only for so long. After much experimenting the USGA diverged from the R&A and in May 1929 adopted a new standard: weight not greater than 1.55 oz, diameter not less than 1.68 inches. This was a specification for the ball to sit up better but fly less distance. In 1932 the USGA changed the rule yet again: weight not greater than 1.62 oz, diameter not less than 1.68 inches. The USGA kept to this standard and the R&A kept to the 1.62/1.62 standard until a great coming together in 1990. In the Rules issued on 1 January 1990 R&A adopted the USGA standard of 1.62 oz and 1.68 inches, and this standard has been the same for both ruling bodies up to the present day.
In 1921, when the size and weight of the ball were standardised, the ruling bodies and other golf pundits were aware that a ball could be manufactured to fly further by means other than altering the size and weight of the ball. Without getting too technical, the simplest way is to increase the springiness of the material under the skin. In the case of the wound ball different rubbers under different tensions could be and were used. Finally, in 1976 the R&A and the USGA issued the following rule: The velocity of the ball shall be not greater than 250 feet (76.2m) per second when measured on apparatus approved by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews: a maximum tolerance of 2% will be allowed. The temperature of the ball when so tested shall be 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Centigrade). A similar rule applies today. It spelt out in great detail under the Initial Velocity Standard and the Overall Distance Standard and is kept on file at the R&A.
For the last few decades improvements in the design and manufacture of golf balls (and clubs) have made drives fly further, which in turn has led to monstrously long golf courses. It would be quite easy for the R&A and USGA to overcome this problem by adjusting the Initial Velocity and Overall Distance Standards. It would also be fairly easy for golf ball manufacturers to conform. Golf balls today are no longer rubber wound. Under the skin is a one piece or two piece solid core. To reduce the distance the golf ball travels, the overall design need not change. The material for the core would need to change to material that, without getting too technical, was less efficient from the point of view of “springiness”.
The 'History Nuggets' page will be going into a brief
hiatus. Thanks to Dr Michael Sheret for providing this
illuminating series of questions and answers. Stay tuned for
further 'History Nuggets' in early 2017.
May 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
What made the Victoria Golf Club
in Melbourne an exceptionally proud club in 1954?
In 1954 Doug Bachli won the Amateur at Muirfield. He was the first Australian to win the Amateur (not forgetting Australian-born Walter Travis, who was an American citizen when he won in 1904).
In 1954 Peter Thomson won the Open at Royal Birkdale. He was the first Australian to win the Open. Both Bachli and Thomson were members of the Victoria Golf Club. Not many clubs can boast of two members, each a winner of one of golf’s major trophies in the same year.
Bachli won by 2 & 1 in the 36 hole final against the
experienced favourite, American Bill Campbell. Thomson was only 23
years old when he won by one shot from Bobby Locke, Dai Rees and
Syd Scott.
Question #2
Who is the man in the portrait?
The man in the portrait is Henry Callender in the golfing uniform
of Captain General of Royal Blackheath in London. Royal Blackheath
can trace its origins back to 1766. Callender was a prominent
member of the Club. He was the Secretary: 1783 to 1790, 1796 to
1800, 1802 and 1805. He was Captain in 1790, 1801 and 1807. On the
occasion of his third captaincy in 1807 he was given the special
title of Captain General as a gesture of the high regard in which
he was held by the Club. A Captain of Royal Blackheath is entitled
to one epaulette. A Captain General has two, as in the portrait.
The highest office at Royal Blackheath is Field Marshal, roughly
equivalent to President in a modern golf club. A Field Marshall is
also entitled to two epaulettes.
Early golf portraits are very rare. Consequently the portrait of
Henry Callender is quite famous. Royal Blackheath plays on Crown
land. For some time the Club has had ambitions to acquire the
freehold. To raise funds the Club made the decision to sell the
portrait. In December 2015 it was sold at Bonhams, London, for a
hammer price of £722,500 (about 1.4 million Australian dollars).
Early 19th Century putters were almost uniquely of the
wooden-headed long-nosed variety. The metal headed putter in the
portrait is very unusual. Royal Blackheath had in its museum a
similar putter considered to be the very one in the portrait. It
sold at the same auction for £62,500 (about 120,000 Australian
dollars).
April 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
It's the Australian Open, and an amateur leads from start to finish. In the top ten, there are eight amateurs and two professionals. What is the year?
The 1960 Open at Lake Karrinyup was won by Bruce Devlin, before he turned professional. Eight out of the top ten were amateurs.
1 * B. Devlin 69 69 69 75 - 282
2 * E. Ball 70 71 73 69 - 283
3 * T. Crow 69 74 74 68 - 285
4 * E. Routley 71 68 73 74 - 286
K. Nagle 73 69 74 70
6 * P. Billings 73 69 75 71 - 288
* D. Bachli 76 72 71 69
8 * K. Donohoe 75 72 68 74 - 289
9 * R. Stevens 70 68 79 73 - 290
10 J. Sullivan 76 68 75 72 - 291
Asterisk denotes an amateur.
Modern golfers may find these results very strange, but the
situation for professional golfers in 1960 was very different from
today. After adjusting for inflation, prize money was not as
lucrative as it is today. Most professionals on tour were also
attached to clubs and had to spend some of their time on club
duties. A really good amateur could be offered a sinecure by a
large company and given generous time to practice, travel and play
golf.
Writing in November 1961 Henry Longhurst was surprised that Jack Nicklaus announced his decision to turn pro. This came after winning the U.S. Amateur in 1959 & 1961 and coming a close second to Arnold Palmer in the 1960 U.S. Open. While still studying insurance at university, Nicklaus worked in the insurance industry and had a very handsome annual income for such a young man. If he had continued in insurance he would probably still have won a few major tournaments. Clients in the presence of the great man would have bought oodles and oodles of insurance and Nicklaus would be a rich man.
However, he decided to turn pro and the rest is history.
Question #2
Why are the names James McEwan and Hugh Philp important to golf collectors and historians?
James McEwan and Hugh Philp were both golf club makers. Their long-nosed scare-necked clubs are considered to be the best examples of their craft from the featherie ball era.
James McEwan started making clubs about 1770 at Bruntsfield in Edinburgh. He died in 1802. The business was handed down to son Peter (1781 – 1836), who took the business in 1847 to Musselburgh (near Edinburgh), a golfing site which the old Edinburgh clubs began to favour rather the city sites.
The business was handed over to James’s grandson Douglas (1809 - 1886) and finally great grandson Peter (1834 – 1895). Clubs by Douglas are considered to be particularly fine examples of the craft. The business closed in 1897, by which time golf clubs were the product of larger more organised workshops rather the product of an individual craftsmen.
In 2012 Christie’s sold a play club by James McEwan for a hammer
price of £39,650. It was clearly stamped with James’s name, had
good provenance and could be dated as circa 1786. In the same sale
there were several McEwans sold in the range £938 to £2500. It was
not stated who was in charge of the business when the club was
made, and condition and provenance would clearly have varied.
Graham Rowley Auctions had a McEwan putter in decent condition
that failed to sell for £500. By the 1870s and 1880s long-nosed
scare-
necked clubs were produced in fairly large numbers, so their value
drops. In that same sale, Graham Rowley had a Tom Morris putter in
decent condition that failed to sell for £300.
Hugh Philp (1786 – 1856) was the club maker for the Society of St
Andrews Golfers, aka the R&A. He is often described as the
Stradivarius of club makers. A joiner by trade, he opened his club
making shop in St Andrews in 1819. After his death he was
succeeded by his nephew Robert Forgan, who formed the Forgan Golf
Company. Clubs bearing the Forgan name are still made today, but
the company has seen several owners and periods of
inactivity.
In 2004 Christie’s sold a putter by Hugh Philp for a hammer price of £23,900. It had good provenance and was thought to have belonged to Allan Robertson. You may wonder why the price was lower that the club by James McEwan. A strong reason is that play clubs, because they were more easily broken, are rarer than putters.
The AGHS Golf Museum in Granville has several long-nosed scare-necked putters. Visitors can try out one of the putters. Staff will explain how the putters were made. There are also fact sheets that visitors may read at the Museum or take away to read at their leisure.
March 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
When was golf first played in Melbourne?
The most commonly cited date is 1847. A newspaper in 1896 reported the recollections of one of the players, having in his possession “ ... an entry, however, of a subscription of £2 paid on August 31, 1847, to the golf club … ”.
The player, James Graham, also recollected: “The course played on extended from the old Flagstaff Hill to about where the Flemington bridge is erected, nearly the whole then being vacant ground”.
A contemporary newspaper report provides further evidence of golf
still played on the same site. The Melbourne Morning Herald of 28
June 1850 page 3 reports: “Golf. – It is not generally known that
this exhilarating, athletic Scotch game is played here every week,
by a few gentlemen who intend forming themselves into a regular
club to carry out the spirit of golf in all its genuine manliness.
The gentlemen meet every Saturday, weather permitting, somewhere
in the vicinity of the flagstaff, and go to work with that
enthusiasm so characteristic of the game itself, and of the Scotch
national character.”
Question #2
What is the oldest golf club - still in existence - outside of the United Kingdom?
The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (originally known as the Dum Dum Golfing Club because it was situated in the Dum Dum area) was established in 1829. The club’s records go back only as far as 1874. Evidence for 1829 is in the Oriental Sporting Magazine. The May 1830 issue published a letter to the editor dated 23 December 1829 reporting the formation of the Club and listing the initial subscribers.
Royal Calcutta Golf Club Clubhouse (click to enlarge).
February 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
Name the golfer who has won the Australian Open the most times?
 Gary Player
(Click to enlarge)
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Gary Player won seven times: 1968, 62, 63, 65, 69, 70, 74. Close behind was Jack Nicklaus, who won six times: 1964, 68, 71, 75, 76, 78. Ivo Whitton won five times: 1912, 13, 26, 29, 31, as did Greg Norman: 1980, 85, 87, 95, 96. The 1960s and 1970s were heady days for the Australian Open, when it was much easier than it is now to attract the top international players like Player and Nicklaus. About 1960, international travel by long-range jet aircraft became practical, and the PGA tour in America finished much earlier in the year in the 60s and 70s, making summer tournaments in Australia attractive to professional golfers. Other national and regional tours were less important
than they are today.
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Question #2
When was the last golf major won using only hickories in winner’s bag?
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John W. Fischer won the U.S. Amateur at Garden City, New York, in 1936 using hickory clubs. As far as anyone knows, he was the only player in the field to have only hickory clubs in the bag. In the final he defeated star Scottish golfer Jack McLean, halving the match on the 36th hole with a birdie 2 and winning on the 37th with a birdie 3 (Chicago Tribune, 20 September 1936). Fischer did all his own repairs, including re-shafting. He only moved to steel in 1955, when it became increasingly difficult to get supplies of good hickory. In 1950 he played in the U.S. Celebrity Pro-Am with his hickory clubs and finished second to none other than the great Ben Hogan. Needless to say, Hogan was not using hickories. |
 John W. Fischer in 1936
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January 2016 Nuggets
Question #1
Kel Nagle famously won the 1960 Centenary Open at St Andrews, with Arnold Palmer as the runner-up. In 1964 he won another tournament that the media at the time were touting as the fifth major. What was that tournament and who was the runner-up to Kel?
In 1964 Kel won the Canadian Open, a very old tournament dating
back to 1904. At the time some parts of the media tried to promote
the Canadian open as golf’s fifth major. The runner-up to Kel in
1964 was, once again, Arnold Palmer.
Question #2
About 1850 a revolution in golf technology occurred. Many golf historians consider it to be the biggest technological revolution in golf. What exactly was that revolution?
The guttie ball was invented and began to be used at this time.
The guttie was a ball made from gutta percha, which is a resin from the rubber (sapotaceae) tree. The guttie’s biggest advantage was that it was very much cheaper to make and more robust than the previous ball of choice, the very expensive and not-so-robust featherie.
When gutta percha is warmed it becomes soft. It can then be moulded into a one-piece golf ball. When it cools down the ball is hard and has compression and elastic properties similar to a modern golf ball.
Early gutties had a smooth surface. They had a disappointing carry until, after some use, the surface got roughened up and, surprisingly, they carried further. Soon moulds were made to produce balls with various patterns on the surface to take away the smoothness. Modern balls have dimples to take away the smoothness.
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The image shows the elaborate surface pattern on a late 19th century guttie. To understand why a smooth surfaced ball is inferior to a dimpled ball, you need an understanding of aerodynamics, boundary layers and air drag. Another great advantage of the guttie was that, if it got knocked out of shape, it could be warmed up and put back in the mould. Why do golf historians consider the guttie ball to be such a great revolution in golf? |
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From 1850 on you didn’t need to be one of the rich and privileged to play with a decent golf ball. It was the beginning of golf for the masses.
December 2015 Nuggets
Question #1
On the basis of evidence, when and where was golf first played in Australia?
The key words are “evidence” and “first”. Based on evidence contained in the diaries of Alexander Brodie Spark, a reliable witness, sometimes referred to as a “Respectable Sydney Merchant”, the first golf in Australia was played in Sydney on the 25th of May 1839.
It was played on Grose Farm, land now occupied by RPA Hospital, Sydney University and Victoria Park. The original diaries are held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. There are ten entries on golf from 25th May 1839 to 17th August 1839.
There are at least two competing claims for golf played in Australia earlier than 1839, but neither of these claims has been backed up by primary source evidence. See our article Golf in Sydney in 1839 for a more detailed explanation and links to a recent AGHS research article.
Question #2
Below you’ll see an extract from
a mock-heroic poem published in 1743. What process is the poem
describing?
Upon the green… two balls …
That with Clarinda’s breasts for colour vye,
The work of Bobson; who with matchless art
Shapes the firm hide, connecting ev’ry part,
Then in a socket sets the well-stitched void,
And thro’ the eyelet drives the downy tide;
Crowds urging Crowds the forceful brogue impels,
The feathers harden and the Leather swells;
He crams and sweats, yet crams and urges more,
Till scarce the turgid globe contains its store:
The dreaded falcon’s pride here blended lies
With pigeons glossy down of various dyes;
The lark’s small pinions join the common stock,
And yellow glory of the martial cock.
The process described is the making of a featherie golf ball.
The featherie was the ball of choice, for those who could afford it, until superseded by the cheaper and more robust guttie ball about 1850.
Featherie ball making was a highly skilled job and a ballmaker would be stretched to make three balls in a day. Each ballmaker would have had his trade secret, but the basic process was to stuff an enormous pile of wet feathers into a small leather pouch.
The poem describes an imaginary golf match played in Leith, Edinburgh. The Goff, an Heroi-Comical Poem, in Three Cantos was composed by Thomas Mathieson, a young Edinburgh lawyer. The poem is important to golf historians because prior to its publication in 1743 little was known about the details of how golf was actually played. Matheson’s poem considerably expands our knowledge.
When published the poem cost four pence. Some years back the USGA
commissioned a limited facsimile; they can now be bought second
hand for about $150 and up. If you wanted to buy an original first
edition in reasonable condition, it would cost between $150,000
and $200,000. An excellent purchase would be a second hand copy of
The Thorn Tree Clique by David Hamilton, about $250 if you’re
lucky. This is a beautifully printed and bound copy of the poem,
and it includes a facsimile of the original. It also gives a
scholarly interpretation of the text.
November 2015 Nuggets
| Question
#1. What is the name of the golfer who won the Australian Open the most times as an amateur?
Ivo Whitton (1893 – 1967) won five Australian Opens as an amateur, 1912, 1913, 1926, 1929 and 1931. Whitton worked as a wool broker before joining the Spalding Company, eventually becoming General Manager. He was a member of Royal Melbourne.
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 National LIbrary of Australia |
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Question
#2. Croquet style putting was popular in the 1950s and into the 1960s. In 1968 the R&A and USPGA banned the style. What two things were banned in the Rules of 1968 that effectively made croquet style putting illegal? First, when a putter is placed with the head flat on the ground the shaft must be at least at an angle of ten degrees from the vertical. This effectively banned the croquet style putter, where the shaft is at a right angle to the head. Second, the player was not allowed to stand astride the line while putting. The AGHS Golf Museum has a split grip croquet style putter, which visitors can try. Once they get the technique right, visitors are surprised about how effective the putter is, especially on those nerve jangling short putts. The putter swings freely in the vertical plane. While addressing the ball the player takes a crouched position and can look straight down the line with both eyes. If you would like to learn more about the history of croquet style putting, contact the AGHS History Sub-Committee through this website.
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August 2015 Nuggets
Question #1. How many Opens (British) did Peter Thomson win?Five: 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1965
Question #2. How many Opens (British) did Norman von Nida win?
None, though he was often in contention. His best performance was tied third in 1948.
Question #3. At the Australian Open in 1951, what was the area of the 18th putting green at Metropolitan?
A good and an acceptable answer is 1256.64 square yards (or 1050.71 square metres) that includes the area occupied by the hole, 18.06 square inches (or 27.42 square centimetres). In fact the other seventeen putting greens at Metropolitan had the same area, as indeed did every putting green in Australia.
In 1951 the putting green was defined as the area within 20 yards of the hole. (Area of a circle = πr2, for those who remember their school geometry, 20 yards being the radius). This was a left over from the club rules of the R&A in 1875, when the area around the hole was generally indistinguishable from the fairway. In 1952 the definition was changed to one we would recognise today, namely an area especially prepared for putting.
The point of asking this question was to remind golfers that many of the rules in golf have changed radically over the years. For the pedants even that wonderfully precise figure of 1256.64 square yards is not good enough for two reasons. First, humps and hollow on the green add more area of grass than would be if the green were flat. Second, in 1951 water hazards and bunkers within twenty yards of the hole, wherever it may have been cut, were not considered part of the putting green.
The history of the Rules of Golf can be explored on www.ruleshistory.com, which has transcriptions of the Rules from the earliest in 1744 to the present day.