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Golf, a Good Walk Spoiled By Dave Francis Golf has been described as a good walk spoiled. It has also been called witchcraft, and any number of things that can’t be printed in this magazine. It has been, and continues to be, one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. In Japan, the craze has reached proportions that are phenomenal. There were golf clubs in Japan in the 1980s that charged membership fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they didn’t even have a golf course. The members would take to the rooftops of Tokyo office buildings and hit balls into a screen. Often times, the ‘golfers’ would be decked out in the old fashioned knee pants and snap brim hat, typical golf attire from the early 1900s. There are discrepancies about the origins of golf. The Chinese played a game called Ch’ui Wain which was similar to golf in 300 bc. In Holland in the 14th century, they played a game called Kolfspel, which was played on ice, but many consider it a fore-runner to modern day golf. The earliest traces of golf being played are said to date back to around 1350 where in a sketch from a stained glass window at Gloucester Cathedral, England, there are scenes of the Battle of Crecy in France that show a man apparently preparing to strike a ball in a golf-like manner. It was probably not golf but the old English game of cambuca, a popular pastime of its day. The late Dutch golf historian, J. H. van Hengel, acknowledged as one of the foremost experts of the origins of the game, believed that golf was probably a mixture of implements used in chole and the rules of jeu de mail, both games imported into Holland. The origin of the name golf is believed to be the Dutch word of 'colf' which means 'club'. The first recorded reference to chole, the derivative of hockey played in Flanders (now known as Belgium) and the possible antecedent to golf, was in 1353. In 1421, a Scottish regiment aiding the French against the English at the Siege of Bauge was introduced to chole. Three of the identified players, Hugh Kennedy, Robert Stewart and John Smale, are credited with introducing chole to Scotland. In medieval times, there was a game known as spel metten colve, which literally translates as 'how long', and 'colfers' were a common sight in contemporary Dutch paintings. Colf continued until the early 18th century when it suddenly fell out of fashion and was replaced by kolf, a much shorter game played on a course of some 20 metres in length. By 1457, the game of gowf (as it was known in the British Isles), along with 'fute-ball' (football), was so firmly established in Scotland and its playing so widespread that an Act of Parliament was required to preserve the skills of Archery by prohibiting gowf on Sundays. Golf has always been a game for gentlemen. One legend says the name actually comes from the fact that women weren’t allowed to play. In Scotland, home of some of the oldest courses, there would be signs at the door to the clubhouses reading Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden, and the acronym GOLF caught on. There are other, perhaps more plausible explanations for the name, but that is the one I like to believe. The first written rules for golf were laid down in 1744 by a group of men calling themselves the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland. These 13 rules were the precursor to the current guidelines, which are still among the most confusing and violated of any sport since pak-de-pak was played by the Aztecs. (It is hard to blame the Aztecs for cheating. The wagers on pak-de-pak included death to one of the teams.) On the 14th of May 1754, at Saint Andrews, Scotland 22 lords and gentlemen of the Society of Golfers of Saint Andrews adopted these 13 “articles and laws of the game of golf” with slight modifications. More than a century and a half later, Grand-Duke Mikhail Mikhailovitch, brother of Alexander III Tsar of Russia, was attracted by the game. The prince, living in exile in Cannes on the slopes of La Californie hill, decided to found a joint-stock company to build a prestige golf-course: this was the origin of the Cannes Golf Club, the third course on French territory (the first, founded in Pau in 1856, was the first course built outside the UK). In 1891 The Mandelieu la Napoule links were ready to welcome the most brilliant names of the aristocracy, under the presidency of Grand-Duke Michael. Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, HRH Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and many others played this 9-hole course laid out in the shade of the pine trees and surrounded by flowering laurels and mimosa. The fame of the club was such that the railway company, at the request of Grand-Duke Mikhail, finally agreed to stop passenger trains at La Napoule, a service that had been demanded in vain by the local inhabitants for the previous thirty years. Cannes Golf Club soon attracted all the gentry of the Riviera. Golf has always been a game for the rich. It was a game historically reserved for the well born and well heeled. It was no surprise then that golf didn’t go over well in communist Russia, or in other communist countries either for that matter. Until recently, golf has remained a game largely foreign to Russians. There is, however a bit of history behind golf in Russia, and from all accounts, a brilliant future for the game. The idea of building a championship golf course in Russia dates back to the early 1970's, when Dr. Armand Hammer was asked what it would take to bring western businessmen to Russia. Hammer’s answer was, limousines and a golf course. Hammer understood that golf, then and now, has been a key ingredient in the western businessman’s life. With high quality courses opening in Moscow and St. Petersburg, golf is quickly finding it’s way into the Russian business community. In 1988, construction began on what would become Russia’s first 18 hole golf course. Moscow Country Club, 45 minutes from downtown Moscow sports a course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. along with a 5 star resort hotel and luxury dachas for the visiting businessman. The luxury is accentuated by the waterfall, 230 square meter swimming pool, and Russia’s only Estee Lauder Beauty Center for the ladies. Golf is obviously not the only game in town. |