RULES OF GOLF

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 16

RULES OF GOLF

An Interesting History Ancient rules of golf provide an absorbing subject for those who are interested in the traditions of the game and are students of its fundamental principles. The earliest code extant is that of the Royal and Ancient Club of St. An. drews which came into being in 1754, ami is now the recognised authority of the game throughout the world. But golf was played a couple of centuries before this date, presumably without any code except the fundamental law of, "Play the ball where it lies, or give up the hole.” Tlte rules of 1754 were probably those of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, since its members played a considerable part in the formation of the Royal and Ancient Club. The game was played by all classes from kings to peasants long before golf clubs came into existence. An interesting book on the whole subject entitled “The Rules of Golf of the Ten Oldest Golf Clubs,” has just been written by C. B. Clapcott and published in England. Dinners and Bets. The book shows that the institution of the early clubs, or societies, arose from the desire ou the part of goiters to obtain matches with congenial opponents. After playing, the members dined together, and bets were made on a variety of issues. The ■financial side of the club was provided for by the proceeds of such wagers being paid into the common fund of the society. As late us 1866 the rule among the members of the Royal Blackheath Club, who dined together, was that "all bets made at the dinner table to be for the benefit of the dinner club.” Two of the oldest trophies in connection with the game are the Silver Club presented in 1(44 by the City of Edinburgh to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers; and the prize, to which medals are attached of the Royal Musselburgh Club. The medals bearing the names of the winner date back to 1774. The Blackheath Club is said to date from 1608, but there is an absence of direct evidence, owing to the early records of the club being destroyed by fire at the end of the eighteenth century. However, if the Blackheath Club is not the oldest of golf clubs it is certainly one of the oldest. Its glories and splendours no longer associated with one of London’s most famous heaths, have been transferred to a new home at Eltham. If the traditional red coat is not worn while at play it is still worn at dinner. It is, perhaps, only natural that some of the oldest golf clubs should be associated with the city of Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Burgess, now the Royal Burgess Club, was formed in 1735. A Family Affair. There is a minute, dated April 8, 1773, recording that "most of the old members are either dead or have neglected lo attend the meetings,” and that three old members are "inclined that the said society should be continued.” These three members then proceeded to elect new members. Of these three old members one was a Mr. Charles Rhiud, who became secretary in 1773; bis son joining three years later, and his grandson being captain of the club in 1840. The early rules, besides showing how provision was made for the various difficulties as they arose, throw an interesting light on other matters. With the golfers of Crail, in, 1786, a driver or spoon was known as a “timber club.” In the records of the club three years later is to be found the following somewhat cryptic resolution: “The society has come to the unanimous resolution that no member of the society shall absent himself from the bowl on pretence of tea drinking.” Whether the conduct to which objection was taken was absence only, or absence and abstinence is not recorded. The solemnity of early golf can he seen in the rule of the Edinburgh Burgess Society of 1814, “in playing for prizes, no competition to be allowed unless the parties are dressed in the uniform of the club.” The definition under the rules of the Glasgow Club of a player as "one who has played twice during the season, and then compelling him to play for the Silver Cup under penalty is a rule which would hardly commend itself to modern golfers. A Controversial Rule. As the present-day rule governing an unplayable ball has given rise to no little controversy it is not without interest to observe how such a situation was dealt with in the olden days. The Innerleven Golfing Society had a rule which stated that "If a ball is so placed that it is not playable it is to be dropped, and is to be played with the iron or putter,, the party playing to lose no stroke.” This 'regulation may be compared with that passed in 1852 by the Royal and Ancient Club, which runs : — “Wlien the ball lies in a hole or in any place that the player considers it not playable. he shall, with the consent of his adversary. lift the ball, drop it in the hazard and lose a stroke. Should the adversary say. however, that he thinks the ball playable, then he (the adversary) plays the ball; if he makes the ball playable in two strokes the two strokes count as if the player had played the ball; the player then plays the ball as if he himself had played it out; but if the adversary does not get the ball out at the two strokes, then, as stated above, it Js lifted and dropped, a stroke being lost.” Considering the complications and illfeeling to which such a rule might give rise, it is scarcely surprising that in 1858 the ball had to be played as it lay or "the hole given up.” Another subject of controversy has been the stymie. At first, if tile balls were touching, whether on the putting green or the lairway. the ball nearest the hole could be lifted. In 1833 the Royal and Ancient Chib abolished the stymie, nn innovation that was reversed in the following year.