SUNDAY GOLF

Southland Times, Issue 22043, 16 June 1933, Page 12

SUNDAY GOLF

PLAY IN SCOTLAND. NOT A MODERN DEVELOPMENT. There was a day—and not so very long ago—when the Scottish golf club that permitted play on Sundays was an exception—a blatantly scandalous exception—to the general rule (writes “K.S.” in The Weekly Scotsman of Aprii 15 last). Now it is the other way round, the club that does not allow Sunday play is the exception. Amidst the usual storm of prolonged and acrimonious debate in which all tne old standard arguments pro and con have had their annual airing, this year has seen the thin ranks of the righteous—or the wrongous; it all depends on your point of view—still further deof the arguments con which was as . prominent as ever is that Sunday golf is a characteristic product of what its opponents love to call “this restless jazz age,” an entirely modem innovation which is a scandalous offence against the immemorial tradition of the Scottish Sabbath. It is a good mouth-filling statement that—the kind, of statement that gives a most pleasing feeling of righteousness and moral indignation to the speaker. The only trouble about it is that, strictly speaking, it is not true! Sunday golf is not an innovation in Scotland at all. It may be true that its revival is due to the restless spirit of the age we live m, but its origin is far, far older than we are. Sunday, golf, in fact, is as old as golf itself in Scotland. “Uttirly Cryit Doune.” Historians of the game are generally agreed that, contrary to the populai idea, golf was not indigenous to Scotland; but where it came from and when, are questions to which no absolutely authoritative answer has been given. There is, however, good ground for the supposition that it began to grow popular here early in the fifteenth century. This idea is based on the interpretation of the Acts of Parliament decreeing that the common people should devote then leisure hours to practice with _ their weapons instead of to the playing of games, which were regularly passed—and, like most of the Acts of the Scottish Parliament, as regularly ignored—in every reign. In the Act of James 1 dealing with this subject the game of football alone is mentioned, but in those of James 11, James 111, and James IV golf is specified as well. These Acts mirrored the constant desire of the Scottish kings that their subjects should learn to emulate their “ancient enemies” of England in archery—an ambition which could only be attained by constant practice. Hence the admonitions that the fute-ball and golfe be uttirly cryit doune” (James II), that “the fute-ball and golfe be abused in tyme cumming” (James III), and that “in na place of the realme ther be usit fute-ballis, golfe, or uthir sik unprofitabil sports” (James IV). One wonders how often the national game has been “cryit doune,” “abused, and stigmatized as an “unprofitabil sport” since the days of the early Stewarts ? Even its own devotees, in moments of extreme dejection, are understood to wax profane about their pastime I Sport on Sundays. None of these Acts refers specifically to the playing of golf on Sunday, but since one of them ordains that schutting be usit ilk Sunday,” and since we know from other sources that a very considerable proportion not only of the archery but also of the game-playing of the common people of Scotland —as of England—was done on Sundays outside the hours of church service, we are entitled to infer from them that the playing of golf on Sunday was a common practice in fifteenth' century Scotland. . ~ , At this stage Sunday golf was not frowned upon as a desecration of the day—the Roman Church approved of popular recreation on Sundays so long as religious observances were not interfered with—but purely as an unpatriotic way of spending leisure.. In the next century, however, the position was altered. The emergence of firearms finally dispelled the long cherished idea of improving Scottish archery, and golf accordingly ceased to be a prohibited sport. The new attitude towards its play on Sunday which emerged after the Reformation was, therefore, purely and simply a religious one.

Fines Imposed by the Kirk. It is not very clear whether the Reformed Church set its face against Sunday golf entirely from the start, or whether, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries at least, it followed the practice of the Roman Church by tolerating play which took place outside the hours of church services. In the Records of the Kirk Session of St. Andrews, for instance, there are entries in the years 1583 and 1599 which seem to support the.latter view: 1583—“ The quhilk day it is delatit that Alexander Milleris that sonnis are obedient to him, and that thai, with Nicholl Mane, William Bruce, and utheris, their complicis, playit in the golf feildis Sunday last wes, tyme of fast and precheing, aganis the ordinances of the Kirk.” • 1599—“ The bretherne understanding perfytlie that divers personis of thair number the tyme of sessioune passes to the feildis, to the goufe and uthir exercise ”... decrees fines of 10s for the first offence and 20s for the second, with the penalties of public repentance for the third, and deprivation of office for the fourth. . , . but, on the other hand, an entry of 1598 runs—- “ The quhilk day, David Gray, pewderar, and Thomas Saith, tailyour, being callit comperit, and, being accusit for prophaning the Sabbaoth day in playing at the gouf eftir nune, confessit the samin” . . . and were admonished. . . . and, unless we are to understand “eftir nune” as being equivalent to “in tyme of sessioune,” this would seem to indicate that “prophaning the Sabbaoth” was the important point, and not mere non-attendance at service. An Edinburgh Proclamation. Evidence from Edinburgh is equally difficult to interpret. A Town Council proclamation of 1592 takes the general line:— “Ordanis proclamatioune to be maid threw this burgh that seeing the Sabbaoth day being the Lord’s day it becumis everie Christiane to dedicat himself to the service of God. . . . Thairfore commanding and chairgeing in our Sovrane Lord’s name, and in name of the Provest and Baillies, that na inhabitants of the samyn be sene at ony pastymes or gammis within or without the toun upon the Sabbaoth day, sue as Golf ” . . . &c. . . . but a record of 1593 states that whereas —

“ divers inhabitants of this burgh repairs upon the Sabbaoth day to the toun of Leyth and in tyme of sermonis ar sene vagrant athort the steets, drynkihg in tavemes, or otherways at Golf” . . . they shalj. be fined and punished; and a report of a case under this proclamation in 1608 relates how John Henrie, Pat Bogie, and others were fined for playing - golf at Leo th “everie Sunday the tyme of the sermonnis.” Similar entries in the Kirk Session Records of Perth in 1599 and 1604, of Stirling in 1621, and of Cullen in 1641, recording convictions of Sunday golfers —and, usually, their punishment by that popular form of Scottish ecclesiastical discipline which consisted of making the offender expose himself to the public gaze under extremely derogatory condition in church for a varying number of Sundays—definitely refer to “The tyme of precheing” or its equivalent; but an entry in the Kirk

Session Records of Humbie (Berwickshire) in 1651 only refers to “prophaning of the Lord’s day,” and one in the Kirk Session Records of Boharm (Banffshire) in 1658 records the offence as “making so little conscience of the Lord’s day.” Golf After Worship. Clark, the editor of the well-known Scottish collection of golf history, takes the view that the Reformed Church tolerated Sunday golf outside the hours of church services until a comparatively late period. The general body of the evidence would seem to be in favour of this view—though it is hardly safe to found, as Clark does to a certain extent, upon the proclamation issued by James VI in 1618, and confirmed by Charles. I in 1633. This proclamation says that the common folk ought to have complete freedom of recreation “upon the Sundayes aftemoone, after the ending of all Divine service,” and providing that they have attended church, on the eminently sensible ground expressed in the question—“ For when shal the common people have leave to exercise, if not upon the Sundayes and holydayes, seeing they must apply their labour and winne their living in all working dayes?” It reads, however, as though it had been intended to apply to England rather than to Scotland -where conditions were, of course, very different —and, even if it could be assumed that the proclamation was intended for both kingdoms, it would obviously be impossible to identify the royal views on this particular matter with those of the church, especially when they were so notably opposed in so many other directions. . It may be that the seeming conflict in the evidence is more apparent than real. The hours of service of the eajly Reformed Church in Scotland were so long, and the services themselves seem, to have been so elastically spaced throughout the day, that it may have been virtually impossible to play a round of golf on Sunday without transgressing upon some “tyme of sessioune” so that the offence which was first based upon non-attendance at church may quite imperceptibly have developed into the simple offence of “profaning the Lord’s day.” Hqwever that may be, it is at least certain that Sunday golf is no new thing in Scotland —and that the tradition of the Scottish Sabbath as a day upon which no recreation of any sort whatsoever might be indulged in, fai from being immemorial, is not nearly so old as the “innovation” which sc gravely offends it.