Ever since the game began--possibly as far back as the 11th century--golf and war have been oddly connected.
In 1457, for example, the King of Scotland banned "gowlf" because his subjects were spending more time on the local links than they were at archery practice--bows and arrows being the country's main weapons of defense at the time. In August 1940--hightailing it home after a raid on Aberdeen, Scotland--a German aircraft dropped a bomb over nearby Stonehaven Golf Club. The large crater that it left between the first and second fairways is still there today and is considered the course's most famous hazard. Local golfers refer to it as "Hitler's Bunker."
Those stories, and many more, are included in Bullets, Bombs & Birdies: Golf in the Time of War. Until now, most history books on golf have tended to skip over the wartime years as if the game was completely abandoned during those tenuous times. This new book by Dale Concannon clearly shows that over many centuries of conflict, dedicated practitioners of the Royal and Ancient game have let nothing--not mortar shells, the threat of gas attacks, or even incarceration in a POW camp--get in the way of a round of golf.
In 1457, for example, the King of Scotland banned "gowlf" because his subjects were spending more time on the local links than they were at archery practice--bows and arrows being the country's main weapons of defense at the time. In August 1940--hightailing it home after a raid on Aberdeen, Scotland--a German aircraft dropped a bomb over nearby Stonehaven Golf Club. The large crater that it left between the first and second fairways is still there today and is considered the course's most famous hazard. Local golfers refer to it as "Hitler's Bunker."
Those stories, and many more, are included in Bullets, Bombs & Birdies: Golf in the Time of War. Until now, most history books on golf have tended to skip over the wartime years as if the game was completely abandoned during those tenuous times. This new book by Dale Concannon clearly shows that over many centuries of conflict, dedicated practitioners of the Royal and Ancient game have let nothing--not mortar shells, the threat of gas attacks, or even incarceration in a POW camp--get in the way of a round of golf.
