Customer Reviews

A Pictorial History of American Golf

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This wonderful book may feel a bit thin at 137 pages, but its BIG 8.5 x 11-inch (22 x 28 mm) format contains many double-spread and full-page sepia reproductions of rare photographs from famous and/or intimate moments in the Royal And Ancient Game, from its fabled 1888 American beginnings (the book actually contains a photo from that first game!) through Bobby Jones' 1930 NYC tickertape parade.

Most of the rest are nice big half-pagers -- including six classic old Stereoscope slides! The shiny gloss paper presents the warm sepias to best effect. There are also engravings, diagrams, cartoons, old equipment ads -- practically every visual imaginable to cover all the bases (to use a vulgar metaphor!) of the American game.

I'm amazed that this 1998 title hasn't long since been: 1) reviewed, and 2) reissued (Amazon has one copy left at $20 as I write, with "more on the way" -- maybe).

The accompanying text is both authoritative and frequently droll, drawing exclusively as it does (except for picture captions and an occasional player quote) from period publications.

The first page of text lists the hilarious 1745 joint Scottish/American Code of Golf Rules. Rule I: "You must Tee your Ball within a Club length of the Hole (??); Rule II: Your Tee must be upon the ground"; Rule X: "If a ball be stop'd by any person, Horse, Dog, or anything else, the Ball so stop'd must be played where it lies".

Other controversial issues resolved include the (non)movement of "Stones, Bones or any Break-club", and what to do should your "Ball come among Water, or any watery filth" (tee it up behind the hazard and "allow... your Adversary a stroke" (?) for the privilege).

Close to the last text clip is a 1913 New York Times article deploring the recent "rowdyism" at the Boston area's Brookline course. Crowds of clearly ill-bred spectators ("the game does not lend itself easily to exhibition purposes") were demeaning themselves and "disgrac(ing) the ancient and honorable game" through their untoward "shows of favoritism", commonly extending to actual "cheers and cries of encouragement" during the match!

The book's chapter titles are: Humble Beginnings; Proliferation; Fashion; Refinements [of equipment]; and Competitive Golf. The Fashion chapter dwells mostly on female chic, but there are also references throughout to such droll sartorial innovations for men as the "golf cloak" (1894), and many photos of the absurdly restricting formal attire of the pre-modern era.

In sum, this book is a uniquely charming history/nostalgia item -- a superb gift idea and a must-have for the bookshelf of every American golfer.