An Approach Shot to the History of the British Golf Club Before 1914

Concepts of Capital: An Approach Shot to the History of the British Golf Club before 1914 W r a y V a m p l e w * International Football Institute University o f Central Lancashire Golf took the concept o f the club from traditional voluntary organizations along with the ideas o f committee structures, mechanisms for ensuring exclusivity and a place, both geographically and socially, for communal conviviality It became one o f the fastest growing recreational activities o f late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and the first participant sport to experd and invest large sums o f money By means o f a model constructed around the development o f the British go lf club before 1914, this paper offers a new approach to examin ing the history o f associativity in sport. It usesfive concepts o f capital-physical, financial, cultural, social, and human— and argues that their formation in the context ofclub development should not be explored in isolation o f each other. T h is article encapsulates the results o f a project described in the author’s Maxwell L. Howell and Reet Howell International Address at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the North American Society for Sport History in Asheville, North Carolina. Thanks go to Jessica MacBeth, O da Gilmore, Dr. Joyce Kay, and especially Jane George for research assistance; to the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Carnegie Trust for financial aid; to the many golf club secreraries who responded to queries; to Peter Lewis at the British Golf Museum for his knowledge, constant rupport, and access to the library o f the Royal & Ancient Golf Club; and, above all, to the authors o f the golf club histories whose work has provided the information central to this paper. Correspondence to [email protected]. G olf likely originated in th e Low Countries, but it was popularized in Scotland from the seventeenth century, primarily as a short game—little more than putting—played in church yards and other limited areas by a broad spectrum of the population using minimal and often basic equipment.1 However, as golf developed into a longer game it required larger amounts of land and became a less democratic sport. The club, with its ability to raise funds collectively, became the instrument of golf expansion, much of which took place south of the border in England, first as Scottish golfing outposts but later as clubs dominated by English players. Golf became one of the fastest growing recreational activities of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. From only a few thousand who played the game at the begin ning of the 1880s, by 1914 some 350,000 golfers were “spoiling good walks” all round the country. Most of these players were members of a club, that traditional British organizational institution in sport and other activities.2 Golf clubs, however, were more than a means of leisure. In the words of one supporter A golf club whose ground is used for the recreation of a large section of the inhab itants of a district, that supplies a “living space” for the dwellers in its neighbourhood, gives employment to many of the poorer classes, brings money into the district, and increases the building value of the land around, is a public amenity.3 Hence determining the development of the golf club can contribute not just to sporting history but to wider historical themes. Most private golf clubs followed one of three major development models as illustrated by the respective histories of Douglas Park, North Hants, and Betchworth Park. The former was the brainchild of Will Gibson who on June 22,1897, sent a letter to a number of friends and neighbors inviting them to form a club at Douglas Park, Milngavie. Eleven turned up to a meeting. Two weeks later a committee had been elected and a lease of fifty acres taken. Ar rangements were made for the land to be drained and a clubhouse to be built, and on October 2 a nine-hole course was opened with fifty-six members enrolled.4 North Hants represented those clubs who wished to begin on a larger scale. Here, in December of 1903, a self-chosen group sent a circular to “selected” inhabitants of Fleet, a residential community centered around large Victorian properties occupied by prosperous families, and senior officers from nearby Aldershot Garrison. The prospectus promised not only an eighteen-hole course “equal to any inland course in the country” but also “first rate lawn tennis courts and croquet grounds, surrounded by well laid out gardens and pleasure grounds, with fine trees and abundance of shade.” Dinner was served in the clubhouse on most nights, and a number of bedrooms were available for members and their guests.5 Then there were those like Betchworth Park which opted to start off as a limited liability company. One F.S. Phillips circulated a letter inviting support to form a company to take a lease from Lord Francis Hope of Deepdene House. Sixteen respondents then met, taking the advice of a solicitor and accountant on the terms and issues of bonds and shares. They established the company in February of 1912, appointed the famous golf architect H.S. Colt to lay out the course, and by August had fifty-three subscrib ers, each of whom took a minimum of £50 in debentures towards the estimated cost of over £4000. The clubhouse and course were opened in September of 1913.6 Whether starting off small or large, whether ambitious to expand or content to remain as they were, all clubs required land, funds, members, and a labor force. These resources form the focus of this article, which will explore the pre-1914 history of the British golf club utilizing a framework based on five concepts of capital, those referring to the physical, financial, human, social, and cultural versions. As with many social science concepts, definitions of capital can be complex, multi-faceted, and sometimes opaque. Here, however, to facilitate the argument, broad definitions will be employed. Hence physical capital formation will be considered as those improvements to natural resources that create productive assets that help procure rev enue. Financial capital will be regarded as the money source such as share purchase, deben tures, loans, and even donations that pay for these fixed assets and also the working capital that covers operating costs. Human capital formation embraces those aspects of the labor force that enhance productivity such as the acquisition of skill, competencies, knowledge, and experi ence as well as improved physical and mental health. It can also encompass self-improvement for non-economic reasons such as simply wanting to be fitter or more culturally aware. Transferring these concepts to the golf course it will be asked what it cost to develop a course and the associated club facilities that enabled the club to offer services and goods for sale. It will be queried how the money was raised to pay for this and for the wages of the greens staff who maintained the course and the purchase of the materials which they used for that purpose. It will be considered how improvements were made to the human capital stock: the workforce that prepared the greens, made and repaired the equipment, and carried the players’ clubs. However, economic forms of capital do not explain everything and hence the paper will also look at social capital—the development of networks between individuals that can benefit them socially and economically—and cultural capital that can be considered as reputation or status-enhancing activities. Notwithstanding that golfers may regard their own clubs as being unique in some way— perhaps the difficulty of the back nine, or the way the prevailing wind can wreak havoc on a bad day, or simply the conviviality dispensed at the nineteenth hole—the aim of this paper is to produce a collective history of the British golf club. Rather than attempt to summarize the chronological development of numerous clubs, here it will be endeavored to ask how the “typical” club fared using these concepts of capital formation as an exploratory and explana tory mechanism. A Note on Sources The study is based on a survey of some 2,000 primary data sets of individual golf clubs derived from golfing yearbooks and secondary material from over 400 club histories, supple mented by information from articles in the golfing press and other contemporary publica tions. To prevent excessive references only club-specific information will be documented. The quality of club histories varies gready. Some, usually written by trained historians— amateur or professional—provide analysis, context, and critique. Others simply quote exten sively from the minutes, poor history but useful for the project. The worst can contain “many anecdotes... about personalities, some a trifle eccentric.”7 Some are fortunately able to draw on club minutes, for too often those for the foundation period have disappeared, lost to fire, water, and the whims of the committee. Yet historians must be aware that archives are sites of power that privilege some information above others. The committee minutes reveal the views of those running the club, not necessarily those of the membership. The use of golf yearbooks, which give information on all clubs at a point in time, helps provide a broader picture of many of the issues discussed below. These are generally factually reliable in that a template was used to solicit information, but there could be omissions as they were dependent on club secretaries submitting material before the publication deadline. A check on the following year usually allowed any deficiency to be corrected.

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