Pitchmarks #97 - “The Heritageans”
In his opening speech to the inaugural Golf Club Heritage Conference, Jim McArthur set the tone for two wonderful days of reflection and investigation with a simple question for the ninety odd delegates in front of him. “Why bother with the past?”, he wondered, and between us we spent the remaining hours in St Andrews scribbling our own answers to this important query.
There are many reasons to bother, of course. In general terms, to understand the past, to sustain corporate memory, and to curate, preserve or create cultural identity are all important factors in their own right. But if a congregation crammed with the converted needed tangible proof that this stuff matters, that it contributes - in each carefully woven stitch - to the dense fabric of both golf’s history and our own, a physical “find” would shortly provide it.
As Angela Howe made her way towards that same “why?” via “how?” and “what?”, she read from the telegram James Ogilvy Fairlie received from Freddie Tait, less than two months before the Boer War ended Tait’s golfing career and his life, at just 30. Despite the difficult circumstances from which this missive was sent, the correspondent quickly addressed the matters closest to his heart - namely, the resolutions of the latest Green Committee meeting, and the appointment of a new Secretary - Harry Colt - and in those heartfelt lines to his dear friend back in Scotland, we gain some sense of how this talented amateur loved the game, and its connections.
It inhabits us, golf, just as it did Tait and Fairlie, and Cecil Leitch and Sir Michael Bonallack, and a hundred other names we’d encounter over the course of the conference. These people shaped the game - not the global sport, the corporate juggernaut, but the simple game that lies at its heart - and we are charged with unearthing and re-telling these stories to bring them back to life as some sort of green fee for the privilege of following in such illustrious footsteps. Heritage is the cerebral equivalent of repairing our pitchmarks, only the damage by neglect can be in this case eternal so we must seek out these facts and artefacts and - as Angela so beautifully put it - “render them accessible”.
We hear from John Mullock on the art of the auctioneer, and consider funding, and insurance, and preservation along the way. And Caroline Wallard notes the shift away from public funding to private, defining philanthropy as a gift that “doesn’t expect a return”. On her arrival in post, non-golfer Caroline spent a good deal of time asking the members of the Royal & Ancient why they play the game, and came away with a recurrent theme that golf “matters because of the person it makes you”. And the same applies in our heritage work, I believe. We connect with those who have passed this way before, and clear the path for those who will follow behind, and in doing so, we are changed, and inspired, and this matters. To pinch one more line from Caroline, “we learn from our past to shape our future”.
If two key themes of David Normoyle’s presentation were the importance of telling an uncluttered story, and of - in the case of what he called each club’s “crown jewels” - “turning the objects into art”, the session itself was a microcosm of these objectives; a masterclass. Through images of both Chicago GC and the Honourable Company, we saw how careful display of the physical assets can reflect and enhance a deeper cultural message, specific to each organisation. “If clubs are a collection of like-minded people”, he explained, “heritage is our best chance to explain what they are like-minded about”.
Jane Jamieson’s presentation on the unique story of Royal Troon provided another inspiring session, including the extraordinary tale of what are commonly known as the “Adam Wood clubs”, after the person who passed them on to the golf club, in 1915. This bundle of six clubs were wrapped in a newspaper dated 1741, and placed in a hidden cabinet in Maister House, surviving a major fire in the property two years later and only being discovered at the very end of the 19th century. If we needed a reminder that history can be a fluid thing and that there remains treasure out there to find, this was it. I suspect a great many cabinets were explored in the following week…
Chris Mather walked us through contemporary styles of presentation, and David Powell through the nuts and bolts of cataloguing collections before two special treats - drinks in the R&A World Golf Museum, followed by a guided tour, in small groups, of the R&A clubhouse. We marvelled at the old routing maps, the stained glass windows, the view from the balcony of the Secretary’s Office. Then the Captains of both the host club and the BGCS - Ian Pattison and Nigel Notley respectively - toasted each other and golf’s unique history in the Big Room, scene of many notable gatherings in the past. Ian’s speech concluded with the charging of glasses and a toast to the first recorded mention of “The Heritageans”, a term which is now searchable in the digital archives of Through the Green. We invented it.
The second day’s themes were around the protection and distribution of that which archival work unearths, and it was fascinating. Nevin McGhee spoke with passion and humour of the way in which the fire at Glasgow Golf Club had not only interrupted his tranquil break in the south of France, but also devastated an historic collection in the B-listed Georgian mansion, the club’s home since 1904. The recovery process, and the shared lessons, provided a chance to re-imagine and re-create the experience for the members of the 9th oldest club in golf, and the room fell silent at the sight - 114 years to the day of the opening of that clubhouse - of Phoenix rising from the ashes. Two congregations on the steps; two “memorable assemblies”, either side of disaster.
Richard Williams’ discussion on the theme of theft was equally instructive, as were Laurie Rae’s on disaster recovery and Tony Norcott’s on insurance, before we were dragged - not quite kicking and screaming - into the digital age. The question of how the tactile, deliberate nature of archival exploration might be transformed in the digital age was a key theme for me heading into the Conference, and between Mike Morrison’s superb guide to online sleuthing, Erin Shields’ case study of Hoylake’s curation techniques, and Shaun Benfold’s guide to the digitalisation process, these final three sessions provided a powerful way forward.
For me, the Conference was simply wonderful. It took much of what I have gleaned from TTG and other such resources, and brought it all to life with style and humour. Much of what we study concerns the characters of early golf, but they’d be proud of this latest step, those pioneers. It was our own “memorable assembly”, and we are the bridge between then and now. To conclude as we started, by lifting another line from Jim McArthur, “the past causes the present, and informs the future”.
Go forth and explore, fellow “heritageans”!
*When he is not brandishing hickories or contributing to pitchmarks, Richard Pennell can often be found poring over golf club minute books. In this respect he would welcome information from Through the Green or @pitchmarks readers relating to any or all of: Addington GC, Cleeve Hill GC, New Zealand GC & West Byfleet GC!
We’d be lost without that history.