The World's Top Courses in 1908

I find it interesting to track the progress of courses and how they are ranked over time. Previously, I have posted regarding the top 100 courses in 1939. Click here to read this post.

I just purchased a copy of the new golf club history, The Evolution of the Links at the Royal County Down Golf Club, which is one of the most spectacular golf club histories I have ever read. It's expensive, but I recommend it highly.

The book was written by Richard Latham and he has a sidebar in the book regarding a ranking he stumbled across as he was doing his research for the book. Contained within a 1908 edition of Golf Illustrated he found a ranking of the top courses which was compiled by the most prominent golfers in the world. The rankings were fairly broad-based, comprising the opinions of 230 professional and 314 amateur golfers.

The list is below:

1. The Old Course at St. Andrews
2. Prestwick
3. Sandwich (also known as Royal St. George's)
4. Deal
5. Hoylake (also known as Royal Liverpool)
6. North Berwick
7. Sunningdale
8. Westward Ho!
9. Portmarnock
10. Formby
11. Royal County Down (known as Newcastle then)
12. Rye
13. Portrush (now known as Royal Portrush)
14. Lahinch
15. Carnoustie
16. Luffness New
17. Woking
18. Gullane
19. Huntercombe
20. Brancaster (now know as Royal West Norfolk)
21. Littlestone
22. Lytham and St. Annes
23. Dollymount (now known as Royal Dublin)
24. Machrahanish
25. Walton Heath
26. Harlech (now known as Royal St. David's)
27. Muirfield

Obviously, their conception of the 'world' in 1908 did not include the New World or Australia/New Zealand.

I've had the privilege of playing sixteen of the courses on the list and don't really take exception to the ranking, which I find even today quite respectable. Before the Muirfield fans get up in arms, remember that the course we know today evolved considerably from the course as it was in 1908.

At the risk of repeating myself, both Prestwick and North Berwick were at the time, and I still believe are today, two of the best golf courses in the world.

Myopia Hunt Club

A hunt club? Isn't this a quest to play the world's top golf courses? It is indeed. However, one of them happens to also be a hunt club. Early golf clubs in this country were often inter-twined with other leisure pastimes. Merion was originally both a golf course and a cricket club. Myopia was founded for both equine pastimes and for golf. Another famous early U.S. course with a non-golf history is the C. B. Macdonald-designed gem on Long Island, Piping Rock, with its polo field, now converted to one of the largest driving ranges in the world. Although not on the world ranked top 100 list which I am playing, Myopia Hunt Club is on the top 100 U.S. list (ranked #69), and is worthy of a far higher ranking on that list, in my view. I first got the chance to play this below-the-radar course in 1997 and jumped at the opportunity. Actually, I pestered the member until he cracked and invited me. The course, located 30 minutes north of Boston, is not widely known. It has hosted the U.S. Open four times (1898, 1901, 1905 and 1908). Hosting the 1898 tournament puts Myopia into a small fraternity of only five elite courses that hosted a U.S. Open in the nineteenth century.

The elegant 18th century farmhouse, now the clubhouse at Myopia Hunt Club just drips "New England"

The course was designed by Herbert Leeds, who had no prior experience in course design. He redesigned and expanded the original course at Myopia, which was laid out by the club's Master of the Hounds! Leeds work here adds weight to the argument that many of the world's great courses were the result of 'amateur' architects on their first attempt. In this regard, Myopia is like Hugh Wilson's work at Merion and Henry Fownes's at Oakmont. They are iconoclastic, unique, and world-class courses developed by a non-professional who was passionate about golf. The other beauty of Myopia, as pointed out by Cornish & Whitten in The Architects of Golf, is that the course exists today virtually as it was laid out. It has only been restored from time-to-time to keep it in its original state, but it has not been redesigned. They rightfully call it a landmark course.

I have always been a believer that first impressions are often correct. My first impression of Myopia Hunt Club was quite favorable. My readers know that I like old, traditional golf courses. This New England classic is a real gem, reminiscent of courses in England. Driving down the tree-covered road into the club you immediately see horses gently striding behind a post-and-rail fence and you pass over a humped-backed bridge, all of which combine to create a feeling of joy. A polo field is located to your right as you drive into the cloistered environment.

The regal entry drive at Myopia Hunt Club

The Golf Course

Scorecards, like looks, can be deceiving. Myopia plays 6,555 yards from the tips, therefore, it's probably not that hard, right? Wrong. Leeds's strategic use of cross-bunkering and the difficulty of the greens means that Myopia has stood the test of time and is still challenging today. The USGA Course rating is a stiff 72.7/138. Consider that among the five highest total scores in the history of the US Open four of them were scored at Myopia. Even if you take into account the difference in equipment, the winners averaged a score of 80 at Myopia, while during the same era the winning scores at Opens held at Baltusrol, Chicago Golf Club, and The Country Club were 10-20 strokes lower!

The golf course is situated behind the clubhouse and locker room buildings, a short walk up a hill. Among one of its many charming quirks, the red tees at Myopia are the back tees. The opening hole is a very short (276 yard) uphill par four where you hit a blind drive and it is a relatively easy hole, although the tilted green is trickier than it looks. If the drive in and the general environment of the club didn't tip you off that this is a noteworthy club, the greatness of Myopia as a golf course is confirmed early in the round as you stand on the second tee and look across the expanse stretching below you.

Myopia's enchanting second hole is set at the top of  a hill and gives a sweeping view of the heavenly property the course is built on

The 488-yard par five second hole is an absolutely beautiful hole where you hit your tee shot from an elevated tee down into a valley (shades of Sunningdale's 10th hole) to a fairway that is deceptively hard to hit because the tee box points you to the fescue right of the fairway. The third hole is a testing 253-yard par three with a small green. It has one of Leeds's signature slashing cross bunkers running across the fairway to the hole. As such, Myopia presents challenge and variety not only early in the round, but as you continue around the course it sustains this for all eighteen holes.

The course meanders around what I found to be surprisingly hilly terrain in this part of Massachusetts. It is a true parkland course in the forest. Look at the picture below from the fifth hole, which is typical of the course, and if I didn't tell you it was Myopia, you could quite possibly mistake it for the heathlands surrounding London. The 5th hole, a 417-yard par four that looks tame, but due to the angle the fairway is situated at and the gentle rolling of the terrain, it is anything but, and plays as the number two stroke index hole.

Myopia #5 - Shades of Sunningdale or Walton Heath?

I really liked the sixth hole, a 255-yard par four which demands accuracy on your tee shot (water right and O.B. left over a stone wall), and precision on your approach shot (a tabletop green), as well as a deft touch with the putter.

The 9th hole, pictured below, is a brilliant par three with a postage stamp green. The green is only nine yards wide and surrounded by seven steep bunkers. One of the defining characteristics of Myopia are the deep bunkers, which are, as you can see, reminiscent of those found in the British Isles. This is unmistakably an all-world par three.

As you play Myopia you will occasionally see bridle paths crossing or paralleling various holes. Rather than taking away from the course, they add to its distinctiveness. One of the local rules at Myopia is that you can take a free drop if your ball lands on a bridle path. I hit onto a path once during my round but decided to hit from the path instead of dropping, which plays like a sand shot.

Myopia #9 - A world-class par three postage stamp hole

The back nine begins with a bang. The tenth hole is a par-4, 404-yard Alps prototype hole. What makes the hole especially challenging is the blind tee shot. Since you are hitting over the rise of a big hill, you don't fully appreciate that any ball to the right of center feeds down into a jail at the bottom of the hill. The hole also slopes from left to right from tee to green. President Taft, who played his summer golf at Myopia, also had trouble with the deep bunker located in the fairway as you approach the 10th green. The hefty commander-in-chief couldn't climb out of the bunker so the secret service had to bring in a couple of horses and tie a rope around the portly golfer to assist in extricating him.

The 11th hole, Leeds's rendition of a Road Hole, is a short par four  (349 yards) that has a menacing cross-bunker jutting across the fairway at a rude angle. Bobby Jones played the course while attending Harvard Law School and apparently had trouble getting across this well placed hazard on a regular basis. One of the reasons Myopia is such a deceptively difficult course can be seen on the eleventh. All the fairways have a tilt or slope to them, which feeds balls into either the rough or a bunker. The course has stood the test of time because Leeds understood better than almost any architect ever has that using a hillside as a hazard (without overdoing it) is far more effective than it looks. Similarly, like at Baltusrol, the greens are challenging because they look relatively flat, however, since the entire property slopes off a big hill, there is a dominant break down toward the club entrance that is difficult to discern.

The maddening par-4 thirteenth green at the top of a large hill. The putting surface is onerous.

The thirteenth hole, pictured below from behind the green, is an uphill par four (358 yards on the card) where your second shot plays about three additional clubs longer than the scorecard indicates due to the severity of the hill. This hole parallels the second hole, so you are playing up the hill that you hit from the elevated tee from earlier in your round. The thirteenth green is probably the most extreme example on the course, but is indicative of the greens at Myopia. They are tilted, canted, pitched, banked, slanted, and angled, but don't appear to be half as severe as they actually are. It is always advisable to play more break than you think, but even when you do, more likely than not haven't played enough. It is a true challenge in the positive meaning of the word, a real test of your ability to pick the correct line and speed on these perfectly conditioned and fast greens.

Green #13 seen from the rear

The 16th hole is a challenging 192-yard downhill par three that plays back toward the clubhouse, and like many holes at Myopia provides a stunning vista as can be seen from the picture taken from this elevated tee, below. Despite my bad manners I have been invited back to Myopia a half dozen times and I am always taken aback about how harmonious the entire environment is, it personifies Old World New England. The club has undertaken a tree removal program over the last several years, clearing out hundreds of trees to open up the vistas more and to have more wind impacting the golf shots. The changes are noticeable and well advised, they did a nice job with them.

A strong case can be made that the collection of par three holes at Myopia are as good and as challenging as any in the game of golf. Even though there are only three of them, in my view, they rank up there with Pine Valley and Woodhall Spa in terms of challenge presented to the golfer. Consider the 3rd hole. How many par threes have a fairway on them so you can lay up because you can't reach (or hold) the green? Not many; the par three 16th at Cypress Point being a notable exception. The 240+ yard hole also plays slightly uphill. Modern architects like to have balance on golf holes: if it's challenging from tee to green they will typically cut you some slack when you're on the putting surface. Leeds design philosophy is of the take no prisoners camp, thus, the 3rd green is a challenging surface. My guess is that modern architects also wouldn't design a green as narrow as the ninth today for fear of the course owner or members complaining about its severity. Did the designer of the Postage Stamp hole at Royal Troon fret that it would be too severe? Apparently not, and Myopia's ninth follows the mold, with harsh fescue and deep trench bunkers penalizing misses. Finally, the 16th, like many at Myopia, doesn't appear that hard on paper, after all, it's a downhill par three of roughly 180 yards with a relatively large green, and you get a great preview of the green before you tee off since it is situated next to the first tee and you can examine its contours and peek at the pin position. Alas, you don't get to play the hole on paper, but in the real world, with all that mother nature brings with her. The complication for the hopeful duffer who has just put his or her ball on the tee is that they can barely see any of the putting surface; instead, the vista is a sea of fescue blowing in the wind, and because of where the green is situated, with the clubhouse in the background, the green's distance from the tee becomes wickedly deceptive, and you see only a tiny sliver of it. Leeds was three for three on the threes. Brilliant.

The 17th tee is right outside the pro-shop door and has an old stone wall down its entire left side that plays out of bounds. Holes 17 (a 394-yard par four) and 18 seem to be set-off from the rest of course and look like they will be anti-climactic, but in fact provide for the perfect finish since they are cut artfully into a tumbling hillside. The routing at Myopia is perfectly suited to the terrain and in my view is one of the best in the world of golf.

The Myopia Hunt Club clubhouse as seen from the 16th tee

The eighteenth is one of the best finishing holes in all of golf. It is 404 yards, a dogleg right and your tee shot is semi-blind. You must land on the left side of the fairway to have a clean shot at the green. This is harder than it sounds given the slope of the terrain and the hill. If you are on the right-hand side a hill blocks your view of the green. In front of the green are two massive and deep bunkers. Adding to the beauty of the hole are the horses strutting to your left as you approach the polo ground and the beautiful yellow farmhouse/clubhouse behind the green. The horses give the place a genteel and civilized ambiance.

Myopia Hunt Club as the whole package

I can't sing the virtues of Myopia enough. It strikes the appropriate balance between being intimate without being stuffy or pretentious. The membership seems perfectly suited to the historic club.  As I suspected on my first visit and can now confirm after a half-dozen visits (including staying overnight in the clubhouse), the membership seems to have avoided the usual minority of blow-hards, half-wits, morons, simpletons, rummies and lackeys that make up a minority of any club. It is a rarity to combine a world-class course with a club that has the right mix of elements and intangibles. In all my journeys I have only seen this a handful of times: Myopia, Sunningdale, Maidstone, Royal Liverpool and San Francisco Golf Club. Each possesses an inveterate charm to complement their fabulous courses.

Many other clubs possess great golf courses but fall flat on the club or clubhouse environment. Some are trying too hard or are too uptight or snooty. Others have too many members you wouldn't enjoy associating with. These five pull it all off and are the real McCoy.

The best bar at a golf club in the United States is at the Myopia Hunt Club

The 19th hole at Myopia brings together a lot of what I like about old-style golf clubs and reveals many verities that I have found on my trips. Among the truths: 1) Length doesn't matter. Myopia is a sub 6,600 yard course from the tips, but is still a challenge. 2) Low-key, understated and intimate are better than big and flashy. In this regard, I like courses like Myopia and Sunningdale as opposed to big clubs like Wentworth, Congressional, or Medinah.  3) A variety of holes and shots make a better course. Nothing felt forced at Myopia, the course fits naturally into the terrain; there are a couple of short par fours, a 200+ yard par three and a 130-yard par three; some uphill holes, some downhill holes, and plenty of change in direction. 4) Old and quirky are under-appreciated. The bar at Myopia has no barman, the members sign chits for themselves and there are private lockers near the bar for members' liquor. The rooms in the clubhouse have low ceilings and a feel of antiquity. The old, original creaking floors will probably never be replaced, giving it a shabby-chic feel. There are antiquated enclosed telephone booths cut into the wall of the entry foyer where members used to discretely make phone calls without disturbing the ambiance. The locker room, housed in a separate building, is original and reminded me of another old original, Garden City on Long Island.  A visit to Myopia is a truly memorable and distinctive day. The club is intensely private and there are less than 12,000 rounds played a year, which is about 50% less than at most clubs. If you can wangle an invitation, I suggest going at once.

The weather vane with fox motif adorns the clubhouse

Golfer Magazine described Myopia and its architect in 1898 thusly: "Leeds is as well known as a hunt club man as a golfer . . . The rolling inland gorse is admirable, the hazards natural, the distances good . . . It was only natural that the cry of Fore! should be heard mingling with the whistle of the quail and the music of the kennelled hounds. Experts have pronounced the links the best natural golf grounds in America." The description remains relevant today.

The sloping of the 18th fairway is best captured at dusk

It is not an exaggeration to say that the greens at Myopia are among the finest in the United States. Part of the reason I think Myopia is such as fabulous golf course is because Leeds kept tinkering with it and refining it over the years. As a member of the club he would sit in the bar and overhear golfers complaining about how easy or hard holes were and would make changes as such. The par-5 fifteenth hole ("Long") is a beautiful 529-yard hole that straddles the hill at the top of the property. When Leeds heard a couple of members complain that the hole was too easy he put in two very deep bunkers short of the green. Easy is not a word that pops into your head as you approach the green today. The course plays as a par 72 and even though it is short there are a couple of very testing par fours, notably #5 at 417 yards, #12 at 451 yards, and #18 at 400 yards. The course, however, truly excels with the short par fours. It is treacherous to compare any course to Merion, but it is my belief that the short par fours here are as good a collection, or better, than those at Merion, which are among the best in the world.

Speaking of Merion, where is the ball Bobby Jones used when he won the Grand Slam, finishing the U. S. Amateur at Merion? It's displayed in a very nonchalant manner tucked above a light in the bar at Myopia Hunt Club. To me it encapsulates everything about Myopia and reflects the ethos of the club perfectly. They have one of the treasures of the golf world on their hands but treat it in a very low key and respectful manner. Myopia is an anachronism in the world of golf to be cherished and preserved for posterity, which is exactly what their erudite membership is doing.

It is a lucky golfer who finds themselves walking on the boardwalk of the elegant Myopia clubhouse:

Myopia's blue blood roots run deep. The club first used the name Myopia Hunt Club in 1876. The august Republican Senator from Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, was a founding member of Myopia.  The Harvard polo team still uses the fields at Myopia.

As I was playing at Myopia in the summer twilight recently there was a light breeze blowing and the ancient specimen trees were casting long shadows over the verdant fairways. It didn't take too much imagination to forget that I am an olive-skinned crank of Italian extraction from New Jersey, and I thought for a few moments that I was one of the original fair-haired Haa-vard boys who founded the club over a century ago, and that I was back in 1894 playing a leisurely round of golf. Myopia is timeless.

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The scene at Myopia from a postcard  produced in 1904. It could have been taken today.

Post Script - Not everyone agrees with my assessment of golf courses (I know, I find it shocking also). Even the skeptics among you must agree, however, that Myopia surely has the best logo in the world of golf. What could be better than a fox with a horn above his head?

The Links - New York City

I have just returned from one of the most elite golf clubs in the world. I have been trying for years to visit this club and finally succeeded through the generosity of my favorite WASP. You won't find the Links (the club is called the Links, not the Links club) on any world rankings because it has no golf course. It functions as a social and eating club, but has a very strong association to the world of golf.

The Links is located on 36 East 62nd Street in New York City between Madison and Park avenues. It is housed in a stunning four-story Georgian townhouse with a mansard roof that was built in 1890. The Architectural Record describes the club in 1917 as showing "the effects of quiet breeding, traditional elegance, of considered good taste." Like many of the elite clubs in the world, there is no sign announcing that this building houses the Links. There is no grand entrance and no grand staircase. In fact, truth be told, I walked right past the Links on the first try in my attempt to find it. A small stairway leads you down to an entry door located below street level, then you enter through a set of double doors. As you open the first door and close it behind you, you are in a small vestibule. You then open another door and enter this private sanctuary. It is as if standing between these two doors you have entered the transporter on Star Trek. Or, if you are from a different generation, if feels like being transported to Hogwarts in Harry Potter. You have just entered a different world.

This particular part of Manhattan is home to many private social clubs, among them, the Grolier, Lotos, Union League, Union, Metropolitan, Yale, Harvard, Century, Cornell, Princeton, Colony, Knickerbocker, Cosmopolitan, Vassar, University, Harmonie, Brook and of course the Links. Each club was founded with a different constituency in mind, the Links being formed by prosperous golfers. While New York City is probably the most meritocratic city on the planet, it has a whole "underworld" of these social clubs that most people never see.

As you enter you are greeted by a gentleman wearing a green jacket with black lapels and a "links man" logo on the sleeve. All the employees at the Links wear this sharp uniform, many with a bow-tie. If there were a place in the golf world where they would actually take your ticket and punch it, this is it. Entering here, you have arrived. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my ticket with me so the manager just gave me a suspicious stare. You know the type of stare that says, "You don't belong here, do you?" Fortunately, I was wearing the requisite jacket and tie and got the members name right, so he let me stay.

The Links was founded by Charles Blair Macdonald and his friends in 1916. C.B. Macdonald was one of the founders of the U.S.G.A. and the founder of the National Golf Links of America (ranked #20 in the world). The objectives of the Links are "...to promote and conserve throughout the United States the best interests and true spirit of the game of golf as embodied in its ancient and honorable traditions, endorsing the rules of the game as it is played in Scotland and as adopted by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews."

Macdonald's friends were the powerful and elite of New York during this era including Charles H. Sabin (President of Guaranty Trust), Harry Payne Whitney (a sportsmen and man of leisure), James Stillman (President of National City Bank), William C. Potter (a future President of Guaranty Trust) and Frank L. Crocker (a prominent attorney). Like many private clubs, The Links Club was started because someone couldn't get in - in this case a friend of C.B. Macdonald couldn't get into the Brook Club so C.B. quit that club and started The Links as a place where those that played at Shinnecock and The National could meet in the city.

The Links is a U.S.G.A. type-two sanctioned club. Although not widely known, you don't have to have a golf course to be a U.S.G.A. golf club. The requirement is merely that you must have a reasonable and regular opportunity for the members to play golf with each other. A type-two club is one whose "members are affiliated or known to one another via a business, fraternal, ethnic or social organization." Given its historic founding, the U.S.G.A. regularly holds its annual dinner at the Links and every current president of the U.S.G.A. is given an honorary membership during their tenure.

The Links is the archetypal private club. After you go through the double doors you are in the entrance lobby, and on a cold day the fireplace will likely be crackling to warm you up. In the rear of the building on the first floor is The Oak Room - a private dining room. You have already sensed that you are somewhere special by this point, although the best is yet to come. Since the Links is not the type of place where a guest walks around snapping pictures, I will try to describe as vividly as possible the look, feel and ambiance of the place.

The Links clubhouse on East 62nd Street

As you stand in the entry foyer your eye is immediately drawn to the centerpiece of the Links - the green oval spiral staircase adorned with wrought-iron railing. The staircase runs the height of the townhouse - from the first floor to the fourth. A wonderful original, it creaks as you walk up and down and you notice the staircase was built with wooden pegs holding the treads, and not with nails. At the top of the staircase there is a circular glass sky light. As throughout the Links, there is architectural detailing everywhere that gives the place its special qualities, including decorative trim along the outside of the staircase as it spins upward in a counter-clockwise fashion.

 

Around the spiral staircase there are small alcoves. The primary color used through the Links is a pale "links green". It is a rich hue that adds to the sense of warmth and refinement found in the club. The hallways on each floor and other common areas are painted in the "links green" and contain old early American black and white prints throughout. Herringbone patterned hardwood floors in the halls also add character to the place.

The manager of the club stands behind a glass-topped, wooden, built-in counter which holds a treasure trove of items adorned with the Links logo, such as ties, shirts, playing cards and the club history book. I made my usual forthright inquiry if any were available for purchase and was snubbed with alacrity.

The bar area at the Links

The second floor of the Links  is its piece de resistance. The front of the building contains The Sir Christopher Wren room which serves as the library for the club. If you like dark wooden paneling, this is the room for you. The paneling was brought over from England, from a room designed by Sir Christopher Wren. To say that the room has wood paneling is to understate the case. Not only does it have wood paneling, but architectural detailing extraordinaire. Like most of the Links, it contains molding and detailing taken to a level rarely seen, but to great effect. There is barely an inch in any of the rooms where there are not casings, cornices, curve moldings, baseboard moldings, crown moldings, panels, stiles or rails. As if that is not enough, it is accented with raised panels and flat panels. Cornice molding is pervasive. There are also ornamental bands and dental molding and trim everywhere. Even the moldings at the Links have moldings. The building was designed by the architectural design firm of Cross & Cross, who designed several other iconic building in New York including the RCA Victor building on Lexington Avenue. The two partners were also members of the Links. John was also a member of the National Golf Links of America and his brother Eliot played at the Piping Rock club.

The entrance to the library is highlighted by the federal style triangle above the door. Hanging in the prominent position above the fireplace is a large portrait of The Right Honorable William Pitt 1758-1810, a former British prime minister.


The Links has sufficiently high-quality artwork hanging, that if it were not a private club, it could serve as a museum or gallery. Also hanging in the library is a Rembrandt Peale portrait of George Washington, flanked by portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Captain James Lawrence. Lawrence is the famous American naval officer who is known for his dying command, "Don't Give Up The Ship". There are also portraits of British military officers throughout the room.

The library also has clusters of leather chairs and sofas spread around. In each cluster is a discrete "buzzer", should you require service. When seated near the fireplace on one of the green leather sofas, on each side are eight foot long hanging fabric cords with tassels on the ends that you pull for service. Either touch the buzzer or pull the tassel and a server will appear through a hidden passage or door. The room also has two little writing tables with ink wells and a selection of high quality Links stationary and envelopes, should you need to dash off a quick note. There is no recognition on the part of the Links that we are in the 21st century. The club doesn't acknowledge that people no longer sit down at writing tables and dash off a little note on Links Club letterhead in our modern era of instant messaging and cell phones. Being somewhat of a Luddite myself though, I like it.

Located at the far end of the library is a large table that holds various golf and sporting books and magazines including Yale Magazine, Harvard Magazine, and most importantly, lest we forget where we are, there are copies of the last three years Social Register easily accessible should the need arise to check someone's pedigree on short notice.

 In the rear of the building on the second floor is the C.B. Macdonald Room. The room is dominated by a life size painting of Macdonald with a caddie above the fireplace, with the National Golf Links windmill in the background, seen above. He is wearing plus-fours and surveying the room below. The remainder of the room is large panel paintings and large paneled windows on the west side of the building.

In between the library and the C.B. Macdonald room is the bar area. The bar area of the Links is my favorite part of the club. It is one of the most idiosyncratic places I have ever been in. Above the bar is a large original large painting of "The First Meeting of the North Berwick Golf Club" which is the picture on the scorecard of the North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland (seen above), painted by Sir Francis Grant. The bar also has dark woods and extensive paneling. It has several little notched-out areas and a small corridor lined with oak-paneled liquor lockers, each about two feet by two feet in size. The back of the bar area, down a narrow corridor is a small area that has leather bench-seating. Crammed into this intimate space is also a leather backgammon table and above are three skylights. It is dark, intimate and cozy in a way you would imagine a premier men's club would be (although there are now women members). You can just imagine Links Club members sitting in here during prohibition drinking their private stashes and smoking cigars.

The third floor has the Dining Room in the front the building. Above the fireplace in the dining room is a painting of one-time member Dwight D. Eisenhower, wearing his Links patterned tie. The fireplace is adorned with original 18th century Dutch delft golfing tiles, which were the inspiration for Macdonald for the "links man" logo. The "links man" is the same one that adorns The National Golf Links logo. Sitting in the dining room is an experience. The membership appear to share a common wardrobe style - a Saville Row tailored suit with a hanky sticking out and a shirt with a thread count of at least 180. It also has the highest concentration of Hermès ties per-capita in the world. Although I felt welcome at the Links, when my host went to the mens room during lunch I got the distinct impression that the waiting staff were keeping an extra close eye on me for fear that I might take some of monogrammed tableware.

The fourth floor contains the Auchincloss meeting room and has a large painting depicting an early Harvard v. Yale boat race. In the front of the building are two modest bedrooms for overnight stays for out of town members. The entire Links Club feels like a throw-back to an earlier era. There are little phone booths built into the walls on each floor, each with a little black fan above the phone to keep you cool on a hot summer's day. There is also a quirky, small, slow moving antique Otis elevator located in the central hallway.

Business is not allowed to be conducted in public areas of the Links. You cannot sit in the library, dining room or bar and have work papers or briefcases present or talk business. You cannot have a cell phone or a blackberry or any other electronic devices in the club. Gentleman must keep their jacket and tie on at all times when in public areas of the club. While you can certainly conduct business behind closed doors in the meeting rooms, the primary purpose of the Links is "social intercourse" as Macdonald called it.

Interior of the Links

The club holds events each year at various golf courses. To give you a sample of the quality of golf we are talking about, I noticed on the bulletin board a list of the successful events that the club held the prior year. Included on the list were events at Shinnecock Hills, Maidstone, The National Golf Links of America, The Chicago Golf Club, Deepdale and Somerset Hills. The Links is a useful club for me to stay close to, given my golfing aspirations. I can just hang around and beseech help to get on some key golf courses on short notice. I'll bet they don't take well to groveling at the Links, so I'll have to be my usual charming self and work the crowd.

The Links has 1,000 members, 500 of whom are non-resident, consistent with its national charter. Membership is by invitation only. I looked through the current membership directory and on page thirty-three alone recognized the names of three current or ex-CEOs. I'm not stupid enough to publish the names of the members out of respect for their privacy and because I would like to get invited back, but it is a tempting thought. Suffice it to say, like the founding members, they remain well-heeled and connected.

The window grill's on the clubhouse feature L's and C's

As I was sitting in the second floor bar talking about the club, its tradition and its membership rules, the board-certified WASP who was my host mentioned that it takes five members to sponsor a new member. Things were going well and he asked what clubs I was a member of. Note the presumption in the plural nature of the question among this crowd; it is assumed you are a member of multiple clubs. I sensed an opening; that if I was affiliated with some good clubs, maybe he was considering sponsoring me. This would be the ultimate coup for me. A home run. A grand slam. When I mentioned that I am a member of Sam's Club, The Hair Club for Men and the mile-high club, I saw the blue-blood drain out of his face.

One always has a keen sense of where you are in the social hierarchy when you are at the Links. It is clear you are in the pantheon.

As the club history describes it, the Links is "ageless", "old fashioned", has "traditional elegance", likes "quiet breeding", and is "of considered good taste", and "timeless".

The Country Club at Brookline

I was lucky enough this past Fall to be invited to play The Country Club at Brookline (ranked # 33 in the world). One of the five founding member clubs of the USGA, The Country Club was built in 1895. Brookline is a leafy suburb surrounded on three sides by the City of Boston and the club is built right in the middle of it all. Brookline was described in the 19th century as the richest town in America. The mansions still visible today as you drive around Brookline are a testament to that. John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline. Driving past the course you wouldn't even know The Country Club is there, it is surrounded by fences on all sides. If you manage to see the discrete sign for The Country Club, you drive up the tree lined entry driveway. A couple hundred feet in you are greeted by a guard house manned by the ever present Woody (pictured below). Look closely since Woody is not a person but a wooden dummy, although a well dressed one with a jacket, tie and top hat. He's the golf world's equivalent of a scarecrow and your first sign that maybe the WASPs in this part of the world have a sense of humor after all.

As you continue down the entry road (you are crossing the 15th fairway between Woody and the clubhouse) you come upon one of the most beautiful clubhouses in the golf world, which fits perfectly into the landscape with its beautiful ocher color.

The Country Club has a unique name not because they are pretentious but because they were the first country club in the U.S., and I would have to say that they did it right. It would be difficult to improve on anything they've done here. You approach the clubhouse around an oval driveway. Ahead of you is an old building that is the men's locker room. To your right are several other buildings - one used for curling, another houses the enclosed tennis courts, another for squash, etc. The place is a bee-hive of activity. Although it is only five miles from downtown Boston, when The Country Club was built it truly was a club located in the country with a variety of sporting activities including, originally, horse racing, which is no longer present. A club for all seasons, there is an ice skating pond with an associated club house down near the middle of the course.

The view from the 9th fairway

I was lucky enough to play The Country Club on a brilliant day, and it was very enjoyable. The course has the most varied routing I have ever seen. It follows the contours of the land and meanders its way around the property. More than a half dozen times I was surprised when the member or caddy pointed in the opposite direction of where I thought we were going to go to the next tee box. The course was designed by a variety of people; originally by Willie Campbell, with modifications by William Flynn, Geoff Cornish and Rees Jones with no singular influence being exerted. One of the features that you find throughout the course are the glacial rock formations that holes are routed through and around, such as the par five 11th hole, aptly called Himalayas, seen below. You hit your tee shot on this hole from a high, elevated tee to a crevice in the rock canyon on the left side of the fairway. Midway between the bottom of the canyon and the elevated green is a creek that runs through the bottom of the hole. Not the type of hole you see every day and one that really uses the geography present to maximum advantage.

Rocks from the last ice age feature prominently on the 11th hole

The terrain for the 18 holes is quite hilly and used to good effect, although it is not a terribly difficult course to walk. I know I am beating a drum on this topic, but I am again struck by how the world's great golf courses contain so many blind shots, which I really like. The #1 handicap hole, the third, seen below, is another case in point with a blind second shot to the green.

 

Blind second shot on the 3rd hole at The Country Club

View of the green, hole #3, from the fairway

The course also has a Redan hole, the short 12th, although it is a non-traditional version of the Redan. The hole plays from an elevated tee sharply down hill and is only 130 yards. Although it's not a typical Redan hole, I thought it was very good and guarded by a plethora of bunkers in the front. We had just completed playing the front nine and were walking down the hill back toward the tenth tee. 

The tenth and first tees essentially share the same very large tee box. If a group is teeing off on one tee box, good etiquette calls for you to wait for the other group to hit before you do so and vice versa. As we were coming down the hill there were about 15 young golfers mingling around by the first tee, all wearing khakis and crimson polo shirts. As we approached, I noted that they all looked perfect. Perfectly fit, perfectly groomed, good looking, confident and athletic. It was the Harvard golf team (men's and women's), with monogramed Harvard golf bags, who use The Country Club as their golf course. It really made me think how privileged they were. Let's see, you look like Richard Gere or Jennifer Aniston, you go to (arguably) the best college in the world, are athletic, smart and play on the golf team. Is it possible to have a brighter future? These kids have got life by the balls. If anyone has ever told you that life was fair, they were lying.

I had a good caddy at The Country Club, although I had a tough time understanding him with his heavy Boston accent. After my drive on the first hole I had "143 yaawds" to the green and somehow managed a "great paah" after missing the green.

The 17th hole at The Country Club is one of the most historic in the game. It is where Francis Ouimet won the playoff against Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in 1913 to pull off one of the biggest upsets in golf history by winning the U.S. Open at age 20 as an amateur, against two of the world's best. It is also the famous green where Justin Leonard made his monster putt during the 1999 Ryder Cup and then the Americans had the unseemly, but justified, celebration on the green. I would say that the green looks a lot different than it does on TV. The green is long and narrow and is two-tiered. The putt Leonard made is even more impressive to me now, having seen how much break there is, given the two tiers.

The greens at The Country Club are all small. Along with Inverness and Pebble Beach, among the smallest in championship golf. Another unique feature of the course are the small chocolate-drop style mounds that are present around some of the greens. They force you to play from an uneven lie as a penalty for a missed green.

Like other turn-of-the-century clubs, The Country Club jealously guards the traditions of the game, thankfully. The Country Club is an old-school place to play. Like at Oakmont, you need a medical exemption to take a cart. They believe, rightly, that you should walk if you can. This policy also has the positive impact of allowing them to continue to support the noble profession of caddying.

Truth be told, Boston is not one of my favorite cities. I have always found it a bit uptight and stuffy. I was pleasantly surprised by my experience in Brookline. The club is family oriented, welcoming and not pretentious. Sitting in the dining room is a treat since the place drips with history. Most of the women sitting having lunch the day I was there were modeled after Julia Child: big-boned, elegant and proper. I also noted more than a fair share of men wearing bow ties at the club. No doubt, they still have a number of Boston Brahmins around with names like Saltonstall, Cabot, Peabody and Putnam!

The idyllic setting at The Country Club

The Country Club at Brookline actually has 27 holes, the 18 hole course that the members play every day and also a nine hole "Primrose" course. Championships are held on a composite course which includes a handful of holes from the Primrose course mixed in with most of the holes from the 18 hole course. I played the members 18 hole course and not the composite course.

If you get a chance to play, I recommend wandering around the buildings around the oval driveway before or after your round. They are all old and impressive. It must be a New England thing not to modernize, and like Fenway Park, we should be greatful for that. The locker room is untouched from when it was built with old historic lockers and pipes hanging from the ceilings. There is an old glass-doored telephone box from the turn of the century in the locker room. The curling pavillion is a wonderful old musty place done in "Green Monster" green. The Country Club is proudly guarding its provenance and is one of the most historic and special places in the world of golf.

"To me, the property around here is hallowed. The grass grows greener, the trees bloom better, there is even warmth in the rocks. And I don't know...but somehow or other the sun seems to shine brighter on The Country Club than on any other place that I have ever seen" -- Francis Ouimet

The Golf Escort

Golf Escort?

No, we're not talking about the police that escort professional golfers around a golf course. Read on and you'll find the new definition of a golf escort.

One of the characteristics you need to play the top 100 golf courses in the world is an open mind, a great sense of curiosity and a love of golf, travel and adventure. It is in this spirit that I am always looking for new ways to get onto golf courses I haven't yet played.

Thus, I was intrigued by an item I saw on-line recently. It is one of a new genre of e-books that are only published in electronic format and not through traditional means. Not knowing for sure whether it was a scam or a legitimate deal, I purchased it to find out and see maybe if there wasn't a tip or two in there about how to access golf courses. As an added bonus, the book promised that you can "Get paid for playing golf".

The premise of the book is that business executives will often times hire people to play golf with their clients, although personally I have never met such a business executive. The idea of a "Golf Escort" sounded shadowy enough for me to spend the ten bucks and buy the book, plus how could I resist the line promising "four selling points you can use on private golf clubs when asking permission to entertain clients there". Sounds right up my alley.

And I was enticed by the offer of a list of businesses most likely to pay for your services and how to strum up business for your golf escort business. Sounds intriguing in a seedy sort of way. I have been accused of being a golf-whore before, maybe this is a way to formalize my talents. Although, personally a like the more upscale sounding, "Golf Courtesan".

As I read through the 'book', it explains that business people are getting too busy to fit golf into their schedule. In an example of taking outsourcing to an absurd extreme, the book tells us that busy business people hire golf escorts to play the game for them. Well, we are outsourcing our manufacturing to China, the development of software to India; why not outsource your recreation too? It suggests you can position yourself as a golf escort to be hired by business executives to entertain clients on their behalf.

HELLO!

Isn't the point of playing the game relaxation, bonding, enjoying people's company and experiencing the out of doors? The book is not off to a promising start.

Access to private clubs

The earth-shattering suggestion in the book is to go and talk to the manager of the golf club. Tell the golf club that you were hoping to get permission to entertain influential people at their clubs. It suggests trying to tell them how much their revenues would go up by your bringing wealthy golfers to their club and how it will lead to increased pro shop sales and increased revenues. You should offer to play at "dead hours" of the day like early afternoons. The assumption is that they will be impressed by your pitch and your potential to bring influential executives and money to their course. Strike two.



The golf call girl

How exactly do you 'strum' up business? It is suggested that you put an ad in local area papers given out at hotels. This strategy will help you get in touch with out-of-town executives who are in town and bored, I kid you not. Instead of turning 'tricks' like a traditional call girl, you offer to play golf with their clients. I will forgo further discussion of the scripts to use when prospective clients call in response to your ad. Imagine having a severe case of the piles and riding in a stage-coach and you can skip this "chapter" of the book.

The mystery golfer

You may have heard of the idea of a mystery shopper; someone who goes around buying products and services for companies as a way to either do market-research or test quality control. Well, the idea of a mystery golfer has apparently arrived. The book says your objective is to get onto a courses' mystery golfer list and offers methods to do so. Call me a cynic if you will, but somehow I think it unlikely that Cypress Point and Seminole use mystery golfers to check their quality.



Alas, there is no silver bullet for my quest. I will return to my tried and true methods of getting on to the courses. As for my buying the book, what was it that P.T. Barnum said about suckers?

Durban Country Club - Golf in the Zulu Kingdom

Looking back from the 2nd green at Durban Country Club

I have found the ideal antidote to having your in-laws over for the holidays. A golf trip to the southern hemisphere works wonders for both parties. In what can only be described as an ideal situation I was able to go to South Africa while my in-laws were staying at my house.

Travel to South Africa

I have previously written that getting to Royal Dornoch and Sand Hills was difficult. Well, my latest experience, golf in sub-Saharan Africa, takes the travel experience to an unprecedented level. The Durban Country Club (ranked #70 in the world) is located in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. This area of South Africa, now called The Zulu Kingdom, formerly known as The Zululand, took me more than 24 hours to get to once I left my house. I took back to back red-eyes with a change of planes in London. I arrived in Gatwick, then took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, took one of the world's great remaining institutions, the London taxi, to Paddington Station for the trip to Heathrow. As you already know I love all things British. I opted for British Airways instead of a direct flight from New York because I was told that the plane stops in West Africa and can be a bit dicey, plus this itinerary allowed me to bypass Johannesburg in favor of Cape Town. Also, the direct route is eighteen straight hours, and stopping in London allowed me to break the trip up a bit, although terminal four at Heathrow is a poorly designed corrugated-tin disaster.

I also forgot how much better a wide-body jet is than a narrow-body. I fly a lot on 737s and regional jets and it was nice to have a two-tiered 747 with a more open feeling. Our flight flew over the continent of Africa all night and there can't be a much better view from the air than approaching Cape Town with the sun rising on a new day. You get a full panoramic view of the ocean, the city and Tabletop Mountain behind the city, which is both larger than it looks in pictures and closer to the city and water. It is a soul-stirring scene.

Cape Town - worth the long flight

Durban

Finally, a two hour flight to Durban on South African Airways and I was there. Durban is Africa's largest and busiest port city and also is a beach resort that reminded me of a cross between Miami and Mumbai. Picture it as 1950s South Beach with saris instead of bikinis and you get the idea. A sub-tropical city, Durban grew rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when its main industry, sugar cane, was booming. Many laborers from India were imported to South Africa during this period as indentured servants. Remnants of this historical period remain within the fabric of Durban today. The city still has a very large Indian population, the largest Indian population center outside of India. The city remains a major working port and is still a center for sugar. As you drive in from the airport the road is lined with warehouses, sugar processing plants and grain elevators. Durban is a much different city than the more polished and cosmopolitan Cape Town.

Durban Country Club

Durban Country Club has several unique aspects among the top 100 golf courses in the world. It is the only course on the Indian Ocean, the only on the continent of Africa and the course located closest to the Tropic of Capricorn. The course is located ten minutes from the city center between a rugby stadium and the Indian Ocean. The Durban Country Club was shaped from the bush and dunes of the KwaZulu-Natal coast during the early 1920s by a local golf professional George Waterman and Laurie Waters. Colonel S.V. Hotchkin who also worked extensively on one of my favorite courses in England, Woodhall Spa, made changes to Durban in 1928 and these are evident when you play this gem of a course. Additional changes were made by Bob Grimsdell in 1959.

In vestiges of its British colonial heritage, local rules at Durban indicate what to do should balls inadvertently come to rest on one of the two grass bowling greens.

The Golf Course

I liked Durban Country Club as a golf course, although it does not have 18 strong holes. It has a particularly strong start, especially the first five holes that are narrow, hilly holes that play in the bush. The middle holes, 9-15 are average at best, but the course has a strong finish with the last three holes. The front nine are near the Indian Ocean and thus are more impacted by the wind. The course is not directly on the ocean; there is a busy and loud highway that runs between the course and the ocean. On the first day I played there were many windsurfers and parasailers out on the water enjoying the strong wind, which usually isn't a good sign for golf, but it turned out ok. The back nine is away from the water and not as impacted by the wind. The massive Durban Stadium towers over a couple of holes on the back nine.

So how is it that a course with seven average holes wedged between two concrete structures is ranked in the world's top 100? The answer is because the good holes are so good that they more than compensate for the weak holes. Plus, the attraction of playing in the bush really makes it unique.

Rough/bush at Durban Country Club 1st hole

One of the defining characteristics of Durban Country Club are the massive undulations in the fairways, especially the 5th, 8th and 17th. The course was built on sand dunes and they are large and interesting. At Durban, you don't have trouble in the traditional sense we find it in the U.S. or British Isles. Off many of the fairways is thick sub-tropical vegetation. This bush is pretty much unplayable if your ball goes in it.

View from the second tee box

The par five third hole is one of the best in the world I have had the privilege to play. It has a high elevated tee with a view of the Indian Ocean. You hit down a narrow valley surrounded on both sides by thick bush. When you are down in the fairway you can't hear any external noise, including the ocean or the highway. You can hear the wildlife and birds chirping away, though. I saw several exotic birds, including the brilliant black and red scarlet-chested sunbirds flying back and forth between the trees on this hole. This hole and its environs are a miniature bird sanctuary. The wildlife here is so rich that the Country Club allows visiting bird watchers to tour the course when they want.

Once you putt out from the elevated green on this hole you walk through a path in the bush to climb to the next tee box. This same scene is repeated on the next tee to green walk as well.

Durban's world class third hole - Par 5 in the bush

Durban is a shot makers course that you have to think your way around. My caddie didn't hand me a driver until the 8th tee due to the narrowness of the opening holes.

The 8th hole is a very good par five that requires a long and straight drive. The hole then turns sharply to the left and the approach to the green is uphill and to the right. The beauty of the hole is that unless you are on the far right side of the hole, you have no shot at the green. After your drive, the hole requires back-to-back well struck short iron shots over two large dunes to an elevated green.

12th hole par 3 - "Prince of Wales" hole

There is a half-way house with seating between the 9th and 10th tees. The custom at Durban is to stop at the halfway house and have some beverages and food, which every group did both days I was there. Since you are in the tropics, the need to cool down and take a break from the heat and humidity trumps the need to keep playing and complete a round quickly.

The 12th hole, pictured above, caused Edward, His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales to card a 16. In return, for posting his score honestly, he was rewarded with his name on the hole in infamy.

While playing the 16th hole, I experienced a uniquely Durbanesque experience. I hit my tee shot into the left rough on this par four, near the bush and under a tree. As I walked over to assess my lie a monkey dropped from the tree, to look both me and the ball over. The look on his face (captured below), tells me he wasn't particularly impressed with my tee shot. He sat nearby and watched me hit my second shot fat, or as my caddy said in the local parlance, "it was a rank shot". In my defense, it is hard to concentrate with a monkey as your gallery. I ended up making a double bogey, or as it is called in South Africa a "double drop".

My gallery at Durban about to watch a "rank" shot

The 17th, pictured below, is a particularly good example of how wild and crazy the undulations are at Durban.

17th hole approach to the green

I drove the 270 yard par four 18th hole (below) with a three wood. The feat actually wasn't that impressive since the hole played downwind, which is the prevailing wind. It seems like a good risk-reward hole for match play since pulling the ball would leave you in the bush and slicing it runs the ball down a steep bank toward the practice range. Along with Prestwick and North Berwick it is among the shortest finishing holes anywhere in championship golf. Personally, I would change it to a par three and make the course a par 71. It would make one hell of a par three. The finishing hole has yielded eighteen holes-in-one according to the plaque in the clubhouse.

I was quite proud to have played the same ball at Durban for all 18 holes. I kept my ball in play with irons off many tees and did not lose any in the bush.

18th hole looking back from the green

My caddie the first day at Durban didn't wear shoes, as many of them here do not. They carry your bag around bare foot. There is also no automated ball machine at The Durban Country Club driving range. On the narrow range, you hit balls and a caddie stands in the range and picks up and cleans each ball as you hit them. Durban is a unique golf course and the course was in exceptionally good condition when I played there, especially the umgeni grass greens.

Bunkering on the 7th hole

Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum

One of the unexpected things I am finding on this quest is some of the lost stories in the history of golf that I have stumbled across. Sewsunker Sewgolum, whose nickname was Papwa, is one of them. In 1963, Sewsunker, a 5-foot-4-inch, 150 pound caddie and self-taught golfer of Indian descent became the first non-white to compete in a white only tournament in South Africa, the Natal Open, played at the Durban Country Club. He had the temerity to actually win the tournament, beating a field of 113 white golfers. During the awards ceremony, Sewsunker was presented the trophy in the pouring rain while the white club membership was snug inside the clubhouse watching in dry splendor. The white runners-up were awarded their prizes in the clubhouse. Sewsunker played and won under great adversity. He took his meals during the tournament with the black caddies and had to change his clothes in a car. The South African Broadcasting Corporation, which was government owned at the time, cancelled coverage of the tournament once Papwa entered and did not report the results on its news program. All this occurred at the height of the apartheid period in South African history. When the picture showing Sewsunker receiving the trophy in the rain (image below) was shown around the world it caused an outrage and put pressure on the South African government to change its apartheid policies.

The Durban Country Club's 1982 club history includes a comical explanation of why he was slighted - The laws of the day were such that Indian people were not allowed inside the clubhouse. An infraction of those laws could have resulted in the club losing its liquor license and being closed down. They also state that if they had moved the ceremony inside Sewsunker's fans wouldn't have been able to see him receive the trophy. To quote, "It certainly was not a slight to Papwa - rather one of consideration to enable his fans to see him in his moment of victory." I don't know, does that sound like consideration to you?

In 1965, in the same tournament, Sewsunker played again and won, beating Gary Player, who won the US Open in that same year. Unfortunately his success was short lived - the following year he was banned from all local tournaments and the apartheid government withdrew his passport, preventing him from playing internationally. He could not even enter courses as a spectator. Prior to banning him, Sewsunker played in the South African PGA tournament while two Government agents followed him around the course to make sure that segregation laws were enforced. Under the laws at the time, non-whites could play only among themselves before spectators who were also non-white. The crowds at the tournament were segregated. During this period, security police regularly followed him around and harassed and threatened him frequently. He had to apply for permits to play in white tournaments and sometimes they were granted but often times they were not.

In another highly offense remark in the club history they say, "Sadly, brilliant golfer that he was, Papwa seemed to lack the determination and discipline to remain at the top." What an absolutely disgraceful statement. Ban the poor guy from playing and then say he lacked the will to play?

Prior to the ban, Sewsunker competed internationally with great success. While he was not caddying, Sewgolum worked in an Oil of Olay factory putting the tops onto filled bottles. He was befriended by the founder and owner of Oil of Olay who took him to Europe to play. Prior to his going on the first trip in 1959, however, they had to teach him how to write his name so that he could sign his scorecards, since he was illiterate. They also had to teach him how to use a knife and fork since previously he had only eaten with his hands. Before he was banned, Sewgolum won the Dutch Open championship in 1959, 1960 & 1963. He played in the British Open Championship a handful of times including at Muirfield in 1959 and Royal Lytham in 1963, where he made the cut. He shot 71 in the first round, the same as Jack Nicklaus. Through 36 holes he was tied with Gary Player and two strokes ahead of Arnold Palmer.

What makes Sewsunker's story even more amazing is that he played the game with a back-handed grip, hands positioned the opposite way to the traditional grip. The unorthodox grip is now known as the Sewsunker grip - named after Sewgolum because he used it with such success. Imagine for a minute a back-handed grip or kack-handed grip as it is also sometimes called. How is it even possible? The game is hard enough, could you imagine holding the club wrong, with your left hand beneath your right?

There are those that would prefer we only recount the great history of the game and let incidents like this fade away, but I think stories like these are worth re-telling. I offer no apologies to those that think I am besmirching golf and its reputation. Unfortunately, golf has had a history of excluding people of race, and while not a proud chapter at many of the country clubs on the top 100 list, it is a chapter none-the-less. Stories like this also remind me that what golfers like Lee Elder and Tiger Woods have been able to accomplish are all the more impressive given the history of segregation and apartheid.

To their credit, The Durban Country Club recently honored Sewgolum, creating a memorial plaque in honor of him, unveiled in 2005. Club Chairman Ray Lalouette described the 1963 Natal Open awards ceremony as, "an ignominious debacle that must have been the source of much embarrassment and humiliation for a fellow human being at a time when he should have been experiencing joby and jubilation."

"No matter what the background, or the rules of the land, it must have been an experience that caused hurt and shame for him and his family."

"It is therefore fitting and appropriate that I, as the current chairman, take this opportunity on behalf of the members of The Durban Country Club, to apologize to Mrs Suminthra Sewgolum and to Mr Sewgolum's Son, Rajen, and his family for the suffering you have endured as a result of that most unfortunate incident."

"We have commissioned this plaque to serve as a permanent reminder to all those (and especially golfers) who walk this way, that 'Papwa' Sewgolum was a remarkable man."

Remarkable indeed. Good recovery on the part of Durban Country Club, in my view.

South Africa

In a sign of full progress, I played on the first day at Durban with an Indian member who was proud to show off his course and he was a delight. He bought me several beers afterward and even drove me back to the Royal Hotel where I was staying. If your travels ever take you to this fascinating continent, I recommend visiting Durban Country Club, to experience this unique golf course and to honor the memory of Papwa Sewgolum.

Although a former British colony and Western by many standards, Durban at times feels very African. There are lots of white mini-vans plying up and down the streets with music blaring and each is packed with people. Designed to carry at most ten people, they usually had about twenty people packed in. They stop every few blocks and serve as local taxis. They make the city chaotic since they seem to stop and start at will. There are also still vestiges of apartheid present - blacks and whites still don't mingle and there are strong undertones present; wherever you go you notice race. An afrikaner cab driver I had was ranting against the ANC, now the ruling party, about how they have ruined the country. On the other side, my caddie praised the ANC for restoring equality and moving the country in the right direction.

The rugby stadium from the back nine

Several people including the hotel staff and members of the club told me to be careful, that parts of the city are quite dangerous. At times, it was a bit uncomfortable, but honestly, no more so than in certain parts of Los Angeles, New York or Miami. I did note that parts of the golf course were discretely surrounded by barbed wire around the perimeter. Parts of Durban are seedy and raffish, but it's the real world my friends. It helps me to broaden my perspective to get outside my comfort zone every now and again and visit cities such as Durban.

Playing at Durban is something I will never forget. Playing the world's top courses sometimes gives you a myopic view of the world since you get to visit some of the world's most beautiful and premier locations. In an eye-opening experience, on the drive from Cape Town airport to the city center, you drive past the second largest "township" in South Africa after Soweto. The tiny, hand-made shacks that make up the township look unfit for human habitation. Their scale and magnitude is hard to take in, they go on for miles and are tightly clustered in a very high density. South Africa is a land of extremes that is hard to convey in words or pictures; the extreme beauty juxtaposed with the crushing povery. The great wealth and natural resources opposite such large scale suffering.

A Strong Finish

During my trip I never quite figured out the local currency, the South African rand. The exchange rate is obscenely good, however. I ate breakfast for US$2 and the golf was only US$60 including rental clubs. A very good bottle of wine at a vineyard in South Africa is US$10.

Like Ben Crenshaw at the 1999 Ryder Cup, I am a believer in fate. In what I take as a good omen for my quest, I bumped into Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu coming out of the lavatory on my flight back from Cape Town to London. Although my hair was sticking straight up after ten hours in a coach seat, he gave me a big smile and a friendly hello.

By the way, my little in-law experiment worked out so well that I'm already planning another trip to the Southern Hemisphere for the next holiday season, this time perhaps a trip down under to play in Tasmania?