Golf Classic Goes Online for First Time
A classic 19th-century golf book provides a rare and wry look at the state of the sport when Victoria still sat on Britain's throne and Scotland's national sport was spreading throughout the Empire. The book has been published online for the first time, where it may be read for free.
(PRWEB) July 29, 2005 -- On the Isle of Guernsey, little girl caddies will
spit on the ground to exorcise any demons from your golf ball and make the sign
of the cross over the lie of your putt.
The barefoot caddies of Cairo,
though, take a more direct approach to assisting golfers. With a curl of their
toe, they will pick up your badly lying ball and place it in a more advantageous
spot.
At least that's how things were more than a century ago, when avid
golfer J. McCullough wrote, “Golf. Containing Practical Hints, with Rules of the
Game.” The book is a rare glimpse into the state of golf when Queen Victoria
still sat on Britain's throne and the popularity of Scotland's national game was
spreading throughout the Empire.
Now, McCullough's wry little book has
been published online for the first time.
When “Golf” first saw print, in
1899, the sport had only recently entered general public awareness, although it
had been around for at least a couple of hundred years. As McCullough tells it:
“It is only about fifteen years ago that any man traveling in England
with golf clubs among his luggage was an object of no common interest and even
of some suspicion to his fellow-travelers, and when they had made enquiry and
ascertained the strange purpose of the leather-handled and heavy-headed sticks,
they still regarded him as an amiable lunatic whose amiability was more
questionable than his lunacy.
“Today—that is, fifteen years later—more
golf is played than any other game.”
Although “Golf” is definitely dated,
modern fans of the sport can appreciate McCullough's good humor when he expounds
on the everlasting human foibles, as they express themselves out on the links.
Those fans can read the entire text of this classic, for free, at http://www.golf-in-the-year-2000.com/Golfhints/.
McCullough
may be better known, under the pseudonym “J.A.C.K.,” for one of the oddest
little books ever written, “Golf in the Year 2000; or, What We Are Coming To.” A
bit of Victorian science fiction, published in 1892, it predicted bullet trains,
television, digital watches, driverless golf caddies and women's
liberation.
“Golf in the Year 2000” is also available to read for free,
at http://www.golf-in-the-year-2000.com/golf2000/.
Oh, and
as to the relative merits of caddying styles in Guernsey and Egypt: McCullough
simply observes that, “Faith works wonders, but on the whole the Egyptian method
is more to be relied on.”
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb266318.htm