The Golfers
By: Charles Lees (1800-1880)
Painted 1847
Oil on Canvas
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
From the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh:
This large painting shows a match being played on the Old Course at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews. The centre of everybody's attention is a decisive moment in a match between Sir David Baird and Sir Ralph Anstruther against Major Hugh Lyon Playfair and John Campbell of Glen Saddel. Lee carefully composed this complex scene, which includes over fifty individual portraits, using photographs of some of the golfers to help him.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tiger Woods was trying to make a come-back at The Players Championship at Sawgrass, Florida. While watching some of the news footage, I realized what how beautiful golf courses are. There is a refined cultivation of the elements - sea, woods, and of course hilly meadows (or lawns), which the golfers and spectators enjoy. It is still a wonder that Woods has stayed so long in the sport. He cannot enjoy it much. He is into showdowns and public scenes. This last tournament was no exception.
Tiger Woods at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Does Woods even enjoy the intricacies of golf? Or is it just some testosterone inducing walloping of a ball with a stick? Golf is the gentleman's game par excellence. A quiet, unperturbed demeanor is part of it [See article below: Etiquette of Golf - A Gentleman’s Game].
At the same time, golf's aesthetics go beyond the style of the game. The surrounding course is as important as the game itself. Elaborate landscapes are designed from grass, trees, water and rock, to create miles of terrain.
All sport is grueling and competitive, but it also needs an element of beauty, like the smooth and strong strokes of the racket by a tennis player, or the leap of a save of a goal keeper in soccer. Even football can be beautiful, as I wrote here (although we would be hard pressed to find that now). Golf is no less competitive, and requires as well-prepared an athlete as any. But there must be something that lifts the spirit of athletes when they participate surrounded by environments of superior aesthetic design.
Below are photos of golf courses from the Pebble Beach, California resorts:
Del Monte Golf Course
Pebble Beach Golf Course
Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Spanish Bay Golf Course
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Etiquette of Golf - A Gentleman’s Game
Tom Swanston
January 11, 2013
A Perfect Gentleman
Throughout its history, golf has retained a few basic tenets. Without referees, golf requires players to be self-governing. Even the top professionals govern themselves unless they need advice on a ruling, in which case they can call for a marshal or rules official.
The rules of golf are inextricably linked to the game’s etiquette. Each player must show consideration for the game, the course, and other players. Those who do not abide by these unwritten rules, often find themselves shunned and unable to find a game, with no other golfers willing to play with them. Being brandished as a cheat can tarnish a player’s reputation for his entire career.
Goldfinger, the infamous Bond villain, is the perfect example of a man who knows and understands the rules and etiquette of golf, but is willing to bend and break these in any way that will help him to win. Winning by any and all means is the antithesis of what it means to be a true golfer.
Let’s take a closer look at the infamous Bond scene, filmed at Stoke Park Golf Club (named Stoke Poges at the time of filming). Bond makes the first faux pas when he stands too close to Goldfinger as he is putting. He compounds this by asking Goldfinger a question as he is about to make the putt. Players should be given ample room to make their shot and their fellow players should remain quiet before and throughout the stroke. But Goldfinger returns the favour on the next tee, by asking Bond a question just as he reaches the top of his back swing.
When Goldfinger loses his ball in the rough he blatantly breaks the rules by placing another ball down and pretending he has found the first one.
A rule of golf is that the ball furthest from the hole should be played first. On the next green Goldfinger is due to putt (being further from the hole), but Bond politely asks if he would like him to mark or play his own ball. This is because the ball nearer the hole can be a distraction, or even directly in the way, for the player further from the hole. This is the sort of situation where the players can agree to break the rules in favour of being gentlemanly toward one another.
On the next tee, Goldfinger strides up to play his shot, but Bond’s caddy exclaims: “It’s your honour, sir!” The player who won the previous hole should play first on the next hole i.e. it is his ‘honour’. Goldfinger is playing out of turn. However, the rules state that there is no automatic penalty for playing out of turn, unless the opposing player wishes to impose one, in which case he can ask the other player to replay the shot. Bond choses not to do this. This is a classic example of how the rules and etiquette merge, and it is left to the discretion of the players to implement as they see fit.
The rules of golf, as stipulated by the Royal & Ancient Golf Society and the US Golf Association, are fairly hefty tomes, and only appointed rules officials need know them all by heart. However, one of the joys of the game is that, if you play it in a gentlemanly manner you are more than likely to abide by the rules.
Professional golfer Brian Davis gained international favour when he had the chance to win the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but on the final hole he called a penalty on himself for a rules infringement that no one else saw and could only be seen by the cameras with an extreme close-up replayed in slow motion.
As top golfer Phil Mickleson so eloquently put it: “The object of golf is not just to win. It is to play like a Gentleman, and win.”
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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