Golf in the 1890s – a decade that shaped the modern game

The taste for golf, especially in England, grew rapidly in the 1890s. While the sport was already popular north of the border, Victorian England was slow to catch on to its charms – but when it did, it grabbed them with both hands and held on tightly.

Between 1887 and 1914 the number of golf courses in England rose from 50 to over 1,200. There was even a novel written in 1892, Golf in the Year 2000, about a utopian (or possibly dystopian) world in which society is wholly devoted to the playing of golf. Golf fever had truly taken hold.

The way golf is played

A lot changed with the game in this decade. While a lot of golfing history is hearsay and stories, the vast amount of changes in the 1890s point to it being a key decade.

In 1890, the term bogey came into play, though it originally meant something closer to par. When discussing what the perfect score for the hypothetical golfer playing perfect golf at every hole would be, Hugh Rotherham called it a ‘Ground Score’. But the more pessimistic Dr. Thomas Brown, honorary Secretary of the Great Yarmouth Club, referred to the hypothetical man as the ‘Bogey Man’.

It was 3 years later that ‘par’ became more the more common term. It was, in fact, the Ladies Golf Association that developed the national handicapping system, which led to the creation of par for certain courses. The men's association followed suit a few years later.

And it wasn’t until 1898 that the term ‘birdie’ was coined, coming from the phrase "a bird of a hole", an American term used in Atlantic City when a player’s drive landed just inches from the hole.

During the decade, gate money was charged for the first time at a match in Cambridge. Previously, matches were paid for through private betting. This traditional still exists in Calcutta games.

Chicago Golf Club opened the country’s first 18-hole golf course in 1893, while 5 years later the first rubber-cored ball, dubbed the Haskell ball, was introduced.

Sadly, it was in 1895 that the pool cue was banned as a putter by the USGA – the game would never be the same again. 
   

The big winners

During this momentous decade, there were a number of big winners, breaking records and producing golfing firsts.

For example, in 1890, reflecting the rise in popularity of the game in England, amateur golfer John Ball became the first non-Scotsman and first amateur to win The Open Championship.

Across the pond, just before the end of the decade in 1899, the Western Open was first played. The tournament at the Glen View Club in Golf in Illinois evolved into the current PGA Tour.

Back in England, following John Ball’s success, The Open was played on an English course in 1894 for the first time. And was again won by an Englishman.

Two years later, golfing great Harry Vardon won his first British Open. He became known for his Vardon Grip, or the overlapping grip, which is still common to this day.

Professional bodies

The 1890s saw the creation of a number of the professional bodies that survive today. In 1891, The Golfing Union of Ireland became the first Golfing Union in the world.

Two years later, the Ladies' Golf Union of Great Britain and Ireland was founded and the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship was played. The Irish Ladies' Golf Union was also formed earlier in the same year and is the oldest Ladies Golf Union in the world.

In 1894, America joined the trend and formed the United States Golf Association.
  

Glenmuir is born

In 1891, Scottish businessman Andrew MacDougall opened a knitwear factory in the small village of Kirkfieldbank, near Lanark. Legend has it his first workforce consisted of 5 women, all called Mary.

Mr. MacDougall was more than just another textile maker – he invented a new power-driven machine that greatly simplified the design and manufacture of fancy golf hose.

He was also a generous and caring boss, offering his workers treatment when they were ill and making sure they knew they were valuable to the business.

The rest, as they say, is history.