merriment with the observation: “The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.” Years later, having received the title of Duke of Windsor upon his abdication, his former subjects were considerably less amused by his apparent friendliness toward the Nazi regime as war with Germany approached. By then, his younger brother, also known as Bertie to his relatives, had succeeded him to the Throne. George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, was also quite a keen golfer, but he had enjoyed greater success as a tennis player in his youth, having competed in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1926. On September 24, 1930, as Duke of York, he became the first R&A captain to drive into office using a steel-shafted club (steel shafts had only been declared ‘legal’ less than a year earlier). Pausing only to remove his jacket, he impressed the 2,000-strong crowd by hitting his ball about 200 yards down the fairway. Yet another son of George V—Prince George, Duke of Kent—took up the R&A captaincy in 1937, but after hitting the ground before the ball his drive barely scuttled 100 yards. “In his eagerness he dropped his right shoulder,” was the euphemistic verdict of the St. Andrews Citizen. He was 34 at the time and lived only five more years before being killed in an air crash while on active service. Prince Andrew, present Duke of York, plays golf all over the world
Of the nine golf clubs that currently stage the [British] Open, five have received the royal assent: Royal St. George’s, host club for this year’s [British] Open, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, next year’s venue, Royal Liverpool, where it will be held in 2014, Royal Birkdale and Royal Troon. A total of 64 clubs across the world have had British royal status conferred upon them. Of that figure, England has 19, Scotland 10, Australia eight, Canada six, Ireland five, South Africa four, Wales two and the Channel Islands two. Those that boast genuinely great courses, though, are fairly easy to identify—like Royal Montreal in Canada, venue for the 2007 Presidents Cup, and Royal Melbourne in Australia, host club for this year’s biennial match between the U.S. and the International team from November 17-20. Of the remainder, a few ‘Royal’ clubs are to be found in far-flung outposts of the British Empire where the enhanced status was in effect a reward to intrepid citizens who had left the mother country to oversee the process of colonization. Indeed, the building of golf courses was not simply an exercise in making a colony more British or, to be more precise, more Scottish. It was in many respects an extension of the courage and tenacity required to subdue a potentially hostile environment. Hence the grim determination of the founder members of Malaysia’s second oldest club, Royal Selangor in Kuala Lumpur, where the early rules stated: “You cannot ground your club in addressing the ball, or move anything, however loose or dead it may be, when you find yourself in a grave.” Part of the course had been built on an old Chinese burial ground, which naturally was treated as a hazard. The most recent clubs to be honored by the British monarchy were Marianske Lazne (formerly Marienbad) in the Czech Republic, where Edward VII was a frequent visitor for spa treatments, and Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, Canada. The concept of royalty might seem an anachronism to some, but the chances are that more clubs will be recruited in due course to this most exclusive of golfing families. And it surely cannot be long before the Royal Family’s younger generation embraces the game. Prince William would be a front runner, but what if his beloved bride takes up golf? After all, St. Andrews is in her DNA and what a great story it would be for the sport if she became the R&A’s first lady captain. Readers, however, are advised not to hold their breath on that one. Unfortunately, golf is not yet the chosen sport of the principal participants in this year’s other royal wedding—between Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and the England rugby union captain Mike Tindall—at Canongate Kirk on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh on Saturday, July 30. But the only reason for that is they have other sporting fish to fry at present—Tindall at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in the fall and Phillips in the equestrian events at next year’s Olympic Games in London. After that, it would be no surprise if one or both of these gifted sporting luminaries decided to take up this most royal and ancient of games—the king of sports!
summer
2011
kingdom
20