FEATURES

The Shark: survival instinct

alt Two years is a long time in the life of Greg Norman. Richard Gillis last sat down to interview him for Golf International – in South Africa, in the spring of 2008 – he’d just stepped off his private jet, GN1, accompanied by his then fiancé Chris Evert. During that interview, Evert showed off her sparkling new diamond ring and the couple announced that they were to be married.

The Making of an Icon

alt It is one of the iconic images of golf – the moment Seve Ballesteros won the 1984 Open at St Andrews from his great rival, Tom Watson, yesterday’s man who became last year’s unlikely hero. Robert Green looks back in time.

Cruel in the Sun

alt It is impossible to look ahead to this year’s Open at St Andrews without stopping to reflect on the sensational events of 12 months ago at Turnberry. Six weeks shy of his 60th birthday, one of golf’s true champions was poised to eclipse his finest hour 32 years earlier on the same course. Alas, it was not meant to be, but what a show he put on!

THE OLD COURSE, St Andrews

alt Steve North, Director of St Andrews Links Golf Academy, takes you on a tour of the layout and identifies the key holes that will decide the 150th Open. With Michael Flannery and photography by David Cannon gettyimages.com

Introduction

ABOUT GOLF HISTORIES : BY MICHAEL FLANNERY

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865

History Part I

WAS SCOTLAND THE BIRTHPLACE OF GOLF? BY MICHAEL FLANNERY

EARLY DAYS, FROM ABOUT 1100 TO 1460

Item. It is ordanyt and decreyt… (th)at ye fut bawe and ye golf be Utterly.... cryt done and not usyt

History Part II

FRANCE, THE BIRTHPLACE OF NOBLE BALL GAMES
SOCIETY, SHEPHERDS AND SPORTS - CA. 1250-1480 : BY MICHAEL FLANNERY

Background: In Part I, Was Scotland the Birthplace of Golf, we saw that the famous 1457 edict by King James II, had nothing to do with golf but was, instead....

History Part III

alt JEU DE MAIL - THE GENESIS OF GOLF : BY MICHAEL FLANNERY

‘At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale maille, whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness warning him to stand farther off, the prince...

History Part IV

alt GOLF 1480-1625. THE FINISHING SCHOOLS
FRANCE, ITALY, FLANDERS AND THE NETHERLANDS

About 1470, visual evidence of the early golf-like sport, pallemail, ceases. However, in a most satisfying, amoeba-like fission, two ball games emerged to fill its shoes.

History Part V

alt EARLY GOLF IN SCOTLAND THE DUTCH CONNECTION A PHRASEBOOK, PAINTINGS AND A POEM REVEAL THE SECRET OF EARLY SCOTTISH GOLF

Early Scottish golf history is virtually non-existent – a historical haggis made up of scraps from letters, laws, accounts and diaries; a series of documentary nods and winks that leaves the reader to interpret whether it really was golf...