Golf from The Times

[Paul_Turner]

Buy it! This a great Darwin book.  His rarest, apparently, and recently republished by Daniel Wexler's efforts.  

Can't wait for Darwin's "Golf Courses of Great Britain" (1925) to be reprinted next year.  It's different from "Golf Courses of the British Isles" (1908?) and sheds a lot of light on the "Golden Age" courses and architects.

Interestingly, I recently read an article that was criticising the "cult of the golden age architect".  One of the arguments was that Darwin never refers to architects in his first book 1908(?) book.  This is true, but there's a marked difference in the 1925 update and it shows the impact that those guys were making during that important period of about 1910-1925.

[TEPaul]

Paul:

I'm reading it right now. That Darwin deals with and tells some neat stuff in that collection. It's just too bad the unfortunate guy had such a poor style of writing though!  

Obviously he either didn't know or wasn't particularly influenced by the great Max B!  

[TEPaul]

Paul:

Just look at that photo on the cover of Bernard swinging a club. He looks sort of effeminate and bookish or accountant-like to me. Do you think he hung around that other English accountant-like n'er do well Harry Shapland Colt too much?

What do you think would've happened if Bernard Darwin and Harry Colt and Devereaux Emmet ever collaborated on a golf course? Wow, what a mess that would've been! You want to talk about some of the world's best delicate and frilly and prissy looking bunkering---those three together could've created some of that stuff that would've been simply amaaaaaaziiiiiing!

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

It's hilarious in places.  Take his description of the road hazards, the crowds at Blackheath and his colourful description of a ball "last seen bounding playfully away down a hard, high road in the direction of some neighboroughing suburb".  Today, I reckon the only place where you can conjour up  similar feelings is at our beloved Painswick!

[TEPaul]

You're right---Bernard Darwin's writing was simply "the best"!

[TEPaul]

Paul:

As far as humour in golf writing though I don't think Bernard could hit it into the same zip code as P.G Wodehouse! I was reading that to my wife the other day and got her laughing which is a near impossiblity on the subject of anything to do with golf.