The Parable of the Peregrine Purist

[ForkaB]

Dr. Watson was blissfully unaware of the fact that Holmes was a keen golfer, but in fact he was the perennial winner of the Criminalist's Quaich and taught Gunga Din how to play golf at the latter's home whilst recovering from his near death experience with Dr.Moriarty at Reichenbach falls in 1893.

Holmes returned to England following his visit to Vermont and shortly thereafter founded Hindhead Golf Club in Surrey whose enduring quality today is evidenced by the fact that it is an Open qualifying course.  Little is known about the architectural heritage of Hindhead, but it is known that Din's home was built in the Arts and Crafts style, and there are more than a few who think that this linkage proves that it was Holmes and not Horace Hutchinson who ushered in the Golden Age of golf......

[T_MacWood]

Rich
Funny you should bring up Conan Doyle. He was a member of Crowborough Beacon...his home Windlesham was nearby. The course was original laid out in 1895, and I've not been able to figure out who designed it. I suspect Hutchinson had something to do with it--he lived nearby at Ashdown Forest and was also associated with the club. Hutchinson wrote a book on Crowborough Beacon Golf Club...perhaps the answer is in that book.

Conan Doyle was the captain for period at Crowborough Beacon and at that time invited Colt to inspect the course. I believe the course today is largely Colt's.


Conan Doyle relaxing at Windlesham. Note the Voysey chair and the Inglenook...very Arts and Craftsy.

Conan Doyle's good buddy Rudyard Kipling played at Crowborough on occasion as well, but he lived at Burwash, and played most of his golf at Eastbourne (also laid out by Hutchinson). Kiplings aunt was married to Edward Burne-Jones, and he used to run with that crowd

Kipling also had a home in Vermont--Naulakha. I believe his wife was an American. It was (and still is) a rugged shingle and stone lodge. It also had a nine hole golf course...I can't remember if Kipling laid it out or someone else. Conan Doyle visited Kipling in Vermont.

[ForkaB]

Tom

Of course, "Gunga Din" was Kipling and "Holmes" Conan Doyle in my "parable."  ACD taught Kipling how to play golf in his visit to Naulakha.  Later on one or the both of them invented "snow golf" using red balls.

In Kipling's description of those times (1893-4) he made the observation to the effect that golf was essentially "unknown" in America at that time. So.....

.....Pat Mucci is right and you and the evil Moriarty are wrong, if you beleive ACD.  Surely he had more stature and credibility than Horace Hutchinson.....

....of course, I also suspect that Pat actually taught ACD how to play golf "around" the turn of the century, as he is the only one on this board old enough to have done so, so he was probably responsible for the A&C movement, too, well before his hiring of Knute Rockne to coach Notre Dame.