I have heard from Moira, Alfie’s partner, that sadly he had passed away in February. I’ve been blessed to meet many interesting people through Golf, but none more interesting than Alfie.
I first became aware of Alfie from his posting on here and gradually his remarkable story was revealed.
Alfie lived his golf dream, bringing back the golden days of golf for his local community. Sadly, the golfing gods would not smooth his way and fate dealt him many extraordinary blows and he had to walk away from all his backbreaking work. It is a measure of his character that he wouldn’t declare bankruptcy as it would have hurt people who had supplied him in good faith and that he took it all so stoically. Arbory Brae was in the past when I met him but he retained his humour and enthusiasm for Hickory Golf despite the slings and arrows that had headed his way.
Rans introduction to his feature interview.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57726.msg1349642.html#msg1349642The interview
http://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/feature-interview-with-alfie-ward-october-2005/ The next summer I was in Scotland and we agreed to meet at Musselburgh Old. On the day we met a race meeting was to take place that evening. We were given permission to play one round. But of course Alfie’s enthusiasm meant we were having a ball playing the Hickories he’d brought and we started on our second round. Several stewards were dispatched to remove us as apparently the stands were filling, and we were amusing the early arrivers. Alfie said it reminded him of sneaking on the course as a kid. Happy days. I believe it was my introduction to Hickory Golf. Alfie brought everything and of course wouldn’t take anything for it.
After a few holes he said time to make it more interesting and he produced a gutta percha he’d made and encouraged me to play a hole with it. It hardly rose above the ground but on that fine turf it ran and ran. The sound was louder than a modern ball. After I’d expressed my gratitude he topped that experience by pulling out a featherie! If you read the links you’ll discover that one of the villagers had been so interested in Alfie’s project that, despite never having played, he decided to see if he could make a featherie and the result was teed up on a lump of sand in front of me. It was hard to persuade myself to hit it, but Alfie was adamant I should. This wasn’t a museum piece but a ball – just hit it!. It made a much higher pitched 'click' and if possible flew even lower, but it was a joy to play a running pitch with.
It wasn’t just me that he had this effect on. As far as I know he only met Archie Baird once. He went to visit him at his museum and told Archie about his plans. At the end of the meeting Archie said if you’re serious about making balls you’ll need one of these and handed Alfie an original mold. “Return it when you’re finished with it, I’m off to play golf.” I’ve since handled the mold, now back at the museum.
Alfie then discovered that Gutta Percha is still being used for some medical equipment and he tracked down a supplier in Switzerland. I still have one of those balls that he gave me. I also have spare copies of the Arbory Brae scorecard that I’d be happy to share with collectors (IM me).
The following spring a no of GCA’s finest were heading to St Andrews to play the old course in reverse. The day before Tom Doak invited us to have a look round his latest course, The Renaissance Club, just after seeding. That Morning we gathered at Musselburgh and Alfie and his son brought sufficient Hickories, sand for the tees, cakes and a wee dram to start us all off. Alfie surprised us all by wearing a curate’s outfit, it was part of the story he wanted to tell. It was a great success. Sadly, the photos are missing.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,28615.msg551216.html#msg551216If anyone has a photo form that day at Musselburgh I’ll be very grateful.
Skip forward a few years to my last meeting with Alfie. We had a match at North Berwick against Ian Dickson and his friend Dick. Alfie had once played off single figures and this may well have been his only 18 holes in a decade, but he hadn’t lost it and happy to say the good guys triumphed. Subsequent invitations were turned down as he was working hard to re-establish his life. Sadly, we agreed we’d meet again as soon as time allowed the opportunity.
Alfie wrote a piece on Arbory Brae for the My Home Couse section.
http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/arbory-brae/ Also he wrote a book about the experience. He’d be the first to admit he was no literary giant, but I treasure it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0792M2D2B/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Alfie’s experiment lives on. Peter McEvoy spoke to Alfie at length about the Arbory Brae experiment and it’s no coincidence that shortly afterwards Kingarrock was set up as a Hickory course in Fife. Was Alfie put out? Not a bit, he was delighted to see it happen.
Alfie left us in the month that the authorities announced that something needed to be done about the ball. Somewhere Alfie is shaking his head and laughing.