https://golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/feature-interview-with-harry-ward/Family golf is special and so it is quite the treat to roll out the third Feature Interview from the Wards in Scotland. Sadly, this time we are without Alfie who passed away in February 2018. Thankfully, his brother Harry carries the Ward family torch high and proud and, as always, gobs can be be learned by reading what a Ward writes.
As you may recall, the Ward brothers authored the Biggar Club's centenary book in 1995. I still smile at Alfie's line that
'London's big but Biggar's Biggar'. 😊 In the course of researching the centenary of Biggar, Harry became adept at sniffing out information from old newspapers and periodicals about course openings and golf events. As he delved deeper and deeper, he was shocked to discover that 15 courses had been abandoned within a 30 mile radius of his home in Lanarkshire. This revelation started the ball rolling and he expanded his search to all of Scotland. As he was doing that, Alfie and Harry resuscitated Arbory Brae, an abandoned Willie Fernie course. Its reincarnation provided them and their patrons the opportunity to experience the game as it was played ~130 years ago.
By 2016, Harry had amassed thousands of files and uncovered over 800 (!) courses that had been abandoned in Scotland. That’s akin to 800 courses disappearing in a state the size of South Carolina!
The mind bogles. He determined that this wealth of fresh information should be in the public domain and a few months ago released a book,
Forgotten Greens, the subject of our interview.
It is nothing short of a history lesson on how golf became the pastime of Scotland and you can purchase it from Amazon UK via his website,
www.forgottengreens.com, by clicking on the book cover on the home page. Harry traces how golf originated on linksland where the animals kept the grass on the sandy machar short enough to enjoy the game. Ultimately, golf moved inland where it could be a part of people's daily lives. Crucial to that progression included the advent of machines that (gasp!) could cut grass in the mid-1800s and the expansion of the Scottish rail system. Scores of courses opened but ultimately failed and Harry details the factors that led to the demise of 500 courses, including the horrible toll WWI imparted on thousands and thousands of Scots.
Reading his book, I made my customary mistake of doing so through the prism of golf course architecture. This isn't an architecture book per se, this is bigger and more encompassing: it is about the evolution of the game itself. In 1880, the ordinary course of events did not place a man in a pasture, mulling over where to put a central bunker that played off an angled green. He was simply laying out holes over land replete with whins, walls, humps, bumps, etc. - what Harry calls obstacles to be avoided.
Studying the rise and fall of our playing fields is integral to understanding what does and doesn't work for our sport. If
Forgotten Greens generates enough interest, Harry will pursue the documentation of another 300+ lost courses that he has already uncovered; it is a never-ending process - he found three more in the past month!
No one else (as far as I know) is pursuing this and I hope we can all help him in this worthwhile and noble endeavor. Without doubt, it is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is the game of golf.
Hope you enjoy this month's Feature Interview and a special thanks to Tony Muldoon who alerted me in January of the imminent arrival of
Forgotten Greens.
Best,