[Forrest Richardson]

Both Benjamin Franklin and golfer Bobby Jones were awarded honourary degrees from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Also, three of the signatories of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence received degrees from St. Andrews.

Given Franklin's amazing desire to figure things out, one can easily envision him fascinated with golf. Why, do you suppose, is it that Franklin did not bring back golf to America — to grace our emerging country with links and clever inventions based on golf? He certainly must have done this with printing innovation, metal type and inks.

Or, is it possible we might imagine Franklin laying out a golf course sometime before 1800 in Philadelphia — only to be sidetracked by printing and kites?

[Norbert P]

Forrest, I think in his extreme wisdom he realized the futility of "figuring it out".  
   I do suspect he would be a Raynor fan, what with all the paradoxes surrounding that man's work.

  Do you know if Ben ever played golf?  Did he ever visit St. Andrews to get his Honourary Degree?  Did he ever write of it?

[Forrest Richardson]

I've never been able to determine if Franklin played golf. I did find the following account of his visits to Scotland:

Franklin traveled to Scotland twice, first in 1759 and then again in 1771.

• Franklin was highly respected by the great Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, David Hume and Lord Kames. He corresponded with them regularly and met with both on several occasions. When Franklin toured Scotland in 1771, he stayed at David Hume’s home in Edinburgh.

• Franklin received an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews in 1759.

• Franklin was honored by the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh in 1759 and elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh as an honorary fellow in 1783.

[Norbert P]

. . .  three of the signatories of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence received degrees from St. Andrews.

. . . one can easily envision (Ben) fascinated with golf.

Forrest, who were the others and did they ever write of golf or bring it to America?

 On envisioning Ben's fascination:  even if not by his scientific mind, by his sagely wit.

  Dan King!  We need a BF golf quote!

[wsmorrison]

I'll check the archives at the University of Pennsylvania (founded by Franklin and my alma mater) and the Historical Society of Pennyslvania (I am a member) to see if there's any reference to golf in any of the Franklin papers at both locations.  That would be an interesting finding.  

I checked Franklin's autobiography and two biographies I have on Franklin.  There is only a brief mention of St. Andrews in his autobiography and nothing at all on golf.  Perhaps Franklin was preoccupied with revolution, science, printing, government, hospitals, libraries, fire companies, insurance companies, education, and of course, the ladies (he set an example for another Philadelphian, Wilt Chamberlain).  I doubt he'd have much time to devote to golf.

[wsmorrison]

Some wit and wisdom from Ben Franklin


Fear not death, for the sooner we die the longer we shall be immortal.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?

A man is not completely born until he is dead.

A penny saved is a penny earned  (Poor Richard's Almanac)

Anger warms the Invention, but overheats the oven.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! , 1759

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.  From Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1746

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

Fish and visitors smell in three days.  From Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736

God heals and the Doctor takes the fee.

Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.

If you would be loved, love and be lovable

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life.

If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.

Joy is not in things! It is in us!

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.

Never confuse motion with action.

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Remember that time is money.

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

There is a difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.

Time is money.  From Advice to a Young Tradesman

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.  From Poor Richard's Almanack, 1737

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.  

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.  From Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738

You may delay, but time will not.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Forrest and I played golf once with Ben on the shores of Mungucky Bay ....Never mind!:)

[Forrest Richardson]

John Witherspoon and James Wilson are the other two mentioned by this account (I believe). However, there is also an accont, which I have previously quoted, which indicates as many as twelve signers of the American Declaration of Independence had either attended or been awarded honorary degrees by the Univ. of St. Andrews. I'm curious now to see what I can find....uhummm.

Here is an excellent account of Franklin's friends. Perhaps somewhere amongst this is a golfer:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/benjaminfranklinandhisenemies.htm

[Forrest Richardson]

Here is an interesting link -- perhaps one of you detectives might look into this:

http://www.foxburggolf.com/history.htm

[billb]

My great-great-great (or something like that) grandfather, the eminent Dr. William Brownrigg, was a colleauge of Dr. Franklin's and participated in his "oil on water" experiments:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/brownrigg_william.shtml

I know, this has nothing to do with golf, but it is still kinda cool.

Bill

[RJ_Daley]

It seems to me that it was unlikely that Benjamin Franklin tried golf in any real attempt to play the game in total.  He was 53 years old by the time he got to St Andrews.  I also heard he suffered greatly from Kidney stones which often caused him to hang himself upside down by his feet to relieve the pain, and to me that indicates a fellow that probably didn't push the envelope of such physical activity like golf would have been.  I could see him possibly watching the game as he strolled the commons area and putting around a green a wee bit as a matter of curiousity however.

Wayne, thanks for the list of quotes.  Perhaps we too often overlook what wisdom the man communicated to us.  He was really biblical in his wisdom.  I printed the list of quotes out.

[Forrest Richardson]

Has anyone followed up on Foxburg? Who knows anything about Foxburg? Did Franklin spend much time with this family?

[Forrest Richardson]

I was rather disappointed by theposts on this subject. Have none of you ever encountered the Franklin history? — Is there not one among us who has heard of this great "golf architect"?

[TEPaul]

Forrest:

If anyone was as into pornography and sexual libertarianism as BenF was there probably wasn't any time to even notice there was golf while in St Andrews.

[T_MacWood]

I can't wait for TE show us that Franklin and Jones were both in fact Englishmen. Tally ho.  

[TEPaul]

That post is another good example of both how and why you have practically no idea how to analyze otherwise interesting research material once you get your hands on it. I'm sorry to tell you that you'll have to wait, and wait, and wait. What does that have to do with this thread, with Franklin, or Jones or the America revolution in the British colonies in America? Or even to do with golf course architecture? As far as I can see it doesn't even have much to do with pornography or sexual libertarianism---although I might have to think about that nexus in a Franklin/Jones/architectural context for a while.

[Tony_Muldoon]

I've never been able to determine if Franklin played golf.

• Franklin was highly respected by the great Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, David Hume and Lord Kames. He corresponded with them regularly and met with both on several occasions. When Franklin toured Scotland in 1771, he stayed at David Hume’s home in Edinburgh.

If I had a memory I would be quite useful. Is how I started this reply and I've subsequently ammended it because I got my facts wrong.

The book title I could not remember was The memoirs of Alexander Carlyle. It reads as some kind of modern social column obseessd with who he met and how well connected he was.  He writes a lot about Adam Smith and Hume and other prominent figures of the time.

He was a golfing and sporting Reverend raised in Gulane and holidaying in Dumfries. The book is known for a celebrated game of golf played by a bunch of scotsmen on Hurst Meadows in England, in 1758.  Unfortunaltely this is where my memory played tricks and on this occasion the other real golfer in the party was a thespian called Home.

so the link to Franklin and golf is still extreemely tenous - apologies.

[TEPaul]

Forrest:

Do you think it may've been Benjamin Franklin who was really responsible for the Arts and Crafts Movement and it's extraordinary influence on all forms of art all over the world including it's primary influence on the golf architecture of the "Golden Age"?

Do you think perhaps it is Franklin that we should call the "Father" of golf architecture rather than Horace Hutchinson? Do you think rather than renaming the "Golden Age of Architecture" the "Arts and Crafts Age of Architecture" we should more accurately rename the Golden Age "Benjamin Franklin architecture"?

[Forrest Richardson]

Tom — I am thinking this is both a good idea, and also one which will lead to more interesting posts. I do expect we will hear from a few loyal GCA-ers if we try linking such important historical moments in the industrization of the world — you know, golf architecture and its early development...its great influence on mankind...its profound impact on life as we know it in this post moon-landing era.

[ForkaB]

The Bobby Jones hagiology says to the effect that Franklin was the only other American made a "Freeman of St. Andrews."  However.....in googling, I can find no reference to this.  Franklin did get an honorary doctorate from the University in 1759, but that is a very different kettle of gutta percha that being made a "Freeman" of the town (as Jack Nicklaus will know....).

Historians out there.....was Franklin made a "Freeman," and if so for what?  His degree, I think, was for his contributions to mathematics and science.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

breaking news...

Ben Franklin's golf archives have just been been found in a barn near Quakertown, PA and reveal that he, not Donald Ross, was the original architect of the venerable Gulph Mills Golf Club. Tune in The Golf Channel tonight for more on this story...

[TEPaul]

"The Bobby Jones hagiology says to the effect that Franklin was the only other American made a "Freeman of St. Andrews."  However.....in googling, I can find no reference to this.  Franklin did get an honorary doctorate from the University in 1759, but that is a very different kettle of gutta percha that being made a "Freeman" of the town (as Jack Nicklaus will know....).
Historians out there.....was Franklin made a "Freeman," and if so for what?  His degree, I think, was for his contributions to mathematics and science."

Richard:

I'm not sure what the big difference is between getting an honorary doctorate from the Univeristy or being made a "Freeman" of the town but you have to understand something quite fundamental about Benjamin Franklin, and that is he was an extremely practical man!! What I'm trying to tell you is Benjie wouldn't have cared a whit what they gave him or made him as long as it got him laid! And during the few days he stayed with Hume in St Andrews if playing a round of golf or even designing a golf course would've gotten him laid there is no question whatsoever he did both.

[Forrest Richardson]

But, at the same time?

[Mike_Cirba]

But, at the same time?

Yes, I believe that's where his quote "A stitch in time saves nine" comes from.  

[Forrest Richardson]

He must have played the out course, stopping for some ginger beer. Thankfully he did not play the course in reverse...or did he?

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()