Golf through the lens of old traditions

Sir Winston Churchill is probably one of the most influential Prime Ministers in British history.

He belonged to an era when it was proper for a man to wear a bowler hat when walking out of his home.

Sir Winston Churchill honoured Thika Sports Club by giving his approval for them to use his name on a cup that was going to be contested back in 1949.

The format of the competition was 36 holes’ medal competition off scratch.

Thika Sports Club was at the time a nine-hole golf course and they had to limit the number of entries to avoid congestion.

This competition has been played every year from then.

Thika Sports Club will this weekend continue the tradition by hosting the 69th Winston Churchill Cup tournament.

The Golf Captain and his competition committee have gone through the conditions of play, re looked the local rules and ensured that everything is done properly in as far as the competition is concerned.

Unfortunately, doing things properly and bowler hats have one thing in common — they are seen as old fashioned. According to the modern-day golfer, these are things that belong to the era of Sir Winston Churchill.

To borrow the words that were made famous by a local politician, the gentlemen of Sir Winston Churchill’s era “would rather have died than resigned” from doing the right thing.

They stood when a lady walked into the room. They always tucked in their shirts. They kept time. They tipped their caps or hats when shaking hands with their mates.

The game of golf owes its allure to certain traditions that have been kept over time.

The harmony of the old traditions is however being interrupted by a cacophony of bad manners.

We seem to be trying very hard to come up with many ways to vanquish traditions that were once held dear.

FIVE BALLS

Traditionally, golf has been played in groups of twos, threes or fours. In top competitions however, committees will have two or three golfers in a group.

This is very practical and allows for a reasonable pace of play. Today, it is not uncommon to see groups of five or six golfers out on the course. This is borne of our insatiable desire for Kamare (wagers).

These golfers will typically not want to break up into smaller groups in order to “keep an eye” on their opponents. Is it a case of no honour among thieves?

There is no Rule of Golf that prohibits golfers from playing in groups of five or six. It is however impractical to expect such a group to have a good pace of play. Such groups are just a recipe for disaster.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE GOLF CAPTAINS

What happened to the golf captains who enforced the Rules of Golf? Many of today’s captains are in popularity contest and are keen not to offend.

They are watching as many Rules are broken by the golfers who have played the game for long and should otherwise know the Rules.

They will however be very quick to punish newbies who don’t know the Rules.

One Rule that is neglected by almost all Captains is the establishing of draws. Starting times and groups that we play in are no longer taken seriously.

We will ignore what was published and form our groups and walk to the tee as we wish.

After the game, we are never sure when to expect the presentations. Captains will be focused on many other things and at times it seems like the presentations comes as an afterthought.

How else would you explain a captain wearing a cap and sipping at his whiskey during presentation?

When I was captain I would never have addressed golfers wearing jeans. This was considered a faux-pas at my home club.

For many clubs however this is a non-issue.

These traditions now seem like they belong to the era of Sir Winston Churchill. I’m, however, convinced that a lot of these traditions were good for our good game.

Are we ever going to return to some of the good traditions or are they now at the back of beyond?

Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing a well organised tournament at Thika Sports Club this weekend.