Towards the end of a long life, PG Wodehouse disclosed his regret that “if only I had taken up golf earlier and devoted my whole time to it, instead of fooling about writing stories and things, I might have got my handicap down to under eighteen”.
Such devotion to the sport of leisurely strolling interspersed with club-swinging is on the decline. Younger generations are not replenishing the golf- ing ranks. The marital problems of Tiger Woods have dimmed the star of a once-charismatic champion and ambassador for the sport.
Golf England says that membership of golf clubs has fallen by a fifth in a decade. In some parts of the country, this has made clubs financially unsustainable. They are selling their courses as land for housebuilders.
The decline of the golf course may cause anguish to devotees of Bertie Wooster but fashions for recreations do shift. Golf is a sport of the land — a lot of it — and it’s better that the land be redeveloped than lie derelict. Its rise to popularity in Britain can be dated to the four decades before the First World War. From fewer than 100 clubs in the 1870s, the total reached some 3,000 by 1914.
The land demands of golf have been cons- picuous ever since. Even in the United States, where golf took root in the 1870s, early courses tended to economise on land by having golfers play for nine holes and then turn back and play them again in reverse order. The popularity of the game surged again after the Second World War in both Britain and the US, propelled by greater affluence, more leisure time and the patronage of presidents, notably Dwight Eisenhower.
Advertisement
Golf was of its time. Even for the older generation, cycling is increasingly the outdoor recreation of choice. And the conviviality of tall tales of sporting achievement from the oldest member at the 19th hole will surely repair to other premises.