Golf

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf (1907).

Arthur Conan Doyle played Golf in some championships and casually, anywhere he could, in UK, Switzerland, Egypt or United States. According to his own words, he was "an enthusiastic but a very inefficient golfer".


Movies


Photos

  • Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf (probably in Switzerland). The photo was attached in a letter written by Conan Doyle (1895).

    Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf (probably in Switzerland). The photo was attached in a letter written by Conan Doyle (1895).

  • Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf at Hindhead Golf Club (1907).

    Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf at Hindhead Golf Club (1907).

  • "I used in my early golfing days to practise on the very rudimentary links in front of the Mena Hotel, just under the pyramids."

    "I used in my early golfing days to practise on the very rudimentary links in front of the Mena Hotel, just under the pyramids."

  • Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf in Le Touquet, France (september 1912).

    Arthur Conan Doyle playing golf in Le Touquet, France (september 1912).

  • Arthur Conan Doyle with engineer's rod in hand laying out the golf course in Jasper Park (1914).

    Arthur Conan Doyle with engineer's rod in hand laying out the golf course in Jasper Park (1914).

  • Arthur Conan Doyle (right) at Westchester Biltmore Golf Course, Rye, New York, USA (ca. 15 april 1923).

    Arthur Conan Doyle (right) at Westchester Biltmore Golf Course, Rye, New York, USA (ca. 15 april 1923).

  • Arthur Conan Doyle with golf club (1929).

    Arthur Conan Doyle with golf club (1929).

  • Undated.

    Undated.


Conan Doyle about Golf

  • « I had brought up my golf clubs and gave him lessons in a field while the New England rustics watched us from afar, wondering what on earth we were at, for golf was unknown in America at that time. » (about golf with Rudyard Kipling in Vermont in 1894, Conan Doyle: His Life and Art)
  • « I am myself an intermittent golfer, getting very violent attacks at regular intervals. It usually takes me about two months to convince myself that I shall ever be any good, and then I give it up until a fresh burst of energy sets me trying once more. I played in Egypt until they told me that excavators had to pay a special tax. I inaugurated a private course in Vermont also, and the Yankee farmers asked us what we were boring for. If ever the Ormeau Club should wish any part of their links returfed I could undertake in a few games to clear away any sod now existing. » (Dr. Conan Doyle on Golf, 1898)
  • « Let him turn to golf, and be thankful that there is still one splendid game which can never desert him. There may be objections to the "Royal and Ancient" — but a game which takes four miles of country for the playing must always have a majesty of its own. Personally I was an enthusiastic, but a very inefficient golfer' — a ten at my best, and at my worst outside the pale of all decent handicaps. But surely it is a great testimony to the qualities of a game when a man can be both enthusiastic and inefficient. It is a proof at least that a man plays for the game's sake and not for personal kudos. Golf is the coquette of games. It always lures one on and always evades one. Ten years ago I thought I had nearly got it. I hope so to-day. But my scoring cards will show, I fear, that the coquette has not yet been caught. The elderly lover cannot hope to win her smile. I used in my early golfing days to practise on the very rudimentary links in front of the Mena Hotel, just under the Pyramids. It was a weird course, where, if you sliced your ball, yon might find it bunkered in the grave of some Eameses or Thothmes of old. It was here, I believe, that the cynical stranger, after watching my energetic but ineffectual game, remarked that he had always understood that there was a special tax for excavating in Egypt. I have a pleasant recollection of Egyptian golf in a match played with the late Sirdar, then head of the Intelligence Department. When my ball was teed I observed that his negro caddie pointed two fingers at it and spat, which meant, as I was given to understand, that he cursed it for the rest of the game. Certainly I got into every hazard in the course, though I must admit that I have accomplished that when there was no Central African curse upon me. Those were the days before the reconquest of the Soudan, and I was told by Colonel Wingate — as he then was — that his spies coming down from Omdurman not infrequently delivered their messages to him while carrying his golf clubs, to avoid the attention of the Calipha's spies, who abounded in Cairo. On this occasion the Sirdar beat me well, but with a Christian caddie I turned the tables on him at Dunbar, and now we have signed articles to play off the rubber at Khartoum, no cursing allowed. When that first match was played we should as soon have thought of arranging to play golf in the moon. Every now and then I give up the game in disgust at my own incompetence, but only to be lured on once more. Hunting in an old desk I came upon an obituary which I had written for my game at some moment of special depression. It ran, "Sacred to the memory of my golf. It was never strong, being permanently afflicted with a deformed stance and an undeveloped swing. After long weakness cheerfully borne it finally succumbed, and was buried in the eighteenth hole, regretted by numerous caddies."However it is out and about once more, none the worse for this premature interment. » (Some Recollections of Sport, 1909)
  • « Recreations : Billiards. Have figured in the big tournaments. Interested in classical coins, Roman and Greek. Sports : In the past, cricket, ski-ing, football, golf, etc. Used to hunt, was keen on boxing ; I first introduced the ski into Switzerland. » (Living as we do, 1929)
  • « M.C.C., Golf, Cue, Ski » (in his famous drawing: The Old Horse, 1929)
  • « Denis and I have taken such golf as we could get, as it is necessary for me to keep physically fit in view of the work before me. The two main courses, Wynburg and Mowbray, are flat and monotonous, but surrounded by lovely scenery, and very well kept. Both the fairway and the greens are surprisingly good in a land where grass does not grow readily. At Wynburg we saw in the Pavilion a great skin of a rock python killed on the course - quite enough to put a nervous golfer off his putt. » (Our African Winter, 1929)


Clubs

  • Ormeau Club
  • Crowborough Beacon Golf Club
  • Hindhead Golf Club
  • De La Warr Golf Club (Crowborough)
  • Sheringham Golf Club
  • Piltdown Golf Club
  • Lelant Golf Club (St. Ives, Cornwall)
  • Royal Eastbourne Club
  • Royal Musselburgh Golf Club


Letters


Articles


Fictions with some Golf


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