As often as not, a club captain will want to have a new bunker named after him, but Steven Hill, captain of Musselburgh Links in what is, would you believe, its 350th anniversary year, has something more pressing on his mind.
He wants to provide headstones for three of Musselburgh’s five homegrown Open champions. Though Willie Park Sr., the first winner of the Open in 1860, and Willie Park Jr., who won in 1889, have their headstones, Mungo Park, David “Deacon” Brown and Bob Ferguson do not.
When the three of them were consigned to man’s last bunker, they ended up in paupers graves, which are the lot of those whose families cannot afford to pay for anything better.
“It’s an absolute travesty,” said Hill, with a sad shake of the head. “Had this been St Andrews, it would never have been allowed to happen.”
To date, this little club, which epitomises what early golf was all about, has raised £3,500 (about $4,360) toward the £6,000 (about $7,470) cost of the headstones. Now, the hope is that those visiting the course in and around the week of the 150th Open, to be held at St Andrews, should bring in enough in the way of green fees and donations to allow the stonemasons to get to work.
Americans, in particular, have a special feel for a links which hosted six Opens from 1874 to 1899 and is one of only 14 clubs in the UK to have held the championship.
Apparently, one US visitor of not so long ago was moved to tears when his opening drive was heading down the fairway at the same time as the local pipe band started up across the road. In fairness, anyone who knows a thing or two about Musselburgh Links’ history might be reduced to a similar state.
It is said that Mary, Queen of Scots was to be seen playing golf at Musselburgh as many as 450 years ago, and that she was a pretty useful exponent until she lost her head. Not in a Colin Montgomerie-like fit of pique, but in the literal sense after jealous advisers claimed that she was guilty of being out on the links too soon after the slaying of her husband, Lord Darnley. She soon married the leading suspect.
Moving on to 2010, the present Queen paid a visit to this unique venue and drew quite a crowd when she landed on the middle of the first fairway. In fact, it was her helicopter that had shown such precision after fog had prevented it from touching down in Edinburgh’s city centre on the day of the annual royal garden party at Holyrood.
In stepping off the plane’s steps, Her Royal Highness had turned to have a word with the four Americans waiting on the tee. “I bet you didn’t expect to see me here!” she said. They did not, but my how they must have enjoyed having such a tale to tell.
The club has any number of other proud boasts. What of the fact that a cutting tool for a hole – its 4¼-inch width was the standard for Musselburgh drainpipes of the 1800s – was purchased by the club in 1829 from a local blacksmith by name of Robert Gay, price £1. This size was adopted by the R&A in 1893 and has applied all over the golfing world ever since.
Going on from there, Musselburgh Links has what is believed to be the oldest golf trophy still in use for competitive purposes, while the club is also responsible for the first women’s tournament. The latter was organised in 1811 for the local fishwives, a robust crew who carried their husband’s catches into Edinburgh in baskets weighing three times as much as a Rory McIlroy golf bag.
Intriguingly, there was an interval of 200 years between the first and the second of the fishwives’ competition, the reason for the delay being down to the men of the early 1800s who decreed that any kind of swing above shoulder-height was not ladylike. Yet perhaps there was more to it than that. Might it have been the case that the men were worried about the extent to which the strapping fishwives were outdriving them?
Steven Hill, is understandably proud of No. 10 Balcarres Road, Musselburgh Links’ handsome HQ since they vacated a more humble dwelling 40 years ago. Formerly known as Links Place, the street was once home to such upmarket clubs as the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and the Royal Burgess Golfing Society in the days before they had courses to call their own.
The Musselburgh Links members themselves have played the major part in bringing their property up to scratch, with the lounge ceiling the pièce de résistance. In Hill’s opinion, however, there is still work to be done.
The headstones apart, he wants to see the Musselburgh junior section as thriving as it was in the days when the club’s quintet of Open champions spent their days playing golf whenever they were not caddying for the richer folk.
Golf at Musselburgh Links, along with some early coaching, is free for children on the nine-hole course amidst and astride a racetrack, though the club is looking for some sponsorship. Just a thought, but some of Phil Mickelson’s ex-sponsors might be interested in such a worthy cause.
Top: A stone plaque on the wall of the clubhouse at Musselburgh Links commemorates the five homegrown winners of the Open Championship.
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