Golf? It giveth and it taketh. To most of us, it is more the latter than the former. More bad golf than good. But over the course of three days recently the old game didn’t just give me pleasure. It drenched me in it.
The first night was a drinks party at the English-Speaking Union in Dartmouth House, an 18th-century building of some elegance in central London. It was held to celebrate the upcoming 50th issue of one of golf’s great secrets: Golf Quarterly, a golf aficionado’s delight, put together by Tim Dickson, who had once spent a year in the U.S. on an ESU exchange. Tousle-haired, bespectacled and charming, Dickson is a man who has captained two of England’s Royal golf clubs.
GQ is a delight. It appeals to those who like to play a round in less than three hours, occasionally drink the fiery liqueur Kümmel, often carry their clubs in a pencil-thin bag, revere foursomes golf almost as much as their dogs (and maybe more than their wives), and understand that while golf is unfair, it is not meant to be fair.
Rare are two historic and friendly occasions such as these held so close to one another and so enjoyable. And all because of golf.
GQ recently named five of the best locker rooms in the world, and the clubs offering the best food and drink. Take a bow, National Golf Links on Long Island; Muirfield, Scotland; Mountain Lake, Florida; Sand Valley, Wisconsin; and Pevero, Sardinia. It hymned Sir Bob Charles, 1963 Open champion, who won the 2023 New Zealand Hickory Open two days before his 87th birthday. And it loves stories by or about the game’s eccentrics and eccentricities – the more unusual, the better.
The evening was rounded off by dinner in a private room in the cellar of the Garrick Club, named after David, the 18th-century actor. You might be interested in the wines – Chablis (Nathalie & Giles Fevre) 2019, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru, 2014, and Château de Rayne Vigneau 1er Grand Cru Classé, 2009, a Sauternes.
Two days later the Old Wykehamist Golfing Society celebrated its centenary dinner and the publication of the excellent history “Essays In Time.” Founded in 1382, Winchester College has the longest continuous history of any school in England. Its motto, Manners Makyth Man, is attributed to William of Wykeham, Lord Chancellor of England in the late 14th century. The motto should not be credited, as Gary Player is wont to do, to Sir Winston Churchill, one of Player’s heroes.
The OWGS held its dinner in the venerable premises in London of The Worshipful Company of Grocers, which was founded in 1345 and is the second in importance of Britain’s Great 12 livery companies. The invitation read: “Dinner 7 – 10.30pm, Carriages 11pm, Black Tie.”
There, the “College Grace” was sung – in Latin, naturally – and toasts were made to the king and port (Dow’s LBV, or late bottled vintage) was drunk. Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, is an Old Wykehamist, and he passed through its ancient premises with academic distinction but without demonstrating enthusiasm for golf. In this he was unlike Horace Hutchinson, the Amateur champion in 1886 and 1887 having been runner-up in 1885, and Claudio Consul, who has won the amateur championships of North Korea, Germany, Bulgaria and Italy.
Rare are two historic and friendly occasions such as these held so close to one another and so enjoyable. And all because of golf. It may be the game that taketh, but on these two dark late-autumn evenings in London, it more than repaid its debts, giving splendidly in return.
John Hopkins
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Top: Dartmouth House
CHRISTIAN COOP, GETTY IMAGES