Early Golf at Falkland

Further entries in 1503, less than a year after the king's first recorded purchase of clubs, reveal the continuation of an ancient French tradition of playing a peaceful club and ball game as an adjunct to Candlemas, the celebration of the purification of the Virgin Mary. February 3, James on a visit to Falkland Castle, is recorded to have played a game of golf with the Earl of Bothwell in which he lost 'iij Franch crounis' (three French crowns, or forty-two shillings). A later entry confirms that as in France, the game was played to celebrate the arrival of spring and Candlemas.

Only two days later on February 5, royal accounts record, 'an item, for golf clubbes and balles to the King that he played with', which cost nine shillings. James, no doubt, was already hooked and convinced that if only he had the right equipment his permanent companion off the tee - a life-threatening slice - would disappear. And, that so-and-so Bothwell, was hitting 'em 100 ells down the middle, as straight as a falcon's dive. A new custom-made clubbe was the only answer. We can only guess at the bower's sales pitch:

'See here your Majesty, I just bought a fine auld batch of St Rules yew saplings for shafts (the only thing whippier is a River Dee lamprey) and a bale of baby peacock down for stuffing the featheries. High compression? Drop one on an oak floor and it'll still be bouncing when you finish your port and join the ladies. Trust me, Jimmy, you'll hit it a league.'

It is unlikely that Falkland, the vacation resort of the Stuart kings, had a golf course per se, but it would surely have had adequate parkland to permit an ad hoc game, perhaps played in the manner of mail à la chicane, with selected trees and stones as target goals. The major step needed to transform early target golf into the game we know today - the establishment of permanent courses broken down into stages, each terminating in a scoring shot - was still a good two centuries away.

There is no record that any purpose-built course existed in Scotland earlier than the eighteenth century. Rather, play as at Falkland Castle, was on private parkland or estates, or surfaces such as the common land set aside near all towns for recreation

Reproduced from:

Golf the true history – By Michael Flannery

Michael Flannery is the author of 'Golf Through The Ages • 600 Years of Golfing Art' and a member of St Andrews Golf Club

The common land at Falkland is known as “The Myre” now the home of Falkland Golf Club