Let’s turn the clock back over a century, to the June 1914 edition of Golf Monthly.
Storm clouds might well have been gathering over Europe, with the Great War just weeks away, but the esteemed publication was voicing a question that has been repeated countless times by every generation down the years ever since.
Is the game what it used to be?
The author of the piece was open minded enough to suggest that rather than harping on about the past, it should be recognised that, ‘Playing of the game has proceeded through an era of development which has sufficed to gradually bring it to a state of perfection which would have been considered almost beyond the bounds of possibility thirty years ago…there has been a gradual development in the general standard of play.’
More than that, he added that the complaints of older players might, ‘Be tinged by prejudice, the result of a somewhat natural affectionate adherence to the traditions of their youth.’ Pity the poor postman the following week, delivering a couple of hundredweight of letters of complaint to the Golf Monthly offices after the older subscribers had read through that…
You can make up your own mind by reading the article here.
