A Good Walk Ruined: The History of Golf

13:17Chuck Bryant:Which is, I didn't catch how much in depth you went with short golf. Did you just mention it?

13:24Josh Clark:Yeah, just that, you know, they played it sort of in town on the streets of like the village.

13:29Chuck Bryant:Yes. That was a problem in and of itself because, you know, you had glass windows and, you know, village people walking around, so you don't want to hit them. But they were probably banning short golf. Instead, if you were, say, aristocracy and not like a working class person or a peasant or something like that, you were like, OK, just ban short golf. I'm going to play this new form called long golf and I'm going to go play it in the pasture lands. That's right. Or a golfing ground or a lynx.

14:01Josh Clark:And that's where, you know, that's where that name first comes from, mainly around Scotland's East Coast at the time. This is where, you know, they weren't building a lot of buildings because it was oceanside. It was pretty sandy. So there was, you know, it was wide open land, rabbits everywhere. Apparently there's lore that rabbits may have, like rabbit holes were some of the first golf holes. Yeah, it makes sense. Not gophers. But, you know, some of these early terms, like lynx, like had been around since the very beginning. and also this idea that you go out to play like nine holes in the back end on the back nine, like they were saying stuff like that.

14:41Josh Clark:And they borrowed, I never knew this, the term fairway, which if you don't know anything about golf, when you tee off and you hit it out there and hopefully the middle of that green expanse, the middle of that green expanse where the grass is the shortest is the fairway. And that term is a sailing term, meaning the easiest direction to go, which makes a lot of sense in terms of golf.

15:00Chuck Bryant:For sure. So, okay. So we're in Scotland. It's the 15th century. Parliament keeps trying to ban golf. The Scottish people say no. And then finally in 1502, they're like, fine, we're going to lift the ban on golf. Everybody can play golf. And the reason why is that not coincidentally, James IV, who is the grandson of James II, who was the first one to proclaim golf illegal, he went to Perth in Scotland, not Australia. and he found out about golf and he fell in love with it so much, he came home with his own set of clubs and was like, I'm into golf now. Let's all play golf all the time.

15:40Josh Clark:That's right. There are also apparently receipts of the king purchasing clubs in Edinburgh and St. Andrew around the same time. So the royals are getting into it. So that means everyone else can. Right. Well, not quite everyone, as we'll see. But Mary, Queen of Scots, the granddaughter of King James IV, She ruled from 1542 to 1567. Apparently, she was into golf and is one of the first women to, like, just have any sort of impact on the game at all, especially early on. And apparently her enemies used that against her. They would spread rumors that she played just a few days after her second husband died.

16:17Josh Clark:And that, you know, obviously was a violation of how someone was thought to, like, mourn or, like, how someone should mourn, rather. but also like a bit of a smear campaign that's just like it's not an appropriate game for ladies at the time and look at what Mary Queen of Scots is doing.

16:35Chuck Bryant:Exactly. I say we come back or take a break and then come back and possibly if we're lucky we'll talk a little more about the history of golf. Let's do it.

16:57Josh Clark:Mom, are we there yet?

16:59Chuck Bryant:Ten more minutes.

17:00Josh Clark:Only ten minutes? Can you drive slower? What's up with them today? Lingo Kids. That app we downloaded last week? They love it. The games, this funny baby bot character. Kids, we're almost there. No!

17:14Chuck Bryant:With more than 4 ,000 interactive games, songs, and shows little ones can't get enough of,

17:19Josh Clark:Lingo Kids is the number one entertainment platform for young kids. Why didn't we download this sooner? Lingo Kids! Everything kids love. Download it for free.

17:32Josh Clark:Welcome to the Haunted Library. Have you come in search of a tale? This podcast invites you to browse the shelves and find stories that will linger long after you've left this place. From gothic masterpieces to pulpy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts.

18:13Chuck Bryant:Okay, Chuck. So we're back, and I think we kind of have gotten across. it's really difficult to trace the history of golf in any really legitimate manner and not just make stuff up. That sounds cool. There are some surviving documents that give us an idea of the early contours of what golf was like. There's a textbook from the 17th century, a diary from the 17th century, an embarrassing poem from the 18th century, and a book of golf instructions from the mid-19th century. And all of them put together kind of giving historians a pretty good view on golf.

18:52Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure. The poem I thought was pretty interesting. That was in 1743 by Thomas Matheson. And it was, you know, if you're writing a parody epic poem, it's called The Goff, G-O-F-F, as Ted Knight would love. And, you know, there was a character, a goddess named Golfinia in it. Like that means it's pretty well in the public like specter at this point.

19:18Chuck Bryant:Did you did you look that up? Oh, yeah. It's a I mean, it is an epic poem about golf. Yeah. There's also that diary was by a guy named Thomas Kincaid, who is a medical student at Edinburgh University, which we toured, I think, at least some of their some parts of it. But he was there in 1687. and he was like, his diary was essentially like, I'm playing golf today and this is what I'm doing. My swing's not so great. I need to improve my swing. Here's how we handicap. Here's what clubs are made of. Like he was just basically leaving a document for future historians that they couldn't have asked for more than.

19:59Chuck Bryant:Yeah, he would have started his own podcast

20:02Josh Clark:had that been around at the time. But instead he had a diary, which was very cool. And then, you know, there was an instructional book called the Golfer's Manual by a keen hand, and that was 1857, and that was like the first printed book of instruction from H.B. Farney. So golf is definitely a thing by that point. St. Andrews has recognized the old course that is there as the oldest surviving golf course that's still around. It's been operating since at least 1552. That's impressive. Which is, yeah, just incredible. uh yeah yeah it's still still around like they'll still play the open there every uh i'm not sure if it's like a set number of years that they go back but they still play it there the british open yeah yeah it's it's it's called specifically the open but okay people call it the british open to differentiate it from the u.s open but i think the the scots are very much like no it's just the open There it is.

21:04Josh Clark:The open.

21:05Chuck Bryant:Give us more, baby. That's all you get. Here, I've got one for you. Okay. The Archbishop of St. Andrews, his name was John Hamilton, back in 1552, this is how we know that it was being played on at least since then. It was probably being played on long before then because in 1552, John Hamilton's like, fine, here's a charter. You people of St. Andrews, my congregants, my people, you guys can play on the links for – and here's where you do a John Hamilton impression from 1552. Golf, football, shooting, and all games.

21:44Josh Clark:Beautiful. That was a dead on John Hamilton. I don't know why my Scottish accent sounds like I'm about to choke at any second.

21:52Chuck Bryant:I feel like most Scottish impressions are like that. Like think about groundskeeper Willie. He's like really worked up all the time.

22:00Josh Clark:No, that's true. And I think I'm also just doing Mike Myers from So I Married an Axe Murderer.

22:06Chuck Bryant:Yeah. Is that the if it's not Scottish, it's crap family?

22:10Josh Clark:Yeah.

22:11Chuck Bryant:Kid, move. It was good stuff. Yeah, it's very good stuff. That was a fun movie. Was it? I haven't seen it. Yeah, it was funny. I've seen all the Austin Powers movies. Does that count for anything? Yeah, one of those is good. There was Fat Bastard. He was Scottish. That's right. Boy, what an offensive character he was.

22:33Josh Clark:So early on, these golfing grounds or links were – they just used sort of what the land gave them. If there was a pond, that was a hazard. If there was a big hill in the middle of the fairway, that was maybe not a hazard, but something you had to get through. Stationary tornado hazard. That's right. But they essentially created the model for what a golf course would be and what would look like as people started to construct and build golf courses. And also the number of holes. I think the old course was originally 22 holes. But in 1764, they did some consolidating and eventually ended up with 18.

23:11Josh Clark:And they were like, that's the standard.

23:15Chuck Bryant:Yeah, that's the that's the thing. That's why everybody's so into Scotland as the origin or the cradle of golf, because not only is that where golf really started and developed, that's where like a lot of the terms are from. Like you said, links, a lot of the rules, a lot of the standards, like the 18 hole golf course, they all just kind of came from Scotland and spread from there. Indisputably came from Scotland and spread from there. That's what the beautiful thing is. We finally have made it out of the murky past into the much clearer past for the history of golf.

23:47Josh Clark:That's right. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, or otherwise known as the RNA, originally was known as Society of St. Andrews Golfers. That was founded in 1754 by 22, quote, noblemen and gentlemen. And they, the RNA is who basically runs the show. They took responsibility for maintaining that old course. building the new course. So the new course was 1895. That shows you how old golf is. And they became the authority. I think in the late 19th century, the RNA became the UK's authority for the rules of the game. And they managed the Open or the British Open, as we call it, and then other stuff like big golf events over there.

24:31Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I saw that they are, I saw someone equate them to the Augusta National Golf Club where they're just an authority on the game and they are, they have such authority, they can actually issue rules and stuff like that.

24:46Josh Clark:Uh, yeah.

24:47Chuck Bryant:Is that, that works? That works out? I mean, it was Bleacher Report. They're pretty legit.

24:51Josh Clark:Yeah, I mean, that sounds about right. You're talking about the, where they play the Masters here in Augusta, Georgia, a place where I've never been. I guess. Yeah, that's, that's the one. I'm dying to go to the Masters, but it's really, really hard to get tickets.

25:05Chuck Bryant:Yes. And I think you should do a call out for anyone who can get you master's tickets to get them to you. Yeah.

25:12Josh Clark:If you want to host me at the master's, I mean, I can't believe I've never asked this. Please and thank you.

25:17Chuck Bryant:Yeah. You'll bring the crackers for the pimento cheese. I'll bring everything. So, yes, you are a great guest. I remember when we were in Canada, you picked up after yourself all the time. you pushed each chair back into the table. Like, you were a great guest. I appreciate that. So, and I realize I'm being kind of jokey in this episode. I'm not usually very jokey. But that's because I have so little to offer in this episode that I have to be the color commentator, I feel like. That's right. You're doing great. Like, you're Vern Lundquist, and I'm Dennis Miller in this one.

25:57Josh Clark:So we should talk about the 13 articles. There was an event in 1744. It was a group known as the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and they created a competition called the Silver Club. And in preparation for this, they wrote out a document called the 13 articles. And that was sort of the first official rule book of golf, which is now like very much expanded as far as the official rules of golf with like the PGA and stuff like that.

26:25Chuck Bryant:I saw rule 11 was that you had to memorize and then recite Matheson's epic poem, The Golf. Oh, wow. Yeah, which is long. Probably hard. So golf finally showed up in England in 1603. Again, it had been being played for 150 years by then. But Scotland and England frequently went to war. They weren't very friendly during this period. They became much friendlier when Mary, Queen of Scots' son, James VI of Scotland, who was the Scottish ruler at the time, he inherited the English throne and he became James I of England. And so Scotland and England became much cozier companions. And when James the first showed up, he had his crew with him, his entourage, court, as you call it.

27:14Chuck Bryant:And among his court members were a lot or courtiers were a lot of people who were avid golf players. And just because they had moved to a country that had never heard of golf before, that wasn't going to stop them from continuing to play any time they could.

27:29Josh Clark:Yeah, it sounds like he's like, these are my boys and we like to golf. Exactly. So go build me a course. And that's what happened. And they established a course in Blackheath near the Royal Palace in Greenwich. And it didn't spread far and wide, though. In fact, I think it was post-World War I was when you finally got to 1 ,000 golf courses in England and 200 ,000 golf enthusiasts. So in that interim time, apparently a lot of doctors, like Scottish professionals living in England, brought the sport over. People would go on vacation maybe to Scotland, discover it and come back and be like, why aren't we playing golf in England yet?

28:13Josh Clark:And eventually they would get some momentum going. Someone would rent some land. Someone would create a course. And they just started opening eventually at the rate of about one golf course a week by the 1890s in England.

28:27Chuck Bryant:Yeah, but then those courses would close down very quickly just because it was like overbuilding malls at the time. Or in my family's experience, racquetball clubs in the 80s. My family was on a terrible streak in the mid, early mid 80s where we would join a racquetball club, the whole family. And a month later, the place would shut down and there went our money. And then we'd move on to the next one. It easily happened at least three times to us, if not more.

28:55Josh Clark:Yeah, it's crazy to remember when racquetball had a grip on the United States in the 80s. It was fast and wild and then basically went away. You never hear about racquetball anymore. No, I'm sure there's people who still play it quite a bit. Oh, yeah. I love racquetball. I haven't played since you and I did that commercial thing.

29:15Chuck Bryant:I forgot about that.

29:17Josh Clark:14 years ago.

29:18Chuck Bryant:That was awesome. It is great. The court sounds cool. It's fun to watch. It's a great workout. Yeah, for sure. And the bags are usually pretty awesome, especially the early 80s racquetball bags.

29:30Josh Clark:Yeah. And pickleball, please. Get back to racquetball, people. That's what I say. Sure. Let's get back to it. Maybe you and I should invest in a racquetball court. Franchise? Yeah.

29:41Chuck Bryant:We got to figure out a good name for it. And it can't be some course reference to balls. Right. Yeah. That's immediately what I thought.

29:51Josh Clark:No. So we're going to have to workshop it further, Chuck. All right, cool. Speaking of workshopping, they had to workshop the number of holes because, you know, 18 was the official number, but most of these golf courses in England were nine hole courses. And there's still plenty of nine hole courses out there. But eventually they expanded to 18. and one downside to golf, you know, early on in England was it drove up the price of land quite a bit and also displaced like cattle grazing and stuff like that and angered a lot of farmers, right? Yeah.

30:23Chuck Bryant:I mean, think about that, Chuck. Like England is not big, but this is like 19th century England just had started the industrial revolution and like there's already land that's, There's like a land grab going on for golf courses. It's already having an effect. Like that's how golf course crazy England went at the time. And yeah, some of the farmers pushed back. I think that they would drive their cattle onto the commons to graze during golf games to basically send the message like, take it elsewhere, guy. Yeah. That's the best I could come up with. I'm a terrible color commentator.

31:00Josh Clark:Well, you just can't say what you would say, which is filthy. That's true. You know me so well. Yeah, yeah. We've done pretty good over the years, avoiding that kind of dilth and flooring. For sure. So a lot of these courses were created by the sort of upper class and the aristocratic class, obviously. Sometimes it might be a local government. But, you know, it was a pretty bourgeois thing to play golf. And, you know, in a lot of areas, it still is that way, even though it's really been democratized in the past, like, especially 20 years, I think. Right. Right. But, you know, the the rise of the industrial middle class in England was looking for stuff to do for fun like this.

31:39Josh Clark:And they played golf. It was a good way to get out and enjoy nature and to do something to, you know, keep your body moving.

31:46Chuck Bryant:Yeah. And the Industrial Revolution had taken hold and changed things enough that the urban centers became like where people moved and lived. And so golf was a really great way to get out there, like you said, back to nature. People needed it quite badly by then. And then the other thing that happened thanks to the Industrial Revolution was the railroad made it a lot easier to get further out into the county, into the shires, as they call them.

32:10Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure. So all of a sudden you had access. It gets you out into nature. That's still one of the things I love about it the best is even though there are frustrations, like those leave me very quickly. I don't like get mad and stay mad. I get mad for a second or two. And then you're out there with your friends and you're walking around in the sun for four hours and not looking at your phone. And, you know, it's great. Not muttering to yourself? I mutter a little bit, but no one likes playing with someone who just gets mad all the time. No, for sure. That's no fun.

32:43Chuck Bryant:That's a great personality trait to be able to let it go. Let it go. I try. Let's take a break and come back and talk about the USA. All right, let's do it.

33:05Josh Clark:Warning, the following song has been rated dangerously catchy and may not be suitable for grown-ups.

33:10Chuck Bryant:One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Knock, knock, knockin' at the door. Knock, knock, knockin' at the door. Five, six, who is it? Five, six, who is it? It's Cowie and Elliot. It's Cowie and Elliot.

33:28Josh Clark:Lingo Kids. Only suitable for kids. If it gets stuck in mom's head, that's not our problem. Lingo Kids! Everything kids love. Download now for free.

33:39Josh Clark:Welcome to the haunted library. Have you come in search of a tale? This podcast invites you to browse the shelves and find stories that will linger long after you've left this place. From Gothic masterpieces to pulpy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts.

34:21Josh Clark:All right. So we promised talk of the United States. golf in the U.S. goes back, you know, a pretty long way, actually, in the 17th century, when, you know, the American colonies were being populated from places like Scotland and the Netherlands, which we brought up. They were like, we want to play golf over here. Looks pretty good to me. And people started playing in 1659. I think that was verified that people were playing golf in Fort Orange, New York, modern day Albany. And I guess that sort of short style golf game. Right. In the streets. That's right.

34:55Chuck Bryant:It's a four kid. Actually, I think the Dutch colonial government in what would probably be what, like New Amsterdam or something like that at the time, they were like, you can't play the short golf stuff. Again, the windows are really costly here. They're a high-end luxury. So let's not break them with your golf balls anymore. Yeah.

35:21Josh Clark:Yeah, so it was sort of playing out the same way in the U.S. as it did in Scotland early on. In 1743, there was a Scottish native that was 21 years old. Also, he was a slave trader. His name was David Dees. And he had his gear shipped to him in Charleston, South Carolina. And in 1841, the South Carolina Golf Club established Harrelston Green in Charleston Park, which I think is the first American golf club. Mm-hmm. And very disappointingly, the caddies there were enslaved people. Right.

35:57Chuck Bryant:And it was, I looked it up, the Harlston Golf Club, or Harlston Green, I should say, is not there anymore. But that was the first one in the United States ever, right?

36:09Josh Clark:Yeah. Yeah, the oldest continuous or continually running course, or I guess surviving course, a lot of ways you could say that, is also St. Andrews, but not in Scotland. In Yonkers, New York in 1888, that was founded. Canada edges us out. I think the Royal Montreal Club was founded in 1873. Yeah. But I didn't know about St. Andrews and Yonkers. I'd love to go play that course.

36:33Chuck Bryant:It became one of the founding members of the U.S. Golf Association, which this story is one of my favorites out of this whole thing. Let's hear it. Well, there's a guy named Charles Blair McDonald, and he is the first person to call himself a golf architect. He had Scottish roots, but he was from Chicago. But he went back and studied at St. Andrews University in Scotland. So, of course, he played golf a lot. And when he came back to Chicago, he was like, hey, man, let's get busy on turning Chicago into a world-class golf town. And he started designing courses. And he became, yeah, a very widely respected course architect.

37:14Chuck Bryant:He was also a huge, huge jerk. And because of his personality, he actually inadvertently gave rise to the U.S. Golf Association.

37:25Josh Clark:Yeah, didn't he, like, just pitch a tantrum or something? He did.

37:29Chuck Bryant:Two different ones. He played in two tournaments back to back, placed second in both of them and threw such a hissy fit in both of these tournaments for placing second that he called into question the legitimacy of the tournament. He basically said that the players who placed first had cheated, like really was a sore loser. So much so that St. Andrews and Yonkers and I think four other golf clubs at the time got together and were like, we need to come up with a set of rules that can't be challenged or anything like that. None of this loosey-goosey stuff because people like Charles Blair and McDonald are out there.

38:04Chuck Bryant:They exist. We've seen now. So they got together to formalize rules. Again, that became the USGA. and they did it because of Charles Blair McDonald and his temper tantrums.

38:16Josh Clark:Wow, that's funny. Second is not bad, my friend.

38:20Chuck Bryant:No, no.

38:21Josh Clark:And especially in a golf tournament. Yeah, that's weird. So by 1900, there's more than a thousand golf courses in the U.S. And then just like in England post-World War I, things really catch on even more. A lot has changed equipment-wise in golf over the years. Those early golf clubs were built by hand, obviously, and they were all wood. They were dense hardwoods, basically, like beech or holly. The shafts were made of wood. The club heads early on were made of wood, maybe ash or hazel for the shafts. And they had, at this point, they were playing with a club for a shot. So it wasn't just like, all right, you've got two clubs, go out there and do it.

39:07Josh Clark:Like you had, you know, it was a guy named Archibald Barry, I think, was the first guy to invent a standard set of golf irons. Oh, yeah? Yeah, but they had, you know, they had different names for the clubs. Like the play club was what you would call a driver these days. A brassy would be equivalent to a three wood. A spoon was a five wood. A clique, I saw a couple of things for clique. I think a clique was like a one or two iron, which is not a club that people really even use much anymore.

39:34Chuck Bryant:How come?

39:36Josh Clark:They're just really, really, really hard to hit. It's like an iron that's just almost completely flat and has no angle to it or loft. No lift? Yeah, exactly. I have a five iron is the lowest iron I have. Some people have fours and some really good golfers might have a two iron. Anyway, I think that's what a clique was, even though I saw something about a clique putter. They also had a baffy or a baffing spoon would be like a seven wood and a nick blick would be like a lofted wedge. And then all of this was like like wood, wood, wood until you finally started getting metal shafts. I think in the 1650s were the first metal shafts, but they didn't really become popular until much later on.

40:22Josh Clark:And I think in 1930, the Spalding Company started like numbering the irons. So they got rid of like most of those words and just use like the numbers.

40:31Chuck Bryant:Right. And then metal clubs weren't around really until the 1980s or weren't common until the 80s. That kind of surprised me.

40:40Josh Clark:Well, metal woods. Right. Yeah. Before then, they were like my very first driver when I was 13 was a wooden driver. I mean, I had a metal shaft, steel shaft, but it was a wooden driver. But the face of it has like a metal plate on the front of it.

41:01Chuck Bryant:Sure. No, I played golf. I was actually, I led off about the same time as that around age 13. Yeah, yeah.

41:09Josh Clark:I just mean for people listening if they thought like they had. You're talking to me. No, no, no. Like when you say they had wooden heads, they had wooden heads but like a metal face plate. Sure. And then in the 1980s, like I remember my first driver that had like an all metal head. And I was just like, it felt like the future. Gotcha.

41:27Chuck Bryant:So one of the reasons they had to make harder and harder clubs was because the balls themselves got harder, I guess. Yeah. There was something called gutta perka, which is from a Malaysian tree. It's a kind of latex. And this completely changed the type of ball that golfers were hitting before. Or I don't remember if we mentioned or not, but it was boiled goose feathers packed tightly in a leather exterior. That was a golf ball. That was like the standard for a while. And all of a sudden you have this natural latex. It's way harder. And it's just, I'm guessing, breaking your club pretty easily.

42:05Chuck Bryant:So that's why they advanced in the technology of clubs. And then now that the clubs and the balls were working so well, they had to actually go back and kind of rearrange golf courses because people were hitting it way farther than they had been before with the other, like the slightly jankier equipment.

42:26Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure. And these days, just the tech behind golf clubs and golf balls is just, you know, as you would expect. It's like so next level. It's kind of funny, like how they manufacture these things now and all like the R &D that goes into it.

42:40Chuck Bryant:Right. Yeah. I think that's a – I don't want to say it's an issue I have with it. But there's something that stands out to me not just in golf but in life these days. Everything has been optimized to the maximum degree that it's just like, you know, here, chase after this thing. You got enough money for this and this is going to make you a million times better than you could be on your own through hard work and effort or whatever. It's just I don't know. It just stands out to me.

43:05Josh Clark:Yeah. Oh, golf for sure is a sport that wants to sell you every new thing under the sun to make you better.

43:13Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I imagine. And there's a lot of new things under the sun. You said it was a 200 plus billion dollar industry in just the U.S. alone. I imagine that's the case.

43:21Josh Clark:Yeah. It's a little annoying, though. I'm with you on that. OK. The term caddy was originally a term for a Scottish errand boy. And one of the errands was like, hey, come over here and carry my golf clubs. I don't want to do that. The balls, those feathery balls that you were talking about were expensive. And so a lot of times you would have what's called a four caddy. And this is someone who goes up the course a bit to find your ball and like spot where your ball went so they can retrieve it for you. They still have caddies on some courses today, obviously. I've had a caddy in like three or four times maybe in my life because I don't usually play like those super, super great courses.

43:59Josh Clark:But it's a fun experience. Caddies are usually like really nice and like, you know, they work for tips. So, you know, they're out there to help you play your best game and have a good time doing it.

44:13Chuck Bryant:Okay. Yeah. I heard that the word caddy came from Mary, Queen of Scots, who resided in France for a while. And some of the French cadets would carry her clubs around. And she lovingly referred to them as caddies. Is that not true, Chuck? I don't know. That's not true.

44:31Josh Clark:OK. In 19th century England, a lot of times these were teenagers doing this kind of thing or maybe a working class adult who couldn't go work at the factory or something. You might work as a caddy. Apparently they weren't treated super great back then. I did mention that enslaved people were used in like early in the United States as caddies. There were even reformers who were like trying to do work to get caddies to be treated better. And I love that Livia says provide them with shelter on the course. She didn't use the word shack.

45:04Chuck Bryant:No, she didn't.

45:05Josh Clark:Just sitting there waiting, like staring at her.

45:07Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

45:07Josh Clark:It's pretty funny. I wrote caddy shack. Well, Lydia also said, by the way, guys, I know nothing about golf. So if I got anything wrong, take it easy on me.

45:15Chuck Bryant:As far as I can tell, she did a great job.

45:17Josh Clark:No, she did a really good job.

45:19Chuck Bryant:And then pros, too. The idea of having a pro on staff and then not just a golf pro who's there to, like, teach you how to play, to tell you what clubs you need, that kind of stuff. But also basically people who maintain equipment, groundkeepers. They all started to come around in England. And then if you were a member of like a really good club, you probably had like a famous player who was the pro. And then if you were not a member of a really great club, there was probably still a really good Scottish golf player. Because Scottish players were like the gold standard. I think if you belong to a club that had like a non-Scottish pro or a non-famous pro, you probably rethought where you sent your membership dues.

46:09Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure. And, you know, that tradition continues today with like, you know, every – I don't know about every club, but I think most like golf clubs have a pro on staff still today for various uses. I think it's a – you know, it's a good way to earn a living. Like I imagine most of those people wanted to go out and play like professionally on tour. But I'm sure it's a great sort of gig to fall back on, you know?

46:33Chuck Bryant:For sure. So golf fever really started off in the late 19th century, like when magazines dedicated to golf started. And then also one of the other indicators that golf was just like this mass phenomenon is that it starts showing up in other publications that had nothing to do with golf, right? Just like today, there was like mention of golf. There's an article on golf or this golfer or something like that. And I found probably one of the most niche websites I've ever been on. It dealt in antique golf cartoons from the 19th century from magazines like Punch. Did you see some of this?

47:14Josh Clark:Oh, yeah. My favorite one was, you know, one of the biggest no-nos you can do when you go to swing a club is to like lift your head up. Oh, yeah. I like that one too. guaranteed bad result, like keep your head down, keep your head down. And there's been all sorts of various devices over the years, like literally a thing you hang around your neck and attach to your crotch to like keep you from lifting up. But there's one of those antique cartoons had a guy with a, you know, a five foot long beard that he was standing on to keep him from lifting his head. I thought that was funny.

47:42Chuck Bryant:There's devices you attach to your crotch, keep your head down while you swing. What does it like shock you or something if you lift your head?

47:50Josh Clark:Well, no, if you lift your head up, it just pulls up, you know, and I guess pulls up at your crotch. Like, I don't think people use these. I remember seeing that like 20-something years ago. And it may have been more of a novelty, but I do remember that existed.

48:04Chuck Bryant:It was by the company that make those hard hats that hold beers and the straws come out of them?

48:09Josh Clark:Yeah, probably so.

48:10Chuck Bryant:So one of the things that golf was long known for was it was an elite white male sport or recreation or pastime. And then slowly but surely over the years, the gates opened more and more and more to women, to African-Americans in the United States. And in the meantime, though, before those gates opened, groups like women and like African-Americans, they just were like, we like golf, too. We're going to go do our own thing. So you had like the LPGA that was formed in 1950.

48:48Josh Clark:Yeah.

48:49Chuck Bryant:The Chicago Women's Golf Club, which was all African-American women, they formed their club in 1937. And then the impression I have is that the United Golfers Association, the African-American Men's Association, was like the premier golf association starting back in 1925, I think.

49:11Josh Clark:Yeah, it's great. I mean, you know, it's definitely a game and a sport where there is still this old sort of country club set that is still very white male oriented. Like no one is denying that. There's a country club sort of near my house and I have some friends that are members that I get to play at sometimes. And they're a pretty like progressive model, but they still have like the men's lounge at, you know, the club that's got, you know, the pool table and the darts and the buffet and the bar and the cigars. And, you know, the women there, they play golf, but they don't have their own lounge.

49:48Josh Clark:Wow. So that kind of stuff is definitely still out there. There are clubs that have just recently like allowed women to be members or African-Americans or people from other ethnicities to be members. So that's something that sucks, but it's changing. And I think golf is as democratized as it's ever been right now, especially like you go out in Atlanta, which is very African-American town. And you go out to public courses and, you know, these are where I'm playing and the driving range like right near my house. And like I'm a minority in a lot of cases. And it's great to see. I love that the game is being spread around to more and more people.

50:27Josh Clark:One of the fun segments on the show I'm going to do is I got these little, you know, the little microphones that you see for Instagrammers. And I'm going to go out to the range and like talk to people and stuff. And, you know, that's going to be one of the segments. So that's awesome. It's changed a lot over the years for the better, I think. And people are I see guys with their girlfriends out there a lot now, which seems something I'd never used to see that it's becoming like a coupled sport more than ever, which is awesome.

50:51Chuck Bryant:I've noticed that, too.

50:52Josh Clark:Yeah, it's cool. I love it.

50:54Chuck Bryant:So I think this is high time that you tell everybody the name of your podcast again and when they can get it and where they can get it, Chuck.

51:02Josh Clark:Yeah. Thanks, dude. In fact, I'm going to do this in lieu of listener mail since we're running long. But, you know, once again, the show is with myself and Adam Pranica. Adam's going to be on the cruise, by the way. Yeah, he is. He's my plus one. So we're going to have a good time. The three of us are. And along with Ben is coming instead of Jerry now. We should probably announce that.

51:23Chuck Bryant:Yes, it's going to be fun.

51:25Josh Clark:I know we told everyone Jerry was coming, but she can't come now.

51:29Chuck Bryant:You're going to meet producer Ben, who may or may not actually be Jerry.

51:34Josh Clark:That's right. Yeah, once again, it's called Three Putt Bogey, and it's already out. It's live, everybody. It was released once again this past Friday, September 25th. So give it a listen. I appreciate your support and appreciate your support, Josh, for allowing me to do another solo record.

51:54Chuck Bryant:I don't have any say in it whatsoever. Well, not allowing, being encouraging of it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Encouraging makes more sense. Yes, I am very encouraging. Go knock them out of the park.

52:04Josh Clark:I appreciate that. Is that a golf metaphor? It absolutely is, a home run. And I look forward to End of the World Part 2.

52:12Chuck Bryant:Oh, thanks, man. Someday, someday. You think so? Something like it, probably, eventually. I'm not sure what, but I don't know. Yeah, we'll see how it goes, and I'll let you know how taxing it is on me to do a second show again.

52:26Josh Clark:Right.

52:26Chuck Bryant:You're just going to be like, not worth it. Yeah. No, I'm sure it's going to be fun. And plus, I mean, you'll have a great excuse to golf, golf, golf. And I imagine expense it or at least write it off.

52:37Josh Clark:You know what? I can't do that. I actually checked with my accountant. Why can't you? That doesn't make any sense. Well, it's funny because I was like, that wasn't the reason I started it, but I was like, hey, man, that'd be great if I could write off stuff. She actually has, my accountant has a golf influencer and someone else on her roster, so she really knows about this. Okay. She was like, your dreams of writing off golf rounds and equipment are not going to happen. She said, but if you travel for a golf trip that is part of the show, which is going to be part of the show, when Adam and I do our golf trips, we're going to talk about them and bring microphones and stuff.

53:12Josh Clark:She said, you can probably write off the travel. Oh, that's good. So like plane tickets and hotel, maybe. Okay. That's something. It's big stuff. I'll let everyone know how the write-offs are going.

53:24Chuck Bryant:Yeah. And I'll let everyone know that you went to prison. That's right. Okay. Well, that's Chuck and Adam's podcast that's coming out. So keep an ear out for it. It's going to be great. And in the meantime, you can always email us here at Stuff You Should Know at stuffpodcast at iHeartRadio.com.

53:47Josh Clark:Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

54:03Warning,

54:04Josh Clark:the following song has been rated dangerously catchy and may not be suitable for grown-ups.

54:08Chuck Bryant:One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Knock, knock, knocking at the door. Knock, knock, knocking at the door. Five, six, who is it? Five, six, who is it? It's Cowie and Elliot. It's Cowie and Elliot.

54:26Josh Clark:Lingo Kids, only suitable for kids. If it gets stuck in mom's head, that's not our problem. Lingo Kids! Everything kids love. Download now for free.

54:37Chuck Bryant:Welcome to the haunted library.

54:40Josh Clark:Have you come in search of a tale? This podcast invites you to browse the shelves and find stories that will linger long after you've left this place. From gothic masterpieces to pulpy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find the Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.