It must be seen to that the canker of commercialism is never permitted
to eat its way into the game, for if it were the game would be ruined,
as other games and sports have been ruined in that way. It is not that
there is any serious danger of golf coming by such a fate, for its
people are too well imbued with what might be called the moral sporting
sense, and have too much discrimination to permit themselves to be
deceived by the insidiousness of the temptations of the commercial
adventurer. But it is well that the situation and its weaknesses should
be fully realised, so that all players and lovers of the game, of high
and low degree, and of long experience and short, may be fully alive to
them, and so on their guard. And it must be considered, at the outset of
any reflection upon such matters as this, as the most simple and
elementary principle, and that which is most indisputable, that there
is money in everything in which masses of people take an interest, and
the greater the interest the more money is there in it--money for the
adventurers who come forward to feed that interest in whatsoever guise
they may come. Golf has become a passion with a large section of
mankind, and therefore there is much money in it for those who will
humour this passion, and there are many evidences that the outside world
is not unappreciative of this circumstance.
It is said by some of the best judges of golf, that the rubber-cored
ball has spoiled the game. That is a matter upon which opinions to some
extent differ; but at all events it can hardly be held that the new ball
has improved the game, that is to say, that it has made it any better
game than it used to be, though it may be admitted that, by making it
easier to play, it has resulted in greater enjoyment being given to a
vast number of people than would have been if it had never been
introduced. But, in any case, why have we the rubber-cored ball in
practically exclusive use at the present time, when the feeling of the
golf world on its first introduction was overwhelmingly against it? It
is due entirely to commercialism, to that and to nothing else. If
enterprising business men who cared for their bank accounts first and
their golf afterwards, had not seen that there were fortunes in the
rubber-cored ball if it were forced on the players, there would have
been no rubber-cored ball to-day. The golfing public was quite compelled
to use it, though it may not have been realised at the time, and one
result was that the game had to pass through a period of unrest and
inconvenience lasting for three or four seasons, while courses were
being altered and lengthened, the new ball was being improved, and its
various manufacturers were engaged in the attempt to exterminate each
other, and there was a foolish interest generated in the breaking day by
day of the record scores of courses. All this upheaval was due entirely
to the introduction of an alien element into the spirit of the links,
the element of commercialism. Of course one must admit that it is this
commercialism that brings about many of the greatest aids to our
completer civilisation and comfort, and it has not to be regarded as an
enemy to all things. It is the moving spirit of progress and
improvement; but it is not generally welcome to golf, because we want
neither progress nor improvement in the actual game of golf, but simply
the game as it has been handed down to us. In this matter we are
entirely and wisely conservative. With the rubber ball in vogue, the
case now is that a great industry has been built up, in which there are
hundreds of thousands of pounds of capital involved, and in the outer
zone of golf there is a desperate war being waged by rival
manufacturers. The golf world has to take care that this war is kept
where it is, and perhaps all the better if it goes on.
Generally such a thing is to the benefit of the golfer; but all the time
there are guerilla raids into the inner zone, and while the amateur
player has not been in any way affected by this commercialism, that can
hardly be said of all others associated with the game. Business is not
sport, and sport is not business, and to a certain extent the
legitimate interests of the golfer and the ball manufacturer are opposed
in this matter. Just as it was with bicycles in their “boom” days, and
as it is with motors now, it is to the interests of manufacturers to get
their specialities used on important occasions, and when successes are
likely to be made with them. The certificate of merit which is thus
given is very valuable and is talked about. The less thoughtful public
says to itself, “Surely, then, this thing is better than others,” and
buys it accordingly. Such a conclusion is not logical, and, of course,
is quite unwarranted. Successes achieved with it certainly indicate that
there cannot be anything wrong with an article, but they do not prove
superiority. They could only do that if it were established beforehand
that the human element in the equation were either inferior or not more
than equal to the human elements in opposition. It is the same as if
they were to advertise and make a great point of the fact that the
winner of the Derby was saddled with a particular make of saddle. But in
the racing world they believe primarily in their horses. The case with
golf at present is not in the least serious. One may feel sure there is
no danger of amateur players giving way to money temptations of any
sort, or temptations in kind either. The sporting sentiment of the game
is too strong for that. If it were not for that the fear for the safe
future of golf would be great. Every sport that has been attacked in
this way has been killed from the point of view of good health and
purity.
There is another possible contingency, though as yet a remote one, in
which commercialism may infringe injuriously upon the game, and that is
in exploiting it as a spectacle and charging “gate money” to the public.
Some people say that golf is not a game that can be used as a spectacle
like football and cricket; but that is not entirely true. The interest
that is created in cricket and football matches is largely of an
artificial and manufactured character. A good drive at golf is quite as
fine a thing to look at as a snick to the boundary on the cricket field.
Where the difference comes in from the public point of view at present
is in the fact that in the case of an important cricket match the public
are brought to understand that an enhanced value is attached to each
stroke, and therefore there is the more interest in watching it played.
Would there not be at least as much public interest in watching a great
player attempt to hole a curly two-yard putt if a championship or a side
wager of a couple of hundred pounds were depending on it? The
temperament of the spectator counts for something in this question of
what is a good game for a spectacle, and it has to be remembered that
the temperaments of the British sporting crowds have been trained
towards cricket and football. Fifteen years ago there was not more than
a tenth of the number of spectators at the big football matches as there
are in these days, though there were practically as many of them played.
And that golf has an attraction, which might very easily become an
overpowering one for the spectator, was proved when the international
foursome between the leading professionals for £400 was played in 1905,
when, on three courses in different parts of the country, there was an
average attendance of spectators of about ten thousand each day. That
was simply because the match had been talked about and a special
interest had become attached to it.
On one of these courses “gate money” was charged, and again in 1906, on
the occasion of another professional foursome, a charge for admission to
the course to see the play was made by the local club. It has been
mutely understood as a principle that no such charges should ever be
made, being a violation of the spirit in which golf is played--the
spirit that suggests that the game is for the men who play it, and for
nobody else--and it can be fancied that the success of the “gate” on
these occasions may have put ideas into the minds of enterprising
commercial people, as indeed it is known it did. There is the danger,
then, that some time an attempt may be made to hold golf matches as a
show. If it were successful it would mean a complete upheaval of the
game. If the professionals found that they “drew” to the extent of
hundreds of pounds at a time, they would naturally be discontented with
moderate fees for playing. They would demand shares of the gate; they
would receive perhaps hundreds for playing on important occasions, and
the modest, unassuming working professional, as we know him now, would
exist no longer, the cohesion between the two sections in our little
state of golf would be loosened, amateurism might suffer if only by the
sense of mediocrity that would be thrust upon it, and the game would not
be the same. All the tricks of trades would come into golf at
once--“signing on,” bartering, bluffing, and even cheating. Considering
the enormous “boom” in golf that is going on at present, and the
millions of money that are spent on it in one way and another, it is
wonderful that it has retained its purity,--not wonderful, perhaps,
when you take the moral sporting quality of the golfer into
consideration,--but still wonderful on an ordinary reckoning. Its
continued purity may have given rise to an exaggerated sense of
security. Certainly none of us can believe in the possibility of its
sinking to the state which has just been suggested; but it is better to
realise that the facts are as stated, and that there is the chance of
such a thing happening at some future time, so that at the first sign of
the enemy’s advance the golf world may be armed and ready to attack and
kill it. It is one of those evils that will come insidiously when it
does come, and will have gained a hold before we are aware of its
presence.
Another feature of this increase of commercialism in relation to golf is
in the realisation of the magnetic power of the game by promoters of
building estates, and private persons who exploit the game in one way or
another, chiefly through the medium of new courses. In these cases there
is no great harm done, but they are an infringement in some sense of the
principle that the game should not be played for the benefit of other
people. Everywhere speculators in estates are making golf courses first
and building houses afterwards; and the other day, when such a course,
made with this object, was established not far from London, there were
“press views” and all the other accompaniments of the launching of a
commercial undertaking, while it was announced that to promote its
future success matches would be arranged between leading professionals,
and efforts would be made to enlist the sympathy of the public in
them--to the advantage of the speculators who were sinking their money
in the development of this estate. We do not like the look of this. Here
the game is to be played not for the sake of the game altogether, but
for these proprietors of land and houses. It is most obvious
commercialism. And it is certainly not golf.
Some golfers may say that after all they are not very much affected by
this sort of thing so far, and are not likely to be. Is it worth while
bothering about? they may ask. A man who has the true spirit of the
links within him will not ask the question, nor will he think that this
writer has laboured the warning that is hereby conveyed. Of all the
things in golf that matter the most for its future welfare, this is the
most important, for it might conceivably be a question of life and death
with the game, and it is time that the whole of the golf world
understood and appreciated, and then at every opportunity henceforth, in
small matters as well as in large ones, set itself against all
influences that are not for the good of the game. It is right and proper
that the makers of golfing goods should practise their commercialism to
the utmost extent of their capacity outside the area of the game, but
not inside our doors. It is ultimately to the advantage of the players
that they should do so. But except those who make these goods, we deny
that others who do not play have the right to make money out of our
game, if they might spoil it for ourselves in so doing.