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“Has It Ever Happened to You?”
He had offered her a stroke a hole--he is now five down, and playing even--and he did so want to make an impression.
This
double-page cartoon about golf points to several trends in
early-twentieth century America: the rise of the sport's
popularity (at least among the well-to-do), the social acceptability of
women playing golf, the model of the independent young woman (who
anticipates the flapper of the 1920s), and the increased liberty in
dating (the couple does not appear to be chaperoned). The young
man has, to his way of thinking, been gallant by giving the young woman
a stroke a hole. The condescending move, however, has left him
perplexed as the woman has pulled even and is about to sink a putt on
the sixth hole, while his ball has already come up short. How will
he demonstrate his worth as a man if the woman proves to be his equal
(or--horrid thought--wins!)? Meanwhile, the amused caddies confer
in the background.The exact origins of golf are lost in the mists of history, but the
ancient Romans played a prototype of the sport with club-shaped sticks
and feather-stuffed balls. A similar game appeared in other
European countries, and Scotland and England both lay claims to have
developed the modern sport. St. Andrews, Scotland, is the home of
the oldest golf course in the world, dating back to the sixteenth
century. With the expansion of the British Empire in the
nineteenth century, gutta-percha, a rubber like gum from Southeast Asia,
replaced feathers in golf balls. The first British Open was played
at Prestwick, Scotland, in 1860.
Although popular in the British Isles, attempts since colonial times
to introduce golf to America failed until the 1880s. In 1882, John
Reid opened the first country club in the United States at Brookline,
Massachusetts. Along with hunting, racing, and polo, the wealthy
members could play golf. In 1888, St. Andrews Club in Yonkers, New
York, opened as the nation's first golf club, and other courses soon
appeared in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and other cities,
usually in suburban areas. In 1893, the Chicago Golf Club near
Wheaton, Illinois, became the first 18-hole course in the country
(previous courses being 6-, 8-, 9-, and 12-hole). The following
year, the United States Golf Association was founded, and by 1898
counted 103 clubs as members. During the 1890s, the sport spread
westward, with 20 courses in the Pacific coast states by 1897.
In earlier decades, social norms for women deemed that, except for
horseback riding (side-saddle) and ice-skating, the strenuous exertion
of sports was improper for ladies. More liberal attitudes in the
1890s allowed women to participate (often with men) in cycling, lawn
tennis, and golf. The latter was particularly respectable for
upper-class women because it required less physical exertion than many
sports. The illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson in the 1890s
popularized an image of the ideal American young woman as tall,
beautiful, and physically fit. The Gibson Girl was based on the
elite sportswoman of the period. Gone were the corsets and
bustles, replaced by a shirtwaist and long skirt that emphasized her
natural figure. These idealized sportswomen were independent and
sexy, though assumed to be innocent, unlike the worldlier 1920s flapper.
While women golfers were allowed on men's courses in the early years
of the sport's arrival in America, they were often restricted to
off-peak hours. Consequently, women began to organize their own
golf associations in the 1890s, and even opened a women's golf course at
Morris Country Club in New Jersey. The first national golf
championship for women was held in 1895, only one year after the first
men's championship. In 1900, Margaret Abbott won an Olympic gold
medal in golf, the first American woman to achieve that honor. In
the twentieth century, women like Mildred "Babe" Zaharias
brought new prestige to women's golf and helped found the Ladies
Professional Golf Association. In 1976, Judy Rankin became the
first woman to win over $100,000 as a professional golfer, while Kathy
Whitworth passed the $1 million mark in 1981.
One sports historian has labeled the first two
decades of the twentieth century the “great years” for golf. Inspired
by a visit to the Goodrich Rubber factory in Akron, Ohio, amateur golfer
Dr. Coburn Haskell introduced a rubber-core golf ball in 1902. The
innovation made the sport livelier and consequently attracted more
participants. Golf in the United States was also enhanced in the
early-twentieth century by the promotional tours or immigration of top
professional players from the British Isles. In 1908, the year this cartoon appeared, Harper’s
Weekly presented a series of sketches (including one in this issue)
on famous (male) professional golfers. Golf continued to grow in
popularity throughout the twentieth, although it remained a sport of the
wealthy until well after World War I.
Robert C. Kennedy
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