St Andrews will always be able to defend itself robustly as both the birthplace and spiritual home of golf despite a renewed claim from Leith that the sport began there.
St Andrews Partnership manager Patrick Laughlin insists there is no doubt the Fife town is the true home of golf despite the Queen giving her blessing to a statue of one of golf’s founding fathers marking Leith Links as the birthplace of the sport.
Plans for the bronze tribute to John Rattray the winner of the first Open golf competition at Leith Links in 1744 have rekindled the view that golf as we know it may have developed on the south side of the Forth.
The Leith Rules Golf Society is to mark Rattray’s achievements with a statue by renowned Fife sculptor David Annand It described the royal seal of approval as a “major milestone” but Mr Lauglin insisted: “St Andrews has long been recognised around the world as the home of golf.
“Other places, both in Scotland and overseas, have of course played an important part in the development of golf but, backed by irrefutable historical evidence, St Andrews will always be able to defend itself robustly as both the birthplace and spiritual home of the sport.”
Golf historian Roger McStravick, author of St Andrews In The Footsteps of Tom Morris, said: “Leith Links has a fine history including being the site where Charles I heard of the Irish rebellion, whilst playing golf there in 1641.
“However, St Andrews is known as the home of golf for many reasons. Golf has been played here from at least the middle of the 16th century, if not earlier.
“The reason why we play 18 holes in golf is because of the Society of St Andrews Golfers reducing the St Andrews links down from 22 holes to 18 in 1764.
“The use of tin cups on the green and separate teeing ground, again arguably St Andrews.
“The first prolific golf course designer who spread the game of golf like no other, Tom Morris was born and bred in St Andrews.
“Golf’s first professional Allan Robertson, St Andrews. Golf clubhouses and their typical set up following the officers’ mess formula was again St Andrews. Home to the rules of golf today, again, St Andrews.
“The list goes on and on. That is why brave men are reduced to quivering wrecks on the first tee of the Old Course, as it is known today.
“It has an aura and history that truly is second to none. Whilst Leith Links rightly deserves its place in golf history, St Andrews is the definitive home of golf for both very credible historical and practical reasons.”
Rattray, who was surgeon to Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite rising of 1745, signed off golf’s first recorded rules, written by competitors at Leith Links, leading some to believe it is the home of golf rather than St Andrews.