The Scotsman
Masons get in the swing Simon Pia THE Masons, a much maligned body, are indeed unsung heroes, as one of the Brotherhood once tried to convince us. We were never too sure until we picked up our erstwhile colleague Chris Cairns’s new book No Tie Required (Headline) about the unsung delights of Scotland’s public golf courses. (And although we are biased we are more than prepared to sing the delights of this pawky tome.) It seems if it hadn’t been for the "brothers", golf would have withered on the vine, but it was the Brotherhood that kept it on the boil during the 17th and 18th century when the poor could not afford to play and there was no royal patronage. Chris notes that other authors such as Robert Price and John Lowerson highlighted the masonic grip on the game, with the first ruing the lack of early records due to masonic secrecy while the latter reflected on the shared characteristics of golf clubs and masonic societies: "namely heavy drinking, wagering, secretive selection and initiating procedures, and ‘picturesque uniforms’." As Chris tees off in Chapter One at Musselburgh Old Course, home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers from 1836 to 1892, he ponders whether it is "just pure coincidence then that the Honourable Company’s old clubhouse in Musselburgh is now the Freemasons Hall". Perhaps that’s also why plus-fours were so popular on the links, as one didn’t have to roll up one’s trouser leg.Golf and Freemasonry
Masons get in the swing