Musselburgh - The Cradle of Golf CONNOISSEUR Leatherbound Edition
"THE CONNOISSEUR EDITION" is a leatherbound hardback edition strictly limited to 79 numbered and signed copies only.
This limited edition of 79 represents Willie Park Jr’s average score for his winning morning and afternoon rounds of the Open Championship playoff against Andrew Kirkcaldy at Musselburgh in 1889. It was a significant event and the end of an era. It marked the end of Scottish domination of the event over the previous 29 years. It was also the last time that the Open was played at Musselburgh and probably the start of its slow decline. This numbered edition, signed by the author, and case bound in dark blue leather is published 100 years after Willie Park Jnr’s death in Edinburgh, in 1925.
The long-awaited story, beautifully written by Mungo Park - descendant of Willie Park Sr., Willie Park Jr., and Mungo Park, about the rise of Musselburgh and the Park family in the history of the game of golf.
Between 1832 and 1892, Musselburgh was, quite literally, ahead of the game. In this period, five of the most important clubs in the country were located there and their entourage of club makers, ball makers and caddies created a critical mass that drove the game forward with the same energy as its industrial growth. The raw materials of early golf had previously been established in Musselburgh but ‘club golf’, codified and regulated in Leith by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in 1744, had transformed the game.
When the Honourable Company moved to Musselburgh, the ‘modern’ game was forged in an atmosphere that combined the town’s reputation for fresh air and recreation with the practical and economic realities of coal mining and industrial
growth. At times it was an uneasy coupling, but out of it there emerged a reputation and tenacity in golf that was uniquely Scottish in character, both robust and refined. From this unlikely melting pot came a game that has become irresistibly international.
Some of Musselburgh’s lively combination of charm and energy can be found in this original book by its author, a 4th generation descendant of the famous Park family, which features page upon page of previously untold stories and unseen images. With family trees of its golfing families and a chronology of golfers, writers and artists from the town at a formative time, this book truly reclaims Musselburgh’s proper place in the history of golf.
The final edition is 396 pages.
