Legendary voice of golf, Peter Alliss, joins the F2G team.  This time - where it all began (maybe!)

Believe it or not there are some people who think golf is a slow, pedestrian, boring, fuddy-duddy, class-riddled game, played only by the upper echelons of society.

If you look into the history of the game you’ll see that nothing could be further from the truth. Even in the earliest days, the mid-1700s,the game was played by the ‘caddies’ of the day. Golf was in its embryonic stage and the mighty landowners, or indeed anyone with some money, was getting involved in this new pastime.

In those far off days a set of clubs might comprise as many as 30, with wooden shafts which snapped with great regularity – so caddies were needed. They, in turn, took up the game and from there the ‘toffs’ arranged money matches – rather like the jousting days of the knights of the round table – between ‘my man and yours’ for 20 guineas, or some such grand figure.

No records were kept of those early matches which, in a way, is surprising, but there are tales that the people involved in such challenges had no wish for their bets – indiscretions, call them what you will – to be recorded for others to read. No matter what you read, nobody really knows the actual time or place when golf began. It’s pretty certain a thousand – maybe two thousand – years ago, people knocked stones about with a stick and that might have led to the earliest days of golf.

Holland has a game played on ice which bares a certain resemblance to golf as we know it, but it was Scotland that took the game to another level. Links land – the area between the high tide mark and arable land – was poor quality, sometimes used as grazing for hardy cattle and sheep; but that’s where the very first golf courses were created and where we still play today, St Andrews being a classic example.

Over the coming months I shall be bringing you stories from this wondrous game, which I hope you’ll enjoy – tales of crusty, fiery members, eccentric secretaries who frighten the life out of everybody, or the early caddies who played such a big part in golf’s development. So here’s a little story to tickle your appetite.

Imagine St Andrews, a miserable day, the rain sweeping across the course. A lone American visitor arrives with one great desire: to play round the Old Course. Old Tom, one of the veteran caddies, was the only one still hanging around the caddy shed; rather reluctantly he made his way to the first tee, accompanied by the American visitor. And off they went.

To say the American was a poor player would be paying him a great compliment – he was quite appalling. The weather conditions matched his golf, he insisted on holing out on every hole, and there was a cry of “Eureka!” at the 8th, the first hole he’d actually played under 10 strokes. To celebrate he reached into his golf bag, pulled out a bottle of whisky, took a slug, replaced it and carried on.

Another couple of holes went by and the whisky bottle came out again. Now they turned into the ever-freshening wind and rain.  On the 13th tee the visitor took yet another hearty swig and prepared to hit his tee shot. The amazing thing was they’d lost only four balls up to this point. On and on they went, eventually arriving at the 15th green when the exasperated American looked at Tom, took another swig of the bottle, and uttered the immortal words: “Isn’t there a dry spot anywhere in this accursed land?”

To which Tom replied: “Aye, you could try the back of my throat...” Sadly the irony was wasted on our American friend, but it was 45 years ago. Some things never change.