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You must tee your Ball, within a Club's length of the
Hole.
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Your tee must be upon the Ground.
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You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the
tee.
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You are not to remove, Stones, Banes or any Break Club,
for the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green and that
only within a Club's length of your Ball.
-
If your Ball comes amang Watter or any wattery filth, you
are at liberty to take out your Ball and bringing it behind the hazard and
teeing it, you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary a Stroke
for so getting out your Ball.
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If your Balls be found any where touching one another, you
are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.
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At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the
Hole, and not to play upon your Adversary a Ball, not lying in your way to
the Hole.
-
If you should lose your Ball, by its being taken up, or
any other way you are to go back to the Spot, where you struck last and
drop another Ball, and allow your adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.
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Na man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed to mark his
way to the Hole with his Club or any thing else.
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If a Ball be stopped by any person, Horse, Dog, or any
thing else, the Ball so stopped must be played where it lyes.
-
If you draw your Club, in order to Strike and proceed so
far on the Stroke as to be bringing down your Club; If then, your Club
shall break, in any way, it is to be Accounted a Stroke.
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He whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to
play first.
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Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the preservation
of the Links, nor the Scholars Hole or the Soldiers Lines, Shall be
accounted a Hazard; But the Ball is to be taken out teed and played with
any Iron Club.
John
Rattray
Captain of Golf
March 7, 1744
Historical Account
Regarding
Dr. John Rattray,
Captain of the Golf...
There is
no doubt, whatsoever, that the year 1744 marked an important event in the
history of golf when the first-ever written Rules of Golf were penned and
remained, essentially, undiscovered until 1937 when one C.B. Clapcatt,
during his examination of the Minute Book or the Company of Gentlemen
Golfers at Edinburgh, Scotland, found the Rules recorded on the last two
pages. The pages contained both the original Rules of Golf, thirteen
Articles in all, and the signature of John Rattray, Captain of The Golf.
Today, the Club is located at Muirfield, East Lothian, Scotland. The Rules,
as presented, are a copy of these contained in the Minute Book and thus
reflect the phonetic spelling and grammar of the day, 07-March-1744.
Rattray,
a surgeon, won the coveted Silver Club, which has been presented to the
Gentlemen Golfers by the Edinburgh Town Council for annual competition, in
both 1744 and 1745. Today, two and one half centuries later, there are five
such Silver Clubs, as each Captain attaches an inscribed silver ball to the
club. In 1980, the fifth Silver Club was presented to Jack Nicklaus, at
Muirfield Village, in Ohio, USA.
In 1746,
John Rattray's older brother, James Rattray, the Laird of Craighall Rattrayy,
as a token of support the the Jacobite cause, (supporters of the exiled
Scottish King's claim to the British throne), suggested that John Rattray
offer his medical services to Bonnie Prince Charlie (the king in exiles
oldest son) as his personal physician during the Uprising. On 16-April-1746,
after the battle of Culloden (the last battle fought on British soil, to try
and reinstate the Scottish Kings to the throne of Britain), Rattray was
captured by the English-led forces and sentenced to be executed. Fortunately
for Rattray, his good friend and golfing companion, Lord President Forbes,
who chose not to take sides during the Uprising, had considerable influence
and intervened on behalf of Rattray and his life was spared. Eventually,
Rattray was able to return to his golfing and was, again, Captain of Golf,
in 1751.
It is
with much pleasure that the Clan Rattray Society, formed in 1993 and based
in Perthshire, Scotland, where Rattrays have been known to have lived since
the year 1044, presents the Rules of Golf in this form for the enjoyment and
display by golfers around the world.
James
Rattray of Perth, Chairman
Clan Rattray Society
01-September-1998
See a pdf about
him from Leith Rules Golf Society
