According to a new exhibition, golf has a complicated history tied to colonial exploitation, despite its reputation as a sport for refined participants.
In the 19th century, according to researchers from the University of St. Andrews, the British Empire “forced” the game on colonial governments around the world.
They claim that golf’s association with British imperialism stems from the fact that golf balls were previously created using rubber obtained from colonial countries.
Gutta-percha, a type of natural rubber found on trees indigenous to southeast Asia, was harvested to manufacture golf balls for the European market.
St Andrews is known as the ‘home of golf’ due to its 600-year playing history, but the new exhibition at the university examines the sport’s controversial links.
The ‘Re-collecting Empire’ exhibition at the Wardlaw Museum in St. Andrews is currently open to the public until October 22.
It is part of the University of St. Andrews’ commitment to continue “evaluating the legacy of empire in our collections and exploring ways to construct a more fair future.”
It is also part of a larger trend of academic “decolonization” that will be intensified by the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
The exhibition opens at a moment when museums and galleries across the UK and abroad are rethinking how best to care for artifacts acquired during eras of colonial control,” said exhibition consultant and St Andrews academic Dr. Emma Bond.
Multiple voices must be included in these crucial debates if museums are to progress in a more equal manner.
“I hope that Re-collecting Empire signifies the beginning of a healthy and transparent discourse with these organizations about how to cope with the legacies of empire contained in the University’s collections,” the author writes.
Although golf began in Scotland in the 15th century, it was forbidden by King James II because it distracted him from military training.
With the implementation of the Treaty of Glasgow in 1502, restrictions on playing the game were lifted.
By the end of the 19th century, golf had expanded to Ireland, the United States, and other areas of Europe, as well as to territories of the British Empire, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
However, according to the exhibition, both cricket and golf were “pressed” across the Empire as British fans built clubs elsewhere.
Golf and cricket grew throughout the world by reproducing and enforcing British sports on colonized countries, according to an exhibit at the expo.
The natural resources of colonized nations were used to create athletic goods.
The information is presented next to the Karachi Golf Club Cup, a reward awarded by one of the numerous British-founded clubs in India during the era of the British Empire.
Gutta rubber grew most abundantly in former British colony Malaysia, where, according to some experts, collecting the rubber for Western markets caused ecological devastation.
Scientists of the Victorian era discovered that rubber was an ideal and profitable material for coating the rapidly expanding telegraph lines.
Its natural bounce made it suitable for making a new ‘gutta ball,’ which replaced the earlier ‘feathery ball’ constructed from feathers and stitched leather and was reportedly devised in 1843 by St. Andrews student Robert Adams Paterson.
The Re-collecting Empire exhibition also contains displays indicating that European textile mills drew inspiration from colonial patterns “originating outside.”
Therefore, the textile mills “exploited the originating culture” by appropriating and profiting from their styles.
The exhibition is financed by Museum Galleries Scotland, which has also funded an investigation of national linkages to the slave trade across Scotland.
A copy of the Qur’an that originally belonged to the Sultan of Mysore, a Tibetan stone, a Chinese bell used in religious rites, and a statue of a Buddhist monk are also on display.
Contributions also include personal reflections, annotations, and quotations, in addition to poetry and art, which provide voices and perspectives “that have been frequently overlooked.”
Dr. Catherine Eagleton, director of libraries and museums at the University of St. Andrews, stated that this exhibition is the product of a great deal of deliberation and conversation regarding the colonial legacies in the collection.
It is an attempt to investigate these tales openly and experiment with new ways of conveying them, with the voices of people who have been excluded from the conversation at the forefront.
