An Ode to the Art of Architecture

Those of you who know me, know of my affection for golf history, golf course architecture and antique golf art. As we count down the weeks and days to the 2024 Open Championship, I thought I would share what I believe to be the greatest combination of history, architecture and art- the stunning and underappreciated work of John Smart.

In the 1880s, John Smart traveled across Scotland to create his seminal work, “The Golf Greens of Scotland.” Over the course of 5 years John Smart visited 20 golf courses both inland and Linksland alike to capture the beauty of their design with the strokes of his brush.

I believe his work to be one of first ever visualizations of golf course architecture in history and I am near certain that he was the first artist to make the beauty of the golf course more important than the golfers who were playing it. In his twenty paintings (minus one), the golfers are no more important than the seagulls flying above. In my mind, John Smart was one of the first golf course architecture junkies and his influence is felt in almost every golf course painting that had followed.

In this newsletter, I would like to share with you some of my favorites from this collection - some for their architectural features, one for its ugliness and another for its military time capsule. I am so happy to present the works of John Smart.

Can Hell Be Beautiful?

In my opinion, John Smart’s, Hell Bunker is his magnum opus.

In his painting, Hell Bunker lives up to its name- a stunningly scary hellscape of sand and turf, certain to keep both man and woman from veering off the straight and narrow. As your eyes drift up from Hell, the observer is pulled to the heavenly image of that Auld Grey Toon. Betwixt Heaven & Hell there are three golfers, (perhaps in purgatory )one of which may or may not be Old Tom Morris.

As a biased golf art lover my affection for this wonderful painting is on par the paintings depicting Dante’s Inferno.

“In Pandy Play Two More” - Musselburgh

A time capsule of change

Old Musselburgh Links is the only 9 hole golf course to host the Open Championship and it did so 6 times between 1874 and 1889. The beauty of this painting is that it captures an extinct and once famous bunker as well as a seaside links that is no longer on the sea!

One of the most famous bunkers of the old world was known as Pandemonium (Pandy) Bunker. Pandy’s massive expanse elicited fear & dread from the wayward golfer. It appears our artist wasn’t without a sense of humor in naming this work of art, “In Pandy Play Two More.” Unfortunately for golfers today, Pandemonium no longer exists. It has been buried & this painting represents one of the very few depictions of this extinct bunker.

Perhaps even more unbelievable is that this seaside links course no longer resides on the sea! Musselburgh Links even has a hole called, “The Sea Hole” and yet no sea. How is this possible? In the last 100 years the seascape occupying the boundary of the course has been pushed away from the links. The fill, which was considerable, for this one time seaside links, has left the casual golfer to think that the course was always inland.

A Military Time Capsule at Lanark

While the image isn’t the most interesting image depicting the beauty of Lanark’s golf design, the military encampment in the background captures a bit of military history in the area. The long running military encampment at Lanark was often disputed by the membership and it likely didn’t help that none of its officers were members of the club. My appreciation of John Smart’s Lanark is centered around a military invasion that didn’t require a bullet to be fired.

Is There Beauty in Ugliness?

Out of my favorite John Smart’s paintings is arguably the ugliest. The painting captures a golf course that went extinct only a couple of years ago- Alexandra Park in Glasgow.

What is there to love in a benign painting depicting a simple golf scene with smoke stacked pollution? To me this painting represents the battle between what is ancient and natural and the new and unnatural. It takes something as innocence as playing outside in nature & introduces the pollution of progress.

What is amazing about this 140 year old painting is that neither the golf course nor the smokestacks exist anymore. The natural & the unnatural seemed to have cancelled each other out. What is left is this beautiful stain of a painting and I mean that in the best way- I love it!

Thank you for reading this newsletter and sharing it with your friends.

Until next time…

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T. Lewis