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Mary at the 1st Tee
Mary Queen of Scots on the 1st Tee
Mary Queen of Scots was an avid arbiter of the game of golf in the 1560’s. A known golf junkie of the day she initiated several innovations to the game, including a focus on the mental aspects of the game which still resonates today.
While we have no known record of the good Mary’s golf score or official handicap (she surely must have been a duffer, if not in lineage, then in her play), Queen Mary did travel the links in style, followed by an entourage of cadets, sons of French noblemen, that she brought over from the mainland (that would be France), after the death of her first husband.
Not having the advantage nor the convenience of either a golf cart (alas, another work left on the drawing board of the great genius Leonardo Da Vinci) nor a golf bag (which was to come in the 1880’s), these cadets, sporting finely pleated collars and heavy gowns of silk and velvet, followed Mary Queen of Scots as she strolled from hole to hole engaging in fine conversation and perhaps assisting the fair Queen with her club selection and yardage.
The Scots, of course, being neither bilingual nor accustomed to such a following, pronounced the French ‘cadet’ as ‘caddie’ and the name has stuck.
Interestingly enough, the term ‘fore’ comes from this era as well. Given the unkempt state of the links, the possibility of losing one’s ball was extremely high, so ‘fore-caddies’ were sent ahead to watch where the wayward ball might land. Prior to giving the ball a whack, the good golfer would shout to ensure that the fore-caddie was watching for the ball.
Unfortunately for Mary Queen of Scots, her love for the game led to her downfall. Her reputation, already having being sullied by a dalliance with the Earl of Bothwell, sealed her fate after being seen golfing shortly after her husband, Lord Darnley, was killed. The good Scots felt it inappropriate to be golfing when she should have been in mourning. As Scottish writer Lewine Mair, wrote, Mary’s golf career was ‘dramatically cut short when she failed to maintain that relationship between her head and her shoulders which all the games great teachers have deemed essential.’ So much for worrying about swing plane.
