Edinburgh surgery and the history of golf

Abstract

Individuals associated with Edinburgh surgery have been involved with the history and development of the game of golf since the fifteenth century. King James IV of Scotland (1473–1513), who ratified the surgeons’ Seal of Cause in 1506, played the game, ensuring its first Royal patronage, and he also became the first named golfer to play at a named location. In the seventeenth century,Thomas Kincaid the Younger (1661–1726) gave the first detailed description of what he regarded as the ideal stance, address and swing. John Rattray (1707–1771) signed the first rules of golf in 1744 and became almost certainly the first person whose life was saved by his golfing connections. In the nineteenth century, Laidlaw Purves (1842–1917) helped establish the Ladies’ Golfing Union and devised the modern rules of handicapping.