Golf books are boring to those who are not in love with this peculiar Scottish game. But it is amazing how quickly this colonial export brcame popular with the upper echelons of new sociesties and not just in former British empire countries. A book about a golf club celebrating the centenary of a club is likely to interest club members and golfers but few others. However the significance of the Royal Johannesburg Golf Clus is that it was established in a very young bustling , raw on the veld mining town only four years after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand and the establishment of Johannesburg. The Rand ,s mining magnates and corporate directors wanted their Wednesday afternoon and weekend leisure on the greens and speedily built their first golf links on land owned by a mining company and met the challenge of little rain, no permanent water supply and getting grass to grow . The fascinating aspect of this book is the inclusion of maps and diagrams of early Johannesburg showing where the early golf courses were located in successive decades. . In the first twenty years of the Club's existence there were five moves , for as the new mining town developed into a city and the population exploded so land close to the city's centre was in demand either for mining exploration or for property development and speculation and became absorbed by new buildings , houses , and emerging suburbs . The golf estates were shifted to the unused spots of land or to undeveloped areas on the outskirts of the new town . Johannesburg was fortunate in its early mining and professional leaders who took their leisure on the golf courses as it meant that the green lungs of the city were a feature from the early 20th century and the young city came to enjoy the benefits many golf courses . Wonderful trees were planted , grew and matured and have enriched the urban landscape . Golf courses were established in Killarney, Houghton , Auckland Park , Observatory,, Kensington but the Johannesburg Club was the premier club . Land for a permanent home was purchased in 1909 and hence the move north to beyond Orange Grove and the area that later developed as Linksfield (note the golfing association) . The title "Royal " came from the patronage and support of the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII who abdicated over his marriage to the American, Wallis Simpson ) . He was a golfer and enjoyed a game or two at the Johannesburg golf club on his empire tours.

Today some 23 years since the centenary was celebrated the club is still in existence and the best addresses in Linksfield are those that overlook the golf course of the Club. The pressure on the land of private golf clubs (they are not state assets) are under relentless pressure and through the decades Johannesburg has also lost golf courses to developers and a city ready to raise ready cash through land sales. The Country Club golf course was expropriated by the state for the development of the new state Univesity in the 1960's, the Kensington Club fell into tough financial times and was amalgamated with the Johannesburg club, the Old Johannians Golf course is now an up market housing estate . Surprisingly the name "royal " remains in the name of the club though beloning to the empire disappeared 60years ago and such prestige means little in the post 1994 South Africa.

The problem of a book of this type is that the focus is on the provincial and parochial and the details of the clubs members and all those hole in ones or top scores under par , when the real interest lies in the significance of presrving green space in a city's history and how passionate citizens might secure those links , trees, bird sanctuaries and rich plant life for future generations . Golf is the green sport that benefits everyone . ( )