European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes August 1985 puttering about the Goff course the Bard and the Birdie by Hugh Mulligan associated press was Shakespeare a golfer there is intriguing evidence that the Bard of Avon did partake of this madness with a method in it and in All likelihood did swing viciously at a flock filled leather Ball with a baffling a Cleek and a holing out As the the 3iron and the Putter were called in his certainly the game of Goff or As the dutch called was Well established in elizabethan the Oxford English dictionary dates the word Golf to which is the year the scottish parliament decreed that the Fute Ball and the Golfe be utterly crypt Doun utterly cried Down because the people were devoting More time to such diversions than practising their Archery for the common defense of the kingdom against the constant menace of neighbouring some variant of Golf has been played on the old course at Andrews since the Early 12th originally played with Small stones and a shepherds the sport was imported across the North sea by dutch who later qualified As the first authentic old it is not known whether Queen Elizabeth i Ever wielded a Royal but her Mary Queen of was a keen raised in she called the Young court attendant who carried the clubs her afterwards rendered As the tragic Mary is said to have been on the links at Leith when word came that her the Earl of had been even her worst critics concede she did the decent thing she asked to play a Century Bonnie Prince the Young Stuart is said to have disguised himself As a Caddy to escape capture by the Duke of Cumberland Shakespeare was born in 1564 in where his father was the official ale so will was just turning 40 when marys James i of came to London to succeed the childless Elizabeth and unite the kingdoms under the Crown of King James for this epochal the first Stuart King had his Fletcher and his his arro Monger and his Bow fashion him a new set of Golf As Archery declined with the Advent of club making became the salvation of the obsolescent scottish military Industrial Golf and Archery often shared the land along the especially in where in 1582 one Patrick son of the Provost of Andrews is reported to have shot an Arrow in righteous anger at archbishop Adamson for a a my kingdom for a v a distorting himself at Goff when he should have been Golf mania distracted the in 1598 we find the Kirk session in Andrews admonishing a wayward flock for playing at the Goff instead of attending Early England had several courses by the time Jamie Stuart donned the double but the Sovereign had to adjust his game from the wind and san swept scottish headlands to the Well manicured lawns of the Royal Park at the internal evidence of the 23 plays and 154 sonnets strongly suggests that who knew Scotland and its history must have ventured Forth in Hose and Buskin a predecessor of Byron Nelsons and now Payne stewarts plus fours to cry what to if not As his most unkind St Cut of All sliced into another part of the Macbeth undoubtedly was a All the scottish Kings and surely lady Macbeth had a go at the out damned spot out can Only be the anguished cry of a Duffer perhaps named for Macduff who has just shagged one into a not so Bonnie Loch or out of Bounds into the gorse or perhaps fooled the Thane of Fife had a wife where is she now lady Macbeth where some scholars but looking for her Ball in the thickets of the Heather the at which is located in the kingdom of even now the old course is so crowded on Busy with Par seeking pilgrims coming from As far away As Japan and the starter has been known to throw up his hands at the traffic Jam on the first tee and cry out like Macbeth stand not upon the order of your but go at the elegant diction of Shakespeare tragedies and comedies is  and almost Lin Forline the tragicomic language of the Royal and ancient where passions and poetry Are Ever at across the centuries we can see the Bard at tee time tossing a Blade of grass in the air and asking his Caddy sits the wind in that Corner we lend our ears to his grumbling As he Hunts for a lost Ball wherefore Are these things hid both lines Are from much ado about surely a title that had its inspiration in this exasperating Shakespeare May even have taken a few lessons from the pro at where the merry wives no doubt the Pedantic platitudes he put in the Mouth of polonius might have been taken directly from a lesson in the intricate contortions of the Back swing find out the cause of this or rather the cause of this for this effect comes by Here is Shakespeare getting off a Good drive a a very palpable hit act and grousing about one that barely made the ladies tee this is the Short and the Long of merry wives of act the Bard takes careful aim at the Flag Odds overshoots the Green and lands in a Bunker i do not set my life at a pins act he three putts four greens in a Row and moans when sorrows they come not single but in act alas and As Bogie follows upon double and triple he cries out one woe doth tread upon another so fast they act like All of the poet anguished Over a Short putt that hangs on the lip of the cup  give him death by act while pursuing this very Midsummer he worries aloud about curing his Hook mens judgments Are a parcel of their and things outward do draw the inward Quality after to suffer All Antony and act though he May Oft have denounced his game As past past past help Romeo and act Shakespeare must one Day have lucked out with a Hole in one and sent this cry heavenward in the general direction of the clubhouse veranda Holla your name to reverberate the and make the babbling gossip of the air cry out twelfth act on his worst Days the dramatist brooding by dismisses the Royal game As much matter for a May and like hamlets Captain cynically tells his playing we go to gain a Little Patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the obviously a fast player who did not linger at lining up his putts and dispatched them with a Swift the Bard could boast have a kind of alacrity in merry wives of act but he could rail against a foursome of old dodgers who refused to let him play through these tedious old fools act Ever conscious of human Shakespeare knew How tender were the ethics of the scorecard to be As this world is to be one Man picked out of ten act