Hugh Dodd - News
As a feature writer and editor Hugh has contributed to a wealth of Scottish and UK periodicals, journals, books and magazines since 1980. His articles on golf, art, antiques, history and interviews with Scottish sporting celebrities have had wide appeal and cover a spectrum of Scottish sporting and artistic activity over the last four decades.
The Greatest Game
- The Ancyent & Healthfulle Exercyse of Golff
Released 24 June 2010, The Greatest Game is a collaboration between Hugh Dodd and Professor David Purdie with introduction by Colin Montgomerie. The book is available in general edition or a special Limited Edition from Birlinn Publishers, Edinburgh.
From the Introduction...
The origins of this book lie several years back in an original concept I had to try and depict and describe the 'types' and manners of Club golfers. Being of that noble breed myself, I knew there to be a wealth of idiosyncratic behaviour, ancient etiquette, horrid ties and expostulating secretaries to draw on. Having recently completed a book on the racing world (with the late, great, Jeffrey Bernard), the temptation to cast a lucid eye over my colleagues and competitors on the links was irresistible.
Hundreds of scraps of paper, sketches, drawings and pictures later, I had accumulated a sizeable portfolio on the subject, but as yet had no clear path to publication – words were not my forte and my pen kept drifting to the drawing board.
A happy co-incidence led me to the Great Guildhall of Glasgow one late November evening to hear the renown Professor Purdie speak at the incorporation of Skinners & Glovers. A brilliant speech exposing the vicissitudes of his early life on Prestwick's links and the vagaries of the game in general led me to suspect his knowledg eof the golfing man was deep and that he maintained a profound reverence for historical inaccuracy to boot. And from after-dinner drinks to the links we continued....
Our conversation carried us across days and weeks, fairways, greens and 19th holes as we explored our shared love of all things golf from the history of mashie-niblicks to ruminations on the 'Club Bore'. David's column on Dr. Bogey for Golf International and my illustrations of modern day golfers merged nicely, but Rembrandt had appeared on my board and Shakespeare was just emerging...
Several lunches later we conceived of the idea to create a irreverent 'History of Golf' with a few modern archetypes thrown in for good measure – the fact that most of the known history of golf dated from the 1890's onwards did not deter us, and with impeccable research and application we have, I believe, arrived at a definitive version of events - The Greatest Game.
