GOLF has come a long way in the past 100 years. How would the founding fathers of what became Pike Hills Golf Club have reacted to Ian Poulter's Union flag trousers, which caused a flap at the Open last month?

With apoplexy, we must presume. Mind you, judging by the photographs in Hugh Murray's new book A Golfing Odyssey, York players have not always been blessed with sartorial expertise themselves.

Hugh is not a golfer. When commissioned to write this book he had to seek explanations for such opaque terms as greensomes and standard scratch cards.

But he is York's premier historian, and has written another thorough and fascinating account of a piece of the city's past.

A Golfing Odyssey is more than just a book. It is a souvenir. Every one of the 700-plus member of Pike Hills Golf Club is to receive a copy to celebrate its centenary.

That anniversary fell a week ago today. In January 2003, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club agreed that Pike Hills had a continuous history that would allow it to celebrate its 100th birthday on July 26, 2004. All last week the club hosted special events, including a round in which members dressed as their counterparts did in 1904.

The origin of the club can be traced back further, to the end of the 19th century. York solicitor George Stegmann Gibb started a new golf club on Knavesmire in the 1890s. It grew to be an 18-hole course, but the long grass meant it was only playable between September and April.

Cows and horses grazing on the stray, and families taking their daily constitutional there, were added hazards for the keen golfer.

So the club moved to Strensall Common, where a new course was laid. It was officially opened in June 1904 and by August the transfer from Knavesmire was complete.

But not everyone was happy with the move. A breakaway group founded the Knavesmire Golf Club a century ago. Soon they had employed a full-time greenkeeper to deal with the unique challenges of this course: "His duties consist of doing whatever work may be requested on the links including the removal of manure," the job description said.

The special circumstances of Knavesmire also warranted additional rules, including this one: "a ball lying in hoof marks where a club can be passed over the mark without touching the ball may be lifted and dropped away from the hole at a penalty of one stroke".

Having a course open to everyone but no purpose-built clubhouse were twin obstructions to the Knavesmire club's development. In 1912 members were given the chance to resign to join the newly-formed Heworth Golf Club: 38 took it.

Another solution was then proposed. York Corporation had taken over Knavesmire in 1907, so why not make it a municipal course?

This idea gained growing support. But then the war intervened. "By 1915 the competition for the two major trophies had been abandoned and by the end of the year the Knavesmire was being used as an airfield by B Flight of 33 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps whose activities encroached on part of the course," Hugh writes.

After the war, the Knavesmire Golf Club moved on. At a special general meeting, in April 1920, it was agreed to transfer the funds, the cups and surviving members to the newly-formed Railway Institute Golf Club.

York Railway Institute had opened in 1889. Its purpose was to inform and educate railway employees and their families. But when, in 1919, York Corporation took over its educational work, the institute had to find a new role. It began to provide leisure facilities for its members, including rooms in the Queen Street headquarters for people who played bagatelle, billiards and "who wished to indulge in the doubtful activity of smoking".

The first outdoor sport the institute introduced was golf.

The York Railway Institute Golf Club, incorporating the Knavesmire club, played on a nine-hole course laid out by York Corporation on Hob Moor.

Men of standing agreed to be the officers, Hugh recalls.

"Sir Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson, Baron Knaresborough, chairman of the NER since 1912, was invited to become president.

"The general manager, Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth, and a number of high-ranking railway officers, together with James Hamilton, general manager of the Yorkshire Insurance Company and DL Pressley, editor of the Yorkshire Herald, were invited to become vice presidents."

For the former Knavesmire players, there was a sense of dja vu in the new setting, however.

"Many of the problems previously experienced on the Knavesmire now occurred on Hob Moor," writes Hugh.

"Both were corporation property and the public could not be excluded. Boys played cricket on the greens when golf was not being played and when it was they followed the players and stole their golf balls.

"They then had the cheek to try to sell them back to the players."

Hugh wryly sets down the peculiar etiquette of golf. Notices were posted to remind slower three and four-ball players of their duty to give way to speedy two-ball players, to reduce on-course congestion.

"More extraordinary was the continuing need to remind lady players that they should not play in high heels because this damaged the greens."

The club remained on Hob Moor until September 1946. The Railway Institute had begun the hunt for land to create its own course the year before, and a site near Askham Bog was found.

The new course was named Pike Hills Golf Course following the practice of using an established local name for the area, and it was opened in October 1949.

After overcoming troubles with grazing cattle, thieving children and boggy fairways in the last 100 years, what is now the Pike Hills Golf Club has grown into a thriving concern.

According to Mike Newsome, chairman of the York Railway Institute, this is a new golden age for the sport.

"Golf has taken off in recent years," he said. "When I first started playing golf 35 years ago we had five clubs in York. We now have 12 in the area."

Few can boast the 100-year history of Pike Hills.

Updated: 09:53 Monday, August 02, 2004