Rare golf book restored and preserved for generations

A rare golf book dating back to the 1800s has been restored by Mungo Park, the great grandson of Willie Park Snr, the first Open champion in 1860.

The book, titled ‘Golf Championship Committee of the River Plate’, details the very beginnings of golf in Argentina. It offers a rare glimpse of how golf developed in South America.

Park had a particular interest in the subject as his own grandfather, Mungo Park Jnr, won the very first River Plate tournament in 1905. The tournament would go on to be the Argentine Open and is one of the oldest national golf open championships. Previous winners include Angel Cabrera, Craig Stadler and Roberto De Vicenzo.

Of his restoration project, Park said: “I am very happy that we were able to protect this rare book. It offers a rare insight into the growth of the game at that time. It is of personal significance for my family and I am happy to see that the heritage of the game in Argentina is now preserved for future generations.

I would like to thank those who made this possible namely, the R&A and Masterworks Golf. The R&A have a long record of protecting the heritage of the game with the British Golf Museum being just a small percentage of their work. Masterworks Golf specialises in rare golf photographs detailing the history of the game. It is apt that it was these two companies who helped me make this happen.”

The book ended its long journey to restoration at The Open, where it was presented to Mark Lawrie, the Director of the Argentine Golf Association (AAG). It had started in 2007, when Park travelled to Buenos Aires, to celebrate the centenary of San Andres Golf Club, the course that his grandfather had designed in that city in 1907. In that same year his grandfather had won his second Argentine Open (then referred to as the Open Golf Championship of the River Plate).

During his trip, Park had been told that a fascinating book existed, which chronicled the earliest days of golf in Argentina, but that it was not in good condition. Mark Lawrie, the Director of the AAG arranged for him to inspect the book in their library. Park discovered a rich history of golf in Argentina, which mirrored in many ways, the early days in Scotland and England.

The first step was to stabilise the physical structure of the book, which was at risk of being lost if not restored. Park negotiated terms to bring the book to England, where Moira Buick, a specialist book and paper conservator in Bristol, set about her work.

By the beginning of July 2012, the book was fully restored and re-covered in its original form, retaining and binding in as much of the original material as was possible. This includes all of the original manuscript pages, the end papers and the re-use of the original embossed cloth cover. It is now safely returned to Argentina, where it belongs. There it can continue to provide for those who are interested in the global history of the game, a rich resource for future historians. It has also been digitally recorded on  CD’s which have been lodged at the British Golf Museum for research purposes.