The Hole Clerks

Ever wonder how the scoring system in golf's greatest championships came to be? In this episode of The Secret of St. Andrews, we delve into the fascinating chaos of the R&A's original method for determining a champion—where players waited for clerks to scrutinize "jottings" before a winner was revealed. Join us as we uncover how this convoluted system led to the stroke play scoring we know today. 

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Welcome to this special edition of the Secret of St. Andrews podcast, entitled "The Hole Clerks."

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is renowned for running the world's finest golfing competitions, and rightfully so. With over 250 years of experience, they've had ample time to perfect their methods. However, what seems simple today wasn't always so.

When the R&A was founded in 1754, the scoring system used to crown their club champion left much to be desired. In fact, they changed their system just five years later to something more familiar today. Here's how their original scoring system worked:

Competitors were sent off in twosomes, with pairings decided by drawing numbers from a bonnet. Each match was assigned a "clerk" to follow the two players throughout their round. Today, we might call these clerks scorers or markers, but back then, they were more akin to accountants and auditors.

The R&A's record book from 1754 stipulated that "a scrutiny of the whole clerk's books, or jottings, is to be made, and the player who shall appear to have won the greatest number of holes shall be declared the winner of the match."

What exactly was meant by "a scrutiny"? Two theories have emerged. Both suggest that a detailed accounting of scores occurred only after all rounds were completed, requiring input from every clerk. If this sounds complicated and open to interpretation, that's because it was.

The first theory suggests that "holes" referred to something like today's skins game. The key difference? No carryovers. Players could win individual "skins" from competitors on each hole. For instance, if a player posted a score lower than five others on a particular hole, he was said to have won five holes from the field. This system rewarded occasional brilliance while penalizing consistent players.

The second theory is that clerks compared each player's card against every other competitor in the field, determining match play outcomes. However, instead of matches between two players, the winner was the one "up" the most holes when compared to the entire field.

Imagine the chaos. Players waited for clerks to huddle together, scrutinizing their notes before announcing the winner. Competitors knew their individual scores but had no idea where they stood until the final declaration—and the lowest score wasn't guaranteed to win.

By May 1759, after five years of this confusion, an entry in the minutes book declared:

"In order to remove all disputes and inconveniences with regard to the gaining of the silver club, it is acted and agreed by the captain and those gentlemen golfers present that in all time coming, whoever puts in the ball in the fewest strokes over the field, being 22 holes, shall be declared and sustained victor."

And so, the foundation of modern stroke play scoring was born.

The next time you watch the Open Championship, consider how far we've come. The scores on that iconic yellow leaderboard are clear and trustworthy. Just look to the top of the board, and there you’ll find the champion golfer of the year.