Page 66 - Golf World (February 2020)

golf and especially proper golf, which is pilots at Arnhem. They realised it was
alternate-shot foursomes. World golf is
going down the tube because everyone is
playing fourball golf and it takes five
hours. We play for two-and-a-half hours,
have some lunch and go out and play
again! It’s much more sociable and there’s
no anguish about it at all. I enjoy the
social side of it, the golf is now a sideline.
I’m not interested in scores or records –
it’s the description of what people enjoyed
about the game that’s important to me.”
Shovelling sand, milking goats
Archie’s fascinating character reflects his
fascinating life – the kind of life not often
lived these days. Born in Edinburgh, he
attended famous Watson’s College for
a while but went to school an hour away
in Dollar because, as he notes, “my father
was a violent alcoholic and my mother
was a very smart lady so she sent me
and my brother away to school and to
an uncle’s farm in Berwickshire in
the holidays”.
His was never destined to be a mundane
‘In the states, archIe shovelled sand
for franklIn d. roosevelt, mIlked
goats and worked as a doorman’
existence and a contact in America led to
him crossing the Atlantic, a journey made
by very few in those days. Archie’s father
had gone to school with a boy whose
parents died, so his father (Archie’s
grandfather) took him in. When this boy
became a man, he went to the States to
seek his fortune and married the daughter
of the President of the Sante Fe railroad.
When the war started, he said to Archie’s
mother: ‘Send the boy to me’.
“We went in a convoy over the Atlantic,
but it wasn’t as plentiful a convoy when we
arrived at New York as it had been in
Glasgow; we had lost three boats to the
ocean. Then we got the train to Chicago,
then the Super Chief for three days and
two nights to get to Los Angeles. After I
had done my two years at college in
America, the US army chased me. I said,
‘No thank you, I want to serve my king
and country’. So I hopped up to Canada
to join the RAF. I was trained as a fighter
pilot for two years and came back to this
country in uniform with my wings.”
His action was short and sharp. “I was
trained on Hurricanes, but by the time we
got back we were not losing many fighter
pilots – but they had lost all their glider
66 Golf World February 2020 | golfworldtop100.com
historian; no-one had previously taken
easier to teach us to fly gliders than
soldiers from scratch. We were stationed
about six to a room in a hotel in Harrogate,
where I had got involved with a young
widow. Then one day the officer said,
‘Have we any volunteers for gliders?’
I thought, ‘Well it’s better than this young
widow chasing me around’ so I put my
hand up. But we only did the one
operation, which was crossing the Rhine.
It was a superb operation.”
His war action over, Archie’s patron in
America went bust. His mother arranged
a home for his brother in Baltimore, but
Archie had to look after himself. “I had
enough credits to get into the state college
in New Mexico and I worked my way
through two years with some of the most
wonderful occupations: shovelling sand
for Franklin D. Roosevelt; in the college
canteen; as a lifeguard at the swimming
gala, where I taught all the young ladies to
swim after closing time. After they closed
the pool, I milked 15 goats in the morning
and evening; then I got a job in the cinema,
starting off as a doorman. I finished off as has ever played on.”
assistant manager at the cinema and 20th
Century Fox used to send me a $10
cheque every Christmas. Then I came
back to Scotland and went to veterinary
college.” The rest, as we know, is history.
In 1954 Archie took over the remains
of his father’s practice which his mother
had kept going with locums. His
graduation was delayed as his tutors said
he was playing too much rugby (he played
for his college against Scotland’s
universities – “we could sing dirty songs
all the way to Aberdeen and back and
never repeat one” – while his brother’s son
Roger scored a try for the Lions in New
Zealand). His punishment was to do
another term.
It was now that golf, up to now an
occasional pursuit, became a passion. “I
knew when I qualified I couldn’t afford to
get injured playing rugby and have a
locum work for me so I thought golf was
a good alternative. There were lots of
marvellous municipal courses, such as
Braid Hills or Portobello. Two shillings
and you were on.”
Archie also joined Muirfield in the
1960s and immediately became their
notice of the memorabilia. “Even their
bookcase was a wonderful Sheraton... and
the secretary was using it to put stationary
in behind his desk! I got in the smoking
room and discovered a wonderful
collection of books in tea boxes in the
back of the locker room. So I spent the
whole of one winter organising them.”
Through his connections at an
esteemed institution such as the
Honourable Company, Archie has played
extensively in America. “I knew the right
kind of people. I knew not to bother with
Pebble Beach, but I’ve played Cypress
Point four times in a week as I have a
chum who is a member. I’ve played
Seminole 30 or 40 times. Prestwick is my
favourite away from East Lothian,
though. I’ve also known Tom Doak for
30 years since he was laying out Kiawah
Island with Pete Dye. He has been here
many times. I took him out on No.3 on a
windy day and he thought it was
marvellous. He said it was a marvellous
layout and had some of the best greens he
Archie is no longer a playing member at
Muirfield, though. “I can’t reach the
fairways even from the old gentlemen’s
tees,” he laments. “But I play regularly at
Gullane. We have match dinners every
eight weeks. I have a very particular
process; I find a very decrepit opponent
and tell him to find a good partner. I am
also decrepit so I find a good partner and
we play off the forward tees and our job is
to simply put the ball 100 yards up the
fairway. The good players therefore have
shots they never otherwise experience and
we all enjoy ourselves and play for £4.
I have played 978 dinner matches and
with over 300 different people and I’ve
got a record of every one.”
After he patiently poses in his museum
for some photographs, our time with
Archie is nearly at an end. As he scurries
about popping a few artefacts into a
supermarket carrier bag, we ask if he can
quite believe that he has created such a
wonderful collection. He pauses for a
moment and with a hint of a smile and a
joyous glint detectable in his eye, he
responds. “I just married the right
woman.”