Golf balls 'are the product of colonial exploitation'

The game was 'imposed' around the world by the British Empire, says University of St Andrews. Photo / Dave Murdoch

Golf balls were the product of colonial exploitation, according to the University of St Andrews - with the game "imposed" around the world by the British Empire.

The Fife town of St Andrews is known as the "home of golf" for its 600-year playing history, but the prestigious local university has now examined the sport's contentious links in a new exhibition.

Golf is connected to imperial "exploitation", according to display information, because balls were once made using rubber harvested from colonial territories.

The game itself was also "imposed" across the Empire, the St Andrews exhibition claims, as British enthusiasts established clubs from South Africa to Hong Kong.

Cricket - similarly carried across the globe by amateurs from the UK - was also an imposition, according to display information that states: "By recreating and imposing British sports in colonised countries, golf and cricket were spread around the world.

"Natural resources from colonised countries were exploited to make sporting equipment.

"Gutta percha, a natural rubber material found in trees native to south-east Asia, was harvested to make golf balls for the European market."

The information is displayed next to the Karahi Golf Club Cup, the prize given by one of the many British-founded clubs in India during the day of Empire. Clubs were also established in other imperial possessions including Canada, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Gutta rubber grew most abundantly in Malaysia, which was formerly held by the British. Some experts have said that harvesting the rubber for Western markets caused ecological damage. Victorian scientists discovered that the rubber was a perfect and profitable material for covering burgeoning telegraph wires.

Its natural bounce also made it ideal to make a new "gutta ball", said to have been invented in 1843 by St Andrews student Robert Adams Paterson - replacing the older "feathery ball" made from feathers and stitched leather.

The University of St Andrews holds antique examples of these "gutta" balls in its collection, which is now being redisplayed and re-examined in order to highlight any potential connections to British colonialism.

The exhibition is funded by Museum Galleries Scotland, which has also supported a Scotland-wide review of national ties to the slave trade. Its display highlights the financial connections between St Andrews and figures who profited from the slavery.

The Re-collecting Empire exhibition, running at St Andrews affiliated Wardlaw Museum until October, also includes displays arguing that European textile mills created wares inspired by styles "that originated overseas" in the colonies - and therefore "exploited the originating culture".

The Re-Collecting Empire exhibition, which runs until 22 October, is part of St Andrews pledge to continue "examining the legacies of Empire in our collections and exploring how we can build a more equitable future". It is part of a broader trend of academic "decolonisation" accelerated by Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Dr Emma Bond, exhibition consultant and St Andrews academic, said: "The Re-collecting Empire exhibition opens at a time when museums and galleries across the UK and beyond are rethinking how best to care for objects in their collections that were acquired during periods of colonial rule."

Golf has been played in St Andrews since the 15th-century. Land was set aside for people to play the sport in 1552 , and St Andrews Links was effectively created.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, founded in 1754, is also credited with first codifying the rules of the game in its recognisable modern form.