A Keen Hand and a Cornerstone of Golf Literature
Some books matter because they are old. Others matter because they changed the way a game understood itself. George Petro’s copy of The Golfer’s Manual belongs firmly in the second category.
Published in Cupar by Whitehead and Orr in 1857, The Golfer’s Manual: Being an Historical and Descriptive Account of the National Game of Scotland; with an Appendix is widely recognized as the first book of golf instruction. It is one of the foundational printed works in golf literature, and that distinction alone makes it a prize in any serious collection. Christie’s cataloging of first-edition copies also confirms the key first-edition points collectors care about, including the 1857 date, Cupar imprint and Allan Robertson frontispiece.
But as George Petro correctly pointed out in our email exchange, the book should not be called the first prose work devoted entirely to golf. That earlier distinction belongs to Rules of the Thistle Golf Club, published in 1824, which George notes was “much more than a description of rules” and included an early historical account of the game as well. He also noted that he owns an 1824 copy in the scarcer hardback issue, a collectible thread worth its own story down the road.
That correction does not diminish The Golfer’s Manual. If anything, it sharpens what makes the book so important. It stands not as the first prose golf book, but as the first true golf instruction book, while also blending instruction with historical and descriptive writing about Scotland’s national game. In the broader lineage of golf in print, the book sits behind Thomas Mathison’s The Goff of 1743, which the National Library of Scotland identifies as the first printed book devoted entirely to golf, and behind Rules of the Thistle Golf Club of 1824, but at the very front of the instructional tradition. George also noted another intriguing early printed reference point, the 1721 Glotta, which contains references to golf without being a book devoted entirely to the game.
The title page credits the work to “A Keen Hand,” one of those wonderfully evocative 19th-century pseudonyms that feels perfectly suited to golf’s early literary age. Bibliographic reference works identify “A Keen Hand” as Henry Brougham Farnie, linking the book to the Scottish author and journalist who gave golf one of its earliest enduring texts. That makes the penciled “Henry Brougham Farnie” notation in George’s copy especially interesting. From the image alone, it is safest to describe it as a penciled attribution or inscription rather than an author signature, but it is still a compelling detail in a volume already full of them.
Collectors, of course, also care about the physical book itself, and this title delivers there too. First-edition descriptions consistently note a small octavo format with xii, [2], 96 pages and a lithographed frontispiece portrait of Allan Robertson, often with the tissue guard intact. That Robertson frontispiece is a major part of the appeal. He was one of the towering figures of early golf, and his presence gives the book a visual and emotional link to the game’s formative era. This is not simply an old manual. It is a surviving artifact from a time when golf still moved largely through local tradition, personal reputation and a relatively small circle of Scottish clubs and players.
Its timing only adds to that sense of importance. The Golfer’s Manual appeared in 1857, just before golf entered a more formal championship age. The first Open Championship would not be played until 1860 at Prestwick. So this book arrived at a threshold moment, after golf had already developed deep roots and a meaningful printed history, but before the championship structure of the modern game had fully taken shape. That makes it feel like a bridge between worlds, one foot in golf’s older Scottish identity and the other in the era that would soon define competitive golf on a much larger stage.
There is also something fitting about this particular copy being in George Petro’s collection. According to his collection record, he acquired it from Pacific Book Auctions in October 2021 for $3,000, and it is currently carried at a $3,500 valuation. Those numbers tell only part of the story, of course. A book like this is not just about market value. It is about bibliographic weight, historical importance and how it helps define a collection rather than merely fill a shelf.
That is ultimately why The Golfer’s Manual remains such a captivating collectible. It may not be the first prose golf book, and it should no longer be described that way. But it is still one of the great landmark works in golf literature, the first instructional book of the game and a beautifully tangible reminder of the moment golf began to explain itself in a fuller, more lasting way. In George Petro’s hands, it is not just a rare book. It is a cornerstone of the game’s printed memory.
