The Art of Golf exhibition

Sir John Lavery’s Golfing at North Berwick (below, about 1920) is just one of the beguiling artworks and rare items of memorabilia on display in the Scottish National Gallery‘s exhibition ‘The Art of Golf-The Story of Scotland’s National Sport’ at The Mound, Edinburgh (July 12-October 26, 0131-624 6200; www.nationalgalleries.org).

Charting the rise of the game, from its origins in the 17th century as ‘kolf’, the exhibition includes paintings of early links courses at Bruntsfield, Leith and Musselburgh and aerial artworks of Scotland’s renowned courses at Carnoustie, Muirfield and Gleneagles, culminating with arguably the greatest golf painting of all time, Charles Lees’ The Golfers (1847), which depicts a match being played on the windswept Old Course at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews.

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