A series of books largely using the medium of iconic Scottish golf art to examine, trace and research the 'modern game' of golf (1830-1930). The use of art and images in these works is not incidental. It is a means of interpretation. The paintings, by famous artists, and visual records are used to consider the individuals present at the key transition points in the game’s development—those at the emergence of the modern game with the demise of the featherie ball, to its coming of age with the first universal Rules of Golf, and its later maturity when the gentlemen's game and the players' (or professionals') game reached parity before WWII.

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Through these images, the figures who shaped these moments can be observed not simply as names or roles, but in context: how they stood within the game, how they related to one another, and how the character of the game itself is reflected in them.

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At its centre of the Gentry Links concept is The Gentry Links Trilogy with its 3 titles: Gentry Links: The Great Men of 'The Golfers'; North Berwick and its Gentry Links; and  Gentry Links ... to the Modern Game: The Bigger Picture, Medal Day, 1894.

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The Gentry Links series is extended through Origins 1926 ... the Era of the Modern Game's Maturity based on the famous painting by a leading English portrait artist, Anthony Oakshett, titled by him as The Origins of the Ryder Cup,1926.

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Loudon’s most recent book, A Life’s Two Nines, carries the story forward  to identify the transformation in the early modern era of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews during the period 1960-1980, seen through the life of his father.  This was the period that saw the step change in the modernisation of The Open Championship , as well as the development of its leading position in golf administration throughout the world, outside, but in conjunction with, the United States of America.

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Together, the Gentry Links series defines an independent historical publishing project tracing the making of the ‘modern game’ through scholarship and delving beneath the canvas of iconic art.

 

Of particular note are the views of leading commentators. 

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