Life — May 27, 1926 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Gay Nineties" - Golf Satire This page satirizes golf as a leisure activity among the upper classes in the 1890s. The main illustration shows a mixed group of well-dressed men and women at a golf course, with the caption noting that fairways "plus the usual stray cow, were the only hazards necessary." The two side columns mock golf pretensions: "The Supreme Achievement" praises golf as heroic and noble, while "The Vulgar Heard" presents working-class skepticism about the sport's value. One section jokes that a golfer who scores seventy-five "tries to do seventy-five a case yesterday"—suggesting golfers exaggerate their achievements as badly as they lie about other matters. The satire targets golf's elevation to an almost mythic status among the affluent, treating a leisure game as worthy of serious praise.