“This is the most extraordinary golf book I’ve ever read. Here’s why.”

Broadly speaking, golf books tend to fall into one of two categories: memoirs and tuition.

For every The Big Miss by Hank Haney, there’s a Five Fundamentals by Ben Hogan.

What there’s not a whole lot of is golf fiction, which explains, in part, why I was so excited by my recent discovery of Golf in the Year 2000.

Written in 1892 by J. McCullough (otherwise attributed as ‘J.A.C.K.’), it is a remarkable novella that tells the story of Alexander John Gibson, a keen amateur golfer, who falls asleep on March 24, 1892, and awakens over a century later, on March 25, in the year 2000.

For years, it quietly gathered dust until Mike Towle, an American sportswriter and author, stumbled upon it.

Reading it, Towle was taken aback by how accurately McCullough had predicted what life would be like in the 21st century and, together with Rutledge Hill Press, he set to work on re-printing it for modern golf fans.

I found it completely by chance. Without wishing to disclose too many industry secrets, I regularly search the internet for “golf in the year X” to make sure we don’t miss any significant anniversaries.

In January, I searched for “golf in the year 2000” in a bid to capitalise on “25 years later” content opportunities.

This book was the first result. Immediately, my interest was piqued. It spiked even further when I read the new cover blurb: “The amazing 1892 book that predicted television, digital watches, bullet trains and more.”

We’ll get to those shortly. First, a little more on the plot.

• 9 books every serious golfer should own

• Buy our exclusive Masters Bookazine!

When Gibson awakes in the year 2000, he discovers he is still in his home, although it has a new owner called Mr Adams.

“In that room you have, to my certain knowledge, been lying for the last ten years,” Adams tells him. “You have been examined periodically by members of the medical faculty, who have always found a certain amount of heat in your body, and your heart beating, though faintly. When I bought this house ten years ago, you were lying there, and it was part of the arrangement that I was not to disturb you, and that I must have you examined at the usual intervals.”

As Gibson adjusts (surprisingly quickly, it must be said) to his altered reality, he discovers that Adams shares his passion for golf and much of what follows revolves around their visits to various courses, St Andrews amongst them.

This is where things start to get interesting.

Describing the world in 2000, McCullough makes a startling number of on-the-money predictions.

They include the conversion of the British pound to decimal coins and the liberation of women, as well as the invention of digital watches, a form of television, colour photography, and bullet trains.

Bear in mind, when McCullough committed these ideas to print in 1892, John Logie Baird was still more than 30 years away from a public demonstration of the world’s first working television system; bullet trains were 72 years away; and the first digital wristwatch didn’t appear until the 1970s.

However, it is the predictions made by the book about golf that are arguably the most startling.

• How Ian Fleming leaned heavily on golf to create James Bond

• Meet the star of Happy Gilmore who became a professor of schizophrenia

In chapter five, Gibson and Adams visit the Old Course, which Gibson notes still has 18 holes but “much longer ones than I had been accustomed to”. Instead of carrying their own clubs, or enlisting a caddie to do so for them, the pair instead use a mechanical club-carrying contraption that follows them around the course thanks to a homing device attached to the back of their belts.

So, a remote-controlled electric trolley, much like Motocaddy, PowaKaddy and Stewart Golf now specialise in.

In the same chapter, Gibson also discovers that the clubs themselves have evolved, hickory shafts and persimmon heads giving way to metal. Whilst metal clubheads were experimental at the time the book was written, the first patent for steel shafts was issued to New Yorker Arthur Knight in 1910 – 18 years after the book was published. It wasn’t until the 1990s that metal clubheads and steel shafts became the norm.

Adams also shows Gibson a device that can be fitted into the butt end of clubs that automatically keep players’ scores. A similar form of that technology has been pioneered this side of the year 2000 by the likes of Arcoss, Shot Scope and others.

In chapter six, Gibson learns about a form of televised golf that is transmitted through a network of mirrors placed around the golf course. The first golf telecast didn’t happen until the BBC broadcast it in 1938 – 46 years after the book’s publication.

All of which is to say nothing of McCullough’s invention of the ‘International Championship’, an annual tournament that sees two teams of 20 golfers compete against one another. The similarities between that and the Ryder Cup – first staged in 1927 – are quite noticeable.

Of course, not all of McCullough’s predictions have been realised. A jacket that shouts “fore” when you swing and double-headed sand wedges that “revolved like the paddle-wheel of a steamboat” have yet to materialise.

Nonetheless, the proportion of correct guesses is both striking and impressive.

The central narrative is somewhat simplistic, the language used very much “of its time”, and the book ends abruptly. It’s unlikely to ever be held in the same high regard as other 19th century literary works. McCullough, it’s fair to conclude, was never equipped with the chops required to rival Alexandre Dumas, Thomas Hardy, Herman Meville or Charles Dickens.

Equally, however, it’s hard to imagine their crystal balls being as clear or as vivid.

If you can find it, get it. It’s unlike any other golf book you will ever read.

And therein lies both its charm and its appeal.

Michael McEwan is bunkered's Head of Content and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Head of Content