The Club
The origin of the Mulligan
The story starts in Canada, back in the 1920's. Four golfers from Montreal played regularly together at the Country Club of Montreal. Only one of them had a car, and it was always his duty to drive the others to the club.
Now driving in the 1920's was not like driving today. There may not have been the torment of traffic, but there were many other difficulties that more than made up for congestion-dirt road, unpredictable cars, and huge distances between service stations.
This particular drive to the Country Club was unusually long an harrowing, culminating in a particularly frightening passage across a Victoria Bridge that was not built for cars but horse drawn wagons.
On arrival, the foursome would hurry from the car to the first tee, usually on the dead run. And since they would be teeing off only moments after the very difficult drive, the driver was usually still in a mild state of shock. His first attempt at a drive frequently reflected his nervousness, and he was most often quite off the mark.
Because he was the driver, and therefore entitled to special consideration and sympathy, the other members of the group would give him a second try. And because his name was David Mulligan, the practice of hitting a second shot from the first tee became known as "taking a Mulligan".