Rebels without a tee time take over church course

A growing band of golfers is challenging a ban on Sunday games on one of the most remote islands of Britain.

Fred Maclennan, a club member, stays off the course on a Sunday while his friend Colin MacLean practises.

LONDON // A growing band of rebels is trying to take control of a piece of land on one of the most remote islands of Britain. They turn out every Sunday, armed with clubs, and defiantly challenge the island's authorities ? by playing golf. Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, and neighbouring Harris are unique in Britain today in that they are the only places in the country where the conservative Free Church of Scotland holds sway and where, on a Sunday, you cannot indulge in a round of golf.

It was only last year, after a legal battle in the European Court with the church and Lord's Day Observance Society, that ferries started running on Sunday to Stornoway, the administrative capital of the islands and, with a population of 12,000, by far the largest town. Now, members of the 120-year-old Stornoway Golf Club want the right to indulge in their past-time legally. However, the trustees that control the land on which the 5,252-yard course stands are refusing to budge, prompting the rebellion that has seen all sorts of people turn up on Sunday and play for free - and quite illegally.

It is one of two battles going on in Lewis between the authorities and recreation groups: users of the Isle of Lewis Sports Centre in Stornoway are preparing to take legal action against the islands' local authority over the fact the centre is banned from opening on Sundays. Tourism is about the only industry that is flourishing on the islands, located off Scotland's west coast, at a time when many young people head for the mainland for work as soon as they have finished school. Leisure chiefs say it is vital that people are offered the opportunity to enjoy themselves on Sundays.

Besides, says Norrie MacDonald, the club captain, all the golfers want is to be able to enjoy their sport as players throughout the rest of the UK do. And he says that there is little the club can do to stop the rebels turning up to the unmanned course on Sundays. "If someone isn't a member, we can't do anything about it. We can't even charge them a fee," he says. "It is the only course in Scotland where you can play for free on a Sunday."

Matters reached a head 10 days ago when, for the second time this year, the local council rejected the golf club's bid to open just the clubhouse on a Sunday to sell drinks and stage social events, as other food-and-drink outlets and hotels in Stornoway are now allowed to do. Objecting to the plan, Callum MacLean, the clerk to the Free Church Presbytery, told the council: "Our primary concern is the desecration of the Sabbath Day, arising from a licence permitting the sale of alcohol."

Murdo Murray, who stood as an independent Christian candidate in the May general election and came third, told the council: "If this licence is granted it will inevitably increase the pressure for opening the golf course on Sunday." The club's management committee will meet on August 12 to decide what to do next and legal action has not been ruled out. Mr MacDonald says that the club needs to open the clubhouse on a Sunday in part to make up for the loss of revenue of not being able to charge anyone for playing golf there on Sundays.

He says that the council's decision to forbid the clubhouse to open was incorrect because "any objections must be deemed to be competent - they can't be made on any grounds". Mr MacDonald added: "We need the money to help operate the business. Things are not that easy at the moment. We will be screening Sunday football games and golf and utilising our kitchen to provide food." Meanwhile, the rebels continue to turn out and play the course for free on a Sunday.