History Of Golf

The History of Golf

      The modern game of golf originates from Scotland in the 12th century where it was developed. Some historians believe that the Dutch were the first to play golf. There was a record of a golf-like game on February 26, 1297. The game was to hit a leather ball hundreds of meters away into a trench, and whoever hit it in the least amount of tries won. One record shows in the Acts of the Scottish Parliament that a game by the name of “gowf” was banned. The Scottish was preparing for an invasion by England and people were more interested in the game than preparing. Some people argue that this game was more similar to the modern hockey than golf and that the real game of golf was in the Netherlands where they used actually clubs to hit balls into holes. Over time the modern game spread to England and the rest of the world.   The oldest playing golf course in the world is The Musselburgh Old Links Golf course. Golf was played there in 1672, although the Queen of Scots played there often in 1567.
      Golf courses have been evolved over the years in Europe. They were not always 18 holes and the holes were chosen by the topography of the land. Golfers at a place called St. Andrews would play through 11 holes that were dictated by the topography of the land and then turn around and play them again making it 22 holes. Some of the holes were too short and combined making it 9 holes which leads to the normal number of holes we have today which is 18. Due to the status of St. Andrew as the golf capital, all other courses chose to follow suit and that is why it is standard today.
      A lot of the advances of golf have come from the equipment used to play the game, like the golf ball. The Dutch used a leather ball and the Scott’s used pebbles and other round objects. The golf ball was changed in many different ways before the USGA and is still changing. The standards were followed by the USGA regulation stating that the initial velocity of any golf...