Golf Origins

In today’s official “Rules of Golf”, golf is defined as “playing ball with a club from the teeing ground into a hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules.”

The one mystery that no one knows for sure is from what country did golf originate. There are many clues from many different countries dating as far back as 1457. The Scottish statute named golf as a forbidden game. The Scottish word meant, “to strike or cuff”. The Dutch may think it came from a Dutch game called kolf, which means bat or club.

What we do know about the early origins of golf is that golf, as we know it today, first appeared in Scotland. The Scottish were the first to create a permanent golf course with a hole dug as a target, and a starting point to hit the ball toward the target. The first set of written golf rules was in 1744, when the Edinburgh golfers association was preparing for a tournament. It consisted of thirteen rules that were later revised and adopted by the St. Andrews Rules Committee in 1897. The U.S. Golf Association now works with the Rules Committee for standard rules for tournaments throughout the world.

Some interesting history about early golf was that King James IV of Scotland is the first documented golfer in 1502. His records show that he spent twenty schillings for golf clubs and balls. He was to remove the longstanding ban on golf that was to encourage archery practice to be ready for war threats. King James believed there was no imminent danger of war.