Golf - The Mysterious History of the Game

One of the most popular outdoor sports is the game of golf.
Golf is played on a large course with a series of 9 or 18
holes spaced some distance aart. The object of the game is
to propel a small, hard ball with the use of various clubs
into each hole, and accomplish this with as few strokes as
possible. Each player hits the ball with a club from the
starting place, known as the "teeing ground". The teeing
ground is a rectangular area two club-lengths in depth. The
front and the sides of the tee ground are dfined by the
outside limits of two tee-markers.

The ball is hit with the "stroke" of a
golf club, and each stroke counts towards the end score. A
stroke is the forward movement of the club makes and hit the
ball, with the intention of moving the ball forward, but if
a player stops his downswing voluntarily before the club
head strikes the ball, he has not made a stroke.

The origins of golf have often been speculated about. Some
historians think there may be a tentative connection to a
similar game played on frozen ponds in Holland, but this
association isn't concrete. The first record of the game of
golf being played as we know it today was in Scotland in
the region around Edinburgh in the 15th Century. Many
historians consider St. Andrews, Scotland to be the home of
the oldest golf course where golf was played as early as
the 16th century. James VI of Scotland, who later became
James I, imported golf to England in the 17th century.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews, considered
by many to be the birthplace of golf, was established 1754.
During the 1800s the gutta-percha ball, or "gutty,"
replaced the original ball that had been used for centuries
(leather ball filled with feathers). The first British Open
was played at Prestwick, Scotland in 1860 and opened to
both professionals and amateurs the following year. The
Canada's Royal Montreal Club was the first
permanent golf club founded in North America, in 1873.

St. Andrews (in the United States) is the oldest golf club
and was established initially with a 3-hole layout in 1888
at Yonkers, N.Y. The founders of the course were
affectionately known as the "Apple Tree Gang" because there
were so many apple trees on their golf course. St. Andrews
was later expanded to 6 holes course by adding a cow pasture
to the original course. Over the years a number of 6-, 8-,
9-, and 12-hole golf courses opened all over the east
coast. The Chicago Golf Club established in Wheaton, Ill.,
in 1893 was the first club to offer a full 18-hole course.

The game of golf has changed incredibly from the first games
played at St. Andrews in Scotland. The game is no longer
played with simple hand made clubs and leather balls stuffed
with feathers. Today's game is a high precision and high
visibility sport with custom clubs designed by high-tech
computers, using advanced materials such as titanium and
zirconia. One of the most profound changes to the change
was the standardization of the rules and playing field. But
the actual process of playing golf - getting
the little ball in the hole -- remains a mystery.

Brettany Shandel is the webmaster of A Big
www.a biggolf.com/golf/> Golf, LLC which is a
premier resource for Golf information. For questions or
comments about this article please visit
www.a biggolf.com/golf/

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