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What is Golf? "A game played on a large outdoor course with a series of 9 or 18 holes spaced far apart, the object being to propel a small, hard ball with the use of various clubs into each hole with as few strokes as possible".

Game in which a player using special clubs attempts to sink a small ball with as few strokes as possible into each of the 9 or 18 successive holes on an outdoor course. A hole includes (1) a teeing area, a clearing from which the ball is initially driven toward the actual hole, or cup; (2) a fairway, a long, closely mowed, and often angled lane; (3) a putting green, a smooth grassy area containing the hole; and (4) often one or more natural or artificial hazards (such as bunkers). Each hole has associated with it a par, or score standard, usually from par 3 to par 5. The origins of the game are difficult to ascertain, although evidence now suggests that early forms of golf were played in the Netherlands first and then in Scotland. Golf developed in Scotland-the courses were originally fields of grass that sheep had clipped short in their characteristic grazing style. Golf balls were originally made of wood; wood was replaced in the 17th century by boiled feathers stuffed in a leather cover, in the 19th century by gutta-percha, and in the 20th century by hard rubber. Clubs, limited in number to 14, are known by the traditional names of "irons" (primarily for mid-range to short shots) and "woods" (primarily for longer shots); today irons are more likely made of stainless steel, and the heads of woods are usually made of metal such as steel or titanium.

Golf, game of hitting a small hard ball with specially made clubs over an outdoor course sometimes (particularly if it is near the coast) called a links. The object is to deposit the ball in a specified number of cups, or holes, using as few strokes as possible. Although golf's place of origin is uncertain, Scotland has the strongest claim. As early as 1457 it was banned there as a threat to archery practice, which was considered vital to national defense. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland (founded 1754), is the international shrine of golf, and the club's basic rules are the worldwide standards.

The Birth Of Golf

Golf as we know it today originated from a game played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Players would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club. Most historians concede it was the Scots who introduced "golfe" to the world and no authenticated records exist to contradict this. Although the actual origins of golf are unknown, there is evidence St. Andrews, Scotland is indeed the cradle of the world's most popular game.

The game of golf is at least 600 years old. There is plenty of evidence that golf was played at St. Andrews in Scotland before the founding of the University there in 1411, and there is sufficient indications to make a safe assumption that it was being played there in one form or another for a century before that. There have been claims to the game's origins by the French and the Dutch, but their cases are flawed. The Dutch cite the club and ball game of "Kolven"; the French point to a game called "Jeu de mail". Those games don't quite cut it since they lack one important element - the hole.

Some say that golf was first played by shepherds tending their flocks, passing the time by hitting rocks to targets with their staffs. Games would have developed between competing shepherds, playing across the grazing lands links and back to their village. Some historians believe that Kolven from Holland and Chole from Belgium influenced the game. The latter was introduced into Scotland in 1421. However while these games and countless others are stick and ball games, they are missing that vital ingredient that is unique to golf - the hole. Whatever the argument, there can be no dispute that Scotland gave birth to the game we know as golf today.

In 1457, King James II of Scotland felt that golf was interfering with archery practice. He banned the game by a Scottish Act of Parliament of that year - the first documented reference to today's game. The Scots ignored the ban and the nation's growing ability to play golf had been in equal proportion to the decline in its ability as archers. In battle, the ability to hit the bump and run was no substitute for an effective bow and arrow. In many parts of Scotland's East Coast, parishioners were constantly being punished for playing golf "at the time of the preaching of the Sermon".

Golf Goes International

The British Empire was at it's pinnacle during the 19th century. Indeed the phrase 'the sun never sets on the empire' was coined to reflect Britain's world-wide influence. Most of the early golf clubs outside the British Isles and America were formed throughout the Commonwealth. The first golf club formed outside Scotland was Royal Blackheath (near London) in 1766. However golf is believed to have been played there since 1608. The first golf club outside Britain was the Bangalore, India (1820). Others were the Royal Calcutta (1829), Royal Bombay (1842), Royal Curragh, Ireland (1856), the Pau, France (1856), the Adelaide (1870), Royal Montreal (1873), Cape Town (1885), St Andrew's of New York (1888) and Royal Hong Kong (1889). Some say that the South Carolina Golf Club, Charlestown of 1786 precedes all of these.

Rules of Golf

1. You must Tee your Ball within a Club length of the Hole.

2. Your Tee must be upon the ground.

3. You are not to change the Ball which you strike off the Tee.

4. You are not to remove Stones, Bones, or any Break-club for the sake of playing your Ball, except upon the fair Green, and that only within a Club length of your Ball.

5. If your Ball come among Water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball, and bringing it behind the hazard, and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your Adversary a stroke for so getting out your Ball.

6. If your Balls be found anywhere touching one another, you are to lift the first Ball till you play the last.

7. At holing, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and not play upon your Adversary's Ball, not lying in your way to the Hole.

8.If you should lose your Ball by its being taken up, or in any other way, you are to go back to the spot where you struck last, and drop another Ball, and allow your Adversary a stroke for your misfortune.

9. No man, at Holing his Ball, is to be allowed to mark to the Hole with his Club or anything else.

10. If a Ball be stop'd by any person, Horse, Dog, or anything else, the Ball so stop'd must be played where it lyes.

11. If you draw your Club in order to strike, and proceed as far in the stroke as to be bringing down your Club - if then your Club shall break in any way, it is to be accounted a stroke.

12. He whose Ball lyes farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.

13. Neither Trench, Ditch, nor Dyke made for the preservation of the Links, nor the Scholars' holes, nor the Soldiers' lines, shall be accounted a Hazard, but the Ball is to be taken out, Teed, and played with any iron Club.

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