Golf History and How the Game is Played

While golf’s traditions are firmly based in Scotland, there is plenty of evidence that variations of a game that involved hitting a stone with a stick to a target were played in Asia and even South America. A game similar to golf was played in Holland as far back as the 13th century. The first reference to the game’s impact in Scotland was in 1457 when King James banned the playing of golf because too many people were neglecting their archery practice in favor of golf.

Golf’s popularity in the United States is thought to have begun with the founding of the St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, N.Y. in 1888. However, a golf club was established in the U.S. as early as 1786 in Charleston, S.C. Early newspaper stories tell that golf was played as far west as California prior to 1888.

The growth of the game in the U.S. was owed mainly to the arrival of many top Scottish professionals in the late 1800’s. Immigrants such as Willie Dunn Jr., Alex Taylor, Jock Hutchison and Laurie Auchterlonie were not only skilled players, but they also were clubmakers, teachers and even course designers and builders.

Since then golf has continued to grow in popularity. Today, millions of golfers play the game on thousands of courses throughout the world.

Here is a link to a very humorous Robin Williams version of the history of golf. Click Here to View


How the Game is Played

The idea of golf is to swing the club and hit the ball from the TEE, the starting area, down the FAIRWAY, which is the path to the PUTTING GREEN. You hit the ball as many times as it may take you to reach the GREEN, where you hit the ball into the HOLE, or CUP, which is the finish area. You count every swing, including penalty strokes and misses. A regulation round of golf consists of playing 18 holes.