When was The Game of Golf Invented?
On the 6th of March 1457 King James II, who was the King of Scots from 1437 until his demise in 1460, through the form of an Act of Parliament banned citizens from playing football or golf. Scotsmen were believed to have been playing these games in streets and in churchyards instead of learning archery in their compulsory military training.
“No part of the country should football, golf, or other such pointless sports be practiced but, for the common good and for the defense of the country,” stated the ban.
This is the first written reference to a game known as golf. What was the game? “There are both written and images to prove that there was a game we call the game of golf” declares Rand Jerris who is a well-known golf historian who was the director of the former USGA Golf Museum and Library. “One was played over huge chunks of land and involved hitting balls on the open. It was another game played on street corners of villages, or a town where players were hitting the ball into a churchyard or through the street. Thus, historians have differentiated between the two types of golf, “long golf” and “short golf”, which took place in Scotland during the 1500s.”
Jerris as well as other historians of golf are confident of is that there’s sufficient evidence to show that, by the mid-1500s, the game was being played using several clubs for long distances, eventually leading to an open hole deep in the ground. Historical researchers have discovered an old Latin grammar book that used golf to teach Latin. Vocabula was first published in 1636, by Aberdeen, Scotland schoolmaster David Wedderburn It contains the first descriptions of the sport and the very first reference to the golf hole.
“All the things we are able to verify about the first game, the character of the game as well as the equipment type used, is because golf is being portrayed in a Latin grammar textbook for students,” Jerris said.
Golfs First Rules
In 1744 in 1744, The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers recorded the first rules for the game, also known by The Thirteen Articles, for their competition on the Leith Links, in Edinburgh. In the subsequent 100 years, the 13 regulations were followed by over 30 clubs.
There was no attempt to develop a uniform code of conduct until the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R and A) released the first consolidated regulations code in 1899. At the same time, it was also when the United States Golf Association was beginning to be formed in New York City. The USGA’s rules were in stark contrast with those of the R&A and consolidated the two organizations as the two major players’ governing bodies.
According to Jerris the author, there was an effort in the 1880s that sought to establish sporting governing bodies. The golf community was against the rules of one particular set. The rules for competition varied between courses. “It’s only in the 1890s that we have on the golf course the momentum, and need to form an official body to create a common sport,” Jerris says.
The Original Home of Golf: St. Andrews
Since 1552 it has played golf 1552 in St. Andrews, Scotland. It was here at St. Andrews Golf Links where the R&A was founded and from where the 18-hole golf course was first established. “There aren’t any documents from the 1500s that indicate the importance to St. Andrews, but at the point that there are texts that describe golf courses, it’s clear that it’s considered to be the ideal illustration of what a golfing course should have,” Jerris says.
The first visible evidence of golf is an image from St. Andrews, dating to the 1740s. The picture shows four golfers as well as two caddies. This is The Old Course at St. Andrews is believed to be the oldest Golf Course in the world and is the ultimate Links course, meaning that it’s situated on a sandy coastline.
“Every golf course on the planet is a recreation of the natural landscapes found in the Scottish coastline,” Jerris says. “Many of the best American courses such as Oakmont as well as Winged Foot took elements from their Scottish landscape, then rearranging the landscape and resembling the Scottish landscape on an American landscape, where they typically were not supposed to be.”
Was China Really The Home of Golf?
St. Andrews may be often referred to as”the “home of golf” however, in the early 2000s, Chinese scholars claimed their ancestral ancestors played golf long prior to the Scots.
A 2006 exhibit at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum described what the museum’s curators believed to be evidence that ancient China was playing a variant called golf (called chuiwan–or “hit ball”) up to 1368. The museum showcased an enlargement of a portion of the Ming Dynasty scroll “The Autumn Banquet” which depicted the players from an imperial court striking an object towards an open green hole.
The exhibit also included the book “Wan Jing” (“Manual for the Game of Balls”) which was first released in 1282. The book set out rules for a game that was akin to golf.
“With these documents, we can claim that chuiwan is very similar to golf.” Tom K.C. Ming the chief curator at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum said to The New York Times. “There is a green, and there’s an opening. We were shocked at the similarity when we first saw our equipment.”
Jerris is not convinced of the conclusions made from the exhibit. “Every society has had an underlying game played with a ball and stick,” he says. “The issue is what aspects of the sticks and balls have to be present for it to be referred to as golf. The players played in an enclosed space in which they were hitting an object with a ball. Sometimes, it was an opening into the ground, and at other times it was not. The majority of the time, in the photos the picture, it’s a single golf club. If one of the definitions of golf is to play with numerous clubs which are specifically designed to a specific stroke then it’s not golf.
“If it’s played on an extensive area, you’ll notice that there are many holes that each present different difficulties, then you cannot accurately say what they were playing golf.”
When Did Golf Get to America?
The origins of golf in America are closely tied to that of Scotland. In August 1743 David Deas, a 21-year-old Leith local and slave trader, was the recipient of one of the first recorded golf equipment shipments in the American colonies: 432 golf balls and 96 clubs delivered from Port Leith to Charleston. Deas had played golf on the Leith Links with its five holes, in which the first rules for golf were first established. When Harleston Green was established by the South Carolina Golf Club in 1841, in a Charleston park, it was the premier American golf course, with slaves employed as caddies.
The first mention of golf within America occurred much earlier in 1659 with a Dutch law which was issued in Fort Orange, New York that later changed to Albany. The practice of golf was prohibited on the streets as it caused “great destruction to windows of the homes, and exposes people to the risk of injury and violates the right to freedom in the streets.”
Charles Blair MacDonald, who was a student at St. Andrews University and played golf at the St. Andrews Golf Links is regarded as to be the founder of American golf course designers. It was in 1893 that MacDonald constructed Chicago Golf Club. Chicago Golf Club which was the first 18-hole golf course.
