A One Golf

A One Golf

The History of Golf
by Brettany Shandel
http://www.abiggolf.com

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 are uncertain. Many historians have
speculated about a tentative connection to a game played on
frozen ponds in Holland, but this association is too shaky
to be credible. The first recording of the game of golf as
we know was in Scotland in the region around Edinburgh in
the 15th Century. Most sports historians consider Scotland
to be the home of the world's oldest golf course, St.
Andrews, where golf was played as early as the 16th century.
James VI of Scotland, later James I of England brought golf
to the attention of Great Britain by 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.

Apparently, the other St. Andrews (the oldest golf club in
the United States) was established initially with a 3-hole
layout in 1888 at Yonkers, N.Y. Its founder's were
affectionately called the "Apple Tree Gang" because of the
many apple trees on their golf course. St. Andrews was later
expanded to 6 holes course (actually, a cow pasture). Over
the course of the next few years a number of 6-, 8-, 9-,
and 12-hole courses opened all over the east coast. The
first club to offer a full 18-hole course was the
Chicago Golf Club, founded near Wheaton, Ill., in 1893.

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.

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