GOLF Ball game of Scottish origin in natural terrain. A small hard rubber ball can be brought into a small hole in the ground with differently shaped clubs on different long courses.
The cradle of golf
Looking back in the history of golf, people started playing golf on the south coast of Scotland around the 15th century. However, experts disagree as to who was the first to start playing golf. After all, people in Holland and Belgium also started playing golf before the 15th century. It was mainly played outside the larger cities. As an essential difference to today’s golf, however, there are said to have been no holes. That is why many consider the kingdom of “Fife”, near today’s St. Andrews, to be the birthplace of golf.
German scientist calls the Netherlands the cradle of golf
The German scientist Dr. Heiner Gillmeister, sports historian and lecturer for English linguistics and literature of the Middle Ages at the University of Bonn, describes the Netherlands as the cradle of golf. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica can be read The origins of the (golf) game are difficult to ascertain, although evidence now suggests that early forms of golf were played in the Netherlands first and then in Scotland.”
Gillmeister researched the history of golf and discovered that the Dutch humanist and scholar Pieter van Afferden was the first to describe the game of golf in 1545, while it first appeared in Scottish literature in 1636. As the name suggests, there is a connection to the village of Afferden, where his parents came from. With the erection of a bust of Pieter van Afferden, Bleijenbeek Golf Course made the Dutch history of golf visible to everyone.
The beginnings
The game of golf at that time differed from today’s golfing in a number of ways: golfers did not yet have professional equipment at their disposal. Simple sticks were used as clubs, pebbles as balls. Instead of a course, one used the natural dune landscape.
The first golf course was built in Leith, a town near Edinburgh. The first golf club was also founded here. The members of this club called themselves “The Gentleman Golfers of Leith” and it was they who wrote down the first rules. Many of these basic rules laid down in the rule book still exist today. For example, the number of holes on a golf course was already set at 18.
The game of “jeu de mail” (aka pall-mall Speil) has been played in France since the 16th century and has many parallels to today’s golf. Especially concerning the rules. The oldest known rules date back to 1717.
The first equipment
The first golf clubs were handmade and were made of “Persimmon” and “Hickory”, two very hard types of wood. These did not have simple numbers, but such sonorous names as Spon, Cleek, Mashie or Niblick. For almost 100 years “Guttys”, golf balls made of rubber-like gutta-percha were used.
A turning point only came around 1848 when the first clubs made of metal could be produced, which over time completely replaced wooden clubs.
The success story of golf continued quickly: as equipment became cheaper and cheaper, golf became a
international popular sport. Today millions of people all over the world play this wonderful sport.
The first professional golf tournament took place at Prestwick Golf Club near Glasgow, it was the first British Open. In 1894, the United States Golf Association was founded in the United States, acting as a golfing authority in the USA and Mexico. Since 1900, golf has also been officially recognized as a world sport through its inclusion in the Olympic Games.
History of golf Development Worldwide
The development of golf based on some key dates:
| Country | Year | Club name |
| India | 1829 | Calcutta (then Bombay in 1842). |
| France | 1856 | Pau, first golf on the Continent. |
| Canada | 1873 | Montreal. |
| USA | 1888 | St Andrews Golf Club, Yonkers, New York. |
| Hong Kong | 1891 | Hong Kong. |
| China | 1896 | Shangai. |
| Japan | 1903 | Kobe, Mont Rokko |
