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Golf Betting
Golf History - Golf Tips and Rules - Golf Glossary
Golf History
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.
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.
During the mid-15th century, Scotland was preparing to defend itself against an English invasion. The population's enthusiastic pursuit of golf and soccer to the neglect of military training (archery primarily) caused the Scottish parliament of King James II to ban golf and soccer in 1457. The ban was reaffirmed in 1470 and 1491 although people largely ignored it. Only in 1502 with the Treaty of Glasgow was the ban for golf lifted with King James IV (James 1 of England) himself taking up the sport.
Golf's status and popularity quickly spread throughout the 16th century due to its royal endorsement. King Charles I popularized the game in England and Mary Queen of Scots, who was French, introduced golf to France while she studied there. Indeed the term 'caddie stems from the name given to her helpers who were the French Military, known in french as cadets.
The premier golf course of the time was Leith near Edinburgh. Indeed King Charles I was on the golf course when given the news of the Irish rebellion of 1641. Leith was also the scene of the first international golf match in 1682 when the Duke of York and George Patterson playing for Scotland beat two English noblemen.
The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith (1744) was the first golf club and was formed to promote an annual competition with a silver golf club as the prize.
The club was later renamed the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers with a clubhouse erected in 1768 (moved to Musselburgh, Lothian in 1836).
The first reference to golf at the historic town of St Andrews was in 1552. The clergy allowed public access to the links a year later. In 1754 the St Andrews Society of Golfers was formed to compete in its own annual competition using Leith's golf rules. The first women's golf club in the world was formed there in 1895. King William honored the golf club with the title 'Royal & Ancient' in 1834 and the new famous clubhouse was erected in 1854. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) became the premier golf club because of its fine golf course, the publication of golf rules, its royal patronage and its promotion of golf as a proper sport.
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