The game of golf originated in the Kingdom of Fife, on the east coast of Scotland in the early fifteenth century with participants using sticks to hit pebbles along the ground. Some say games from Holland and Belgium influenced this pastime but it is generally believed that the Scots introduced the 'hole' which is of course a vital ingredient of the modern game. In the latter half of the century, golf and soccer were banned by King James II.

In 1502, King James IV lifted the ban and took up golf himself. Popularity spread during the 1500's and Mary Queen of Scots, herself French, introduced the game to France while studying there. It is thought the term ‘caddy' stemmed from the name given to Mary's helpers, members of the French military, and known in French as cadets. The first international game of golf was held at Leith, near Edinburgh, in 1682 between two Scottish and two British nobles.  

RULES

The first club was formed in 1744 at Leith and rules were drafted:

•·         You must tee your ball within one club's length of the hole.

•·         Your tee must be on the ground.

•·         You are not to change the ball which you strike off the tee.

•·         You are not to remove stones, bones or any break club for the sake of playing your ball, except on the fair green, and that only within a club's length of your ball.

•·         If your ball comes among water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your ball and bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your adversary a stroke for so getting out your ball.

•·         If your balls be found anywhere touching one another you are to lift the first ball till you play the last.

•·         At holeing you are to play your ball honestly for the hole, and not to play upon your adversary's ball, not lying in your way to the hole.

•·         If you should lose your ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the spot where you struck last and drop another ball and allow your adversary a stroke for the misfortune.

•·         No man at holeing his ball is to be allowed to mark his way to the hole with his club or anything else.

•·         If a ball be stopp'd by any person, horse or dog, or anything else, the ball so stopp'd must be played where it lyes.

•·         If you draw your club in order to strike and proceed so far in the stroke as to be bringing down your club; if then your club shall break in any way, it is to be accounted a stroke.

•·         He who whose ball lyes farthest from the hole is obliged to play first.

•·         Neither trench, ditch or dyke made for the preservation of the links, nor the Scholar's Holes or the soldier's lines shall be accounted a hazard but the ball is to be taken out, teed and play'd with any iron club.

In 1754 the St Andrews Society of Golfers was formed and the now famous course took over from Leith as the ‘home of golf' in 1834 when King William dubbed it ‘Royal and Ancient'. The first British Open was played in 1860 as clubs sprouted up around the world and the first international tournament, the Amateur Golf Championship of India and the East kicked off in 1893.

The USA became to focal point for the sport in the early 1900's as the number of clubs there rose rapidly toward a thousand and the US PGA tour commenced in 1916. It wasn't until 1988 that all issues concerning rules and equipment were resolved between the European and US golf governing bodies. Today this leisurely, yet at the same time frustrating, sport is played by people of all ages and from all walks of life.

EQUIPMENT

By the 1700's proper clubs and balls were being used instead of sticks and pebbles but as these were handmade it put the sport out of reach to all but the upper class. Beech was mainly used for club heads but hand-forged iron was emerging and ash or hazel was favoured for shafts preceding US imported hickory and persimmon. The mid nineteenth century saw the arrival of production line metal heads and shafts, making the game more affordable and widespread and compressed feathers enclosed by stitched horse hide was the ball of choice at this point in time. The gutta-percha ball was invented in 1848 by Reverend Adam Paterson. Made from the sap of the Gutta tree, this ball could be hit a maximum distance of 225 yards and was very similar to its modern counterpart. According to "The Dimpled Golf Ball" by Vincent Mallette, during the early days of golf the balls were smooth but players noticed that as balls became old and scarred, they travelled farther. After a while players would take new balls and intentionally pit them.

TEES

The word "tee" as it relates to the game of golf originated as the name for the area where a golfer played. In 1889, the first documented portable golf tee was patented by Scottish golfers William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas. This golf tee was made from rubber and had three vertical rubber prongs that held the ball in place. However, it lay on the ground and did not pierce (or peg into) the ground like modern golf tees. In 1892, a British patent was granted to Percy Ellis for his "Perfectum" tee that did spike into the ground. It was a rubber tee with a metal spike. The 1897 "Victor" tee was similar and included a cup-shaped top to better hold the golf ball. The Victor was patented by Scotsmen PM Matthews. American patents for golf tees include: the first American patent issued to Scotsmen David Dalziel in 1895, the 1895 patent issued to American Prosper Senat, and the 1899 patent for an improved golf tee issued to George Grant.

The start of the twentieth century brought with it one piece, dimpled balls and grooved irons and the sport has never looked back. Technology in today's equipment almost makes it impossible to hit a bad shot. I can tell you that it is not perfect yet!