by Andre Sanchez

Nobody knows the origin of golf.  There have been various claims ranging from the Romans, the Chinese the Dutch and the Scots. However, nobody really knows for certain what the true origin is, and it is unlikely that anybody ever will. There are clues, however, as to how it became the game we know it today. 

Some say the game of golf started with a Roman sport called paganica, where the ball was hit with a bent stick, while other claim to it originated from a Chinese game called chuiwan.  This game also involved hitting a ball with a stick.  There is evidence that chuiwan was a target game involving hitting a ball to a target which may or may not have been a hole.  However, neither of these sources is a very likely direct source, and more people prefer to believe that it was the Dutch who invented the game.

The word ‘kolve’ has been found to pertain to a stick that was used to hit a ball, and it was established that the game was called kolven.  It is claimed by some historians that this was mutated to kolf, which the Scots changed to golf via the forms “glove”  and “goff”, and there is actually a fair bit evidence to support that theory.

Many different of club and ball games were being played in Europe in the early centuries of the second millennium,  and the game involved hitting the ball with curved towards a specific target.  This appears to be form of hockey, but it could also be a form of golf.  It is also credible that the game was passed on to the Scots, because there was a lot of regular trade between Holland and Scotland. It has also been demonstrated that many of the early Scottish golf balls were made in Holland.

Various Acts of Parliament in Scotland prove that golf was played in the country earlier than 1457, when the first Act was passed banning golf in the country.  The pretext was that it was it was a game with no useful purpose and that the population would be better practicing archery, so that they would more able to defend their homeland.  If the game was banned in that year, and twice again subsequently, it must have been played for a reasonable period prior to that date in order for it to become so popular as to be an issue with the Scottish Parliament.

Whatever the early origins, it is indisputable that it was Scotland that gave us the game that we play now.  It was that nation which dug holes for targets, and hit the ball from point  A into the target.  It was the Scots that originated the 18 hole round, a strange number probably due to a restriction in the area of land available for the course.

Although the early forms of golf probably had their own rules, nothing was apparently put in writing until the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers drew up a set of thirteen rules in 1744 for their Annual Edinburgh Silver Club Challenge.  These were extended by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews Rules Committee that was formed in 1897, which has got together with the U.S. Golf Association since 1952 to review and set down a set of rules that is played at all golf championships and domestic competitions throughout the world of golf.

The origin of golf lies, therefore, in the club and ball games played in various parts of the world, and one form of these, likely being played in Holland at the time, went to Scotland where it mutated into golf as we know it today. Although many countries from China, to Italy, to Holland claim the game as their own, it is the Scots who made it what it is now, and who are rightly given the accolade as ‘the inventors of golf’.

The Origin of Golf was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com