Golf History

It is generally accepted that modern golf developed in The Netherlands during the Middle Ages. The game did not find international popularity until the late 19th century. A game similar to golf is recorded as taking place on February 26th, 1297, in Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball.

The golf balls used in the early games were leather-covered and stuffed with feathers. Clubs of all kinds were fashioned by hand to suit individual players. The great step in spreading the game came with the change from the feather ball to the guttapercha ball about 1850. In 1754, a committee at St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland established thirteen rules to govern the game of golf.

The United States Golf Association

was formed in 1894 and standardized the rules of the game. Golf is a game in which a ball is struck with a club from a prepared area, known as the "teeing ground", across fairway and rough to a second prepared area, which has a hole in it, known as the "putting green". The object of the game is to complete a hole by hitting a ball from the teeing ground into the hole on the green in the least amount of hits. A "round of golf' consists of playing 18 such holes.