The Origins of Golf: Who Invented the Master's Game?

Golf is probably one of the most popular games in the planet today. It is also one of the oldest sports which is still played until now. It is often viewed as a past time that belong only to the wealthy because of the cost involved in buying equipment and the expensive cost of playing in a golf course. However recently it has become a popular sport in almost all level of society due to the drop of cost in golf equipment, increase in the availability of the rental of golf equipment and the proliferation of golf courses not only across the country but around the globe.

The oldest record of a golf game being played is in the year 1297 in the Dutch city of Loenen aan de Vecht in the Netherlands where golf is supposed to have originated. Records show at that time that the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. The rules were that a ball was to be aimed at a target several hundreds of meters away. Whoever hit the target with the least number of times wherein the ball was stroked won the game.

However there is still a debate among the Chinese, the Dutch and the Scottish as all of them claim that they are those who invented the game of golf. For the Scottish, they claim that golf originated from them since they have a law during the 15^th century which prohibits playing "gowf." Although the Scottish admit that "Stick and ball games have been around for many centuries" modern day golf as played according to them "clearly originated in Scotland." Scotland has the world's oldest playing golf course at Musselburgh Links. History reveals that golf has been played here since 1672, although it was rumored that Mary, Queen of Scots reputedly played there in 1567. However it has been said that "gowf" could have referred to another game since the world "Golf" actually comes from the dutch word "kolf" which means a "stick", "club" or a "bat." With this in mind, the Dutch seemed to have the upper hand in the battle with the Scotts as to who really invented golf. It cannot however be denied that modern day golf as we know it as it is now have the influence of Scottish rules, style and feel.

The Chinese however have more weighty evidence that they invented golf. Recent archeological diggings in China has unearthed that a game similar to modern golf was played since the Southern Tang Dynasty 500 years before golf was even mentioned in Scotland. Further, records from the Song Dynasty shows that a game called "cuiwan" was played using 10 clubs which are similar to today's golf clubs. It has then been suggested that golf was imported to Europe by Mongollian travelers in the Middle Ages.

In the early days of golf, golf course holes do not always had 18 holes. There was a time in History when golf holes had only 11 holes and later on it reached 22. It was only in 1764 and until today the there are 18 holes in golf courses.

There has also been an improvement in golf equipment throughout history from the Scottish, Chinese and the Dutch wooden golf clubs, to the introduction of the metal shafts which were introduced in the 1930s to today's graphite shafts.

It does not matter whether it was the Chinese, Scottish or the Dutch which conceived golf and introduced it to the world. Whoever were the first people who introduced golf to the world certainly did a good job of making it a very nice and interesting game.