The Origins of GolfThe Origins of GolfAre you tired of the comment, "no one will ever know exactly where or when golf started"? So am I. Unfortunately, the comment is correct; historic evidence cannot conclusively determine the answer. Indeed, some historians even deny that the game began in Scotland, preferring England or Holland.
Educated guesses can be made, however, due to strong circumstantial evidence. In this series of articles, I'm going to define the information that we do know, and tell you when (within 20 years,) and exactly where I believe the game began.
In this investigation, I'll be plainly marking any conclusions that are not backed up by historic evidence. I expect you to disagree with some of my conclusions; you are the jury in this investigation. However, as you know, every jury must interpret the facts, and then decide what the most likely chain of events were. I hope you'll give me a fair trial.
Bill Nelson
Golf Historian
March, 1999
When was the last time you played golf? I assume that when you did, you picked up your golf clubs which were in a golf bag, and you went to a golf course where you hit a golf ball. Perhaps you rode around in a golf cart. You were playing golf, weren't you?
How do you know? How do you know you were playing golf, and not soccer or tennis or football?
If you adhere to the USGA's opinion, it's quite easy. If you followed the Rules of Golf to the letter, you played golf. Oh, you hit a ball on the 10th hole, went down into the rough (you thought you knew exactly where it was!) and couldn't find it? So you just dropped another ball, gave yourself a penalty stroke or two and just kept on going because you didn't want to go back to the tee and face the wrath of the steelworker following you? Sorry, according to the USGA, you didn't play golf. (Well, just exactly what were you playing then?)
No, the definition of golf is more than that. Actually, there are 5 attributes that make golf different from every other game.
Pretty mundane stuff, eh? Well, perhaps, but if we go on to talk about how the game of golf started, it's important to differentiate from the Roman game of Pagnacia or the Native American stick and ball games, and golf as we know it today.
An example is Putt-Putt miniature golf. If you go over to the place with the four colored lights, you play a game that satisfies guidelines 1, 2, and 4. However, the hole is usually within 20 yards of the the tee, and if you've ever played with a four-year old, or seen the teenagers horsing around, you realize that maybe the other players do have an influence. As a result, miniature golf is not golf, at least not by this definition.
Just as importantly, these guidelines tell us when someone was playing golf. In the 18th century, we know that golfers began a hole a few feet from where they finished the previous hole. They also negotiated stymies when their opponent's ball lay in a line between their ball and the hole. Other differences existed, such as the composition of the ball and the complete absence of a cohesive theory of obstructions. These guidelines tell us that, in spite of the differences, those people were our golfing forefathers.
Now that we've defined Golf, the next article will discuss three games that weren't golf.
2. Golf's Fathers and Grandfathers
-- This installment should be posted by March 23, 1999; please check back to www.users.sgi.net/~histgolf to see it.