Who Invented The Game Of Golf ?
David Humphrey
Well, who actually did invent the game of Golf? The question has
been asked and argued for many years with no true winner. Many
countries have a valid claim to an early game that resembles the
game of golf. Some of the countries that make this claim are
England. Scotland, China, Rome, France, The Netherlands, Belgium
and Laos. The most heated debate over who invented golf
definitely comes from Great Britain and Scotland.
The first area to look when deciding the answer to our question
must be what actually determines when a game with sticks and
balls is golf or another game. Most countries in the world have
had games where you hit an object with a stick at some sort of
target. Is this enough to be called golf, I don’t think so. If
so, then these early games could claim the origin of many sports
played today. I think it takes more than just a game with some
kind of object being hit by a stick to qualify as the origin of
golf.
Holland is believed to be the origin of the name of golf but not
the actual game itself. Holland played a game in the 1200s called
Colf, which means clubs. This was a form of golf but once again
the form of many other sports.
Colf has been traced back to Dec. 26, 1297, in the town of Loenen
aan de Vecht in northern Holland. On that day, the local
townsfolk played four holes of the game to commemorate the
relieving of the Kronenburg Castle exactly one year before. The
fact that colf was chosen to mark the occasion is proof that the
game was already popular by that time.
Great Britain The earliest traces of golf history has golf being
played are said to date back to 1340, where in a sketch from a
stained glass window, the Great East Window, in the east wing of
the Gloucester Cathedral, England, scenes of the Battle of Crecy
in France showed a man apparently preparing to strike a ball in a
golf-like manner.
One of the early forms of golf were all missing one important
ingredient to their games to truly make the game golf and that
was the hole. Scotland is widely believed to be the first country
to put all the ingredients together and actually start a
primitive form of the great game of golf.
Yes, this will always be a disputed point, who actually invented
the game of golf. If you believe some of the claims that the game
they were playing was golf and they didn’t have a hole, then you
could take this same game and turn it into the origin of many
games we still play today. I believe the hole is what separates
all the early claims to who originated the game of golf.
Look at our Golf History section at the World of Golf Handicap
for more detailed information on the History of Golf.
http://www.dave-and-maggie-world-of-golf-handicap.com/golf-history.html
David Humphrey
World of Golf Handicap
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