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A golf-like game is recorded as taking place on 26 February 1297, in the Netherlands, in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht. Here the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. Whoever hit the ball into a target several hundreds of meters away the most number of times, won. However, golf is generally considered to be a Scottish invention, as the game was mentioned in two 15th-century Acts of the Scottish Parliament, prohibiting the playing of the game of gowf. Scholars, however, suggest that this refers to another game which is much akin to shinty or hurling, or to modern field hockey rather than golf. They point out that a game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using golf clubs was played in 17th-century Netherlands rather than Scotland.
The oldest playing golf course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh Racecourse. Evidence has shown that golf was played on Musselburgh Links in 1672 although Mary, Queen of Scots reputedly played there in 1567. source: Wikipedia |
The
word golf is an alteration of Dutch kolf meaning
"stick, "club", and "bat". There are
reports of even earlier accounts of golf from continental Europe.
