Shepherds to ShotLink:
A Golf Drama in Five Acts
A highlights filled time-trip through a millennium with nods to "Chuiwan" and "het kolven," Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, the British Empire, John Reid and the Apple Tree Gang, Olympic Golf, Arnie's Army, Space-Age equipment.
What Are They Talking About?
King James II: "The golfe be utterly cryit doune and not usit."
King Edward VIII: "I like going there for golf. America is one vast golf course these days."
Arnold Palmer, The King: "The game is on!"
"Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness."
-William Wordsworth
In the beginning there was..The truth is we don't know. It's not like James Naismith knocking down that first shot in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 21, 1891-the recorded birth of basketball. When golf conversation backs up to the game's roots, there is no, "Eureka, we've discovered golf!" moment in which stick was first put to ball with the intention of getting it into a hole in the ground.
Golf's Misty Origins: Everybody Chips In
The semi-mythic version imagines a group of bored Scottish shepherds filling time by using their crooks to knock a round pebble toward a target of some kind. Being frugal, they put their charges to work as the first mowers, chomping on the grass to create a playable area which eventually became a "fair way."
While golf's final form is credited to the Scots, other countries had versions of stick-and-ball games. Paintings show the Chinese Imperial Court (about 1000 CE) was crazy for a highly formalized game called chuiwan or "whack-ball." A 32-chapter volume, "The Book of Chuiwan," outlines details on holes with little flags set in manicured grass areas, ten clubs (each with their own function), balls, and a set of rules very similar to the modern version.
Early mentions in the West cite Roman soldiers who occupied Britain from 50 BCE to 400 CE playing a stick-and-ball game called "paganica." The locals renamed it "cambuca," which employed a curved stick and leather ball.
On the Continent the French, Flemish and Dutch led the way. The French royal court played "jeu de mail" which when anglicized was called "pell-mell" and played by London socialites in or near what is now the famous clubland area of Pall Mall. Numerous paintings, dating as far back as the 13th century, show the Flemish playing "chole," a point-to-point cross-country game having some elements of hockey. The Dutch version was called "het kolven."
Histories show there were two levels of stick-and-ball games: a rough-and-tumble version played by common people on fields, streets and roads versus a refined court-of-kings affair played on a smooth putting surface with emphasis on accurate stroking of the object ball to a target. Eventually, they came together, melding the two and requiring the object ball be stroked into a hole in the ground. The Scots called this "golve," "goff," and "gowf."
No consecrated timeline for golf's evolution exists so we're going with five periods. To provide historical context, we highlight "Big Picture Influences," external events that affected the game.
Act One (1400-1700):
"Losing Their Heads Over Gowf"
Big Picture Influences
By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Holland was a formidable trading nation and their businessmen began to export early forms of the game to the UK...Queen Elizabeth I makes England a world power, setting the stage for the future British Empire which will carry the game around the globe. On the debit side, it goes against her that she killed off an enthusiast like cousin Mary Stuart...Scottish kings abandon Edinburgh and move to England, carrying their clubs with them and making the game popular south of the Solway Firth...Columbus' arrival in North America sets stage for the colonization and development of The New World and eventually American golf.About 1500 Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch creates works purportedly about hell but golfers thereafter see them as depictions of game's punishing moments.
Golf Chronicles
Unless golf's version of the Red Sea scrolls is yet to be unearthed, the earliest significant written mention of the game was penned in 1457 when King James II of Scotland banned play because it interfered with the practice of arms, archery in particular, as in "the golfe be utterly cryit doune and not usit." But in spite of repeated royal interdicts golf flourished mainly because the double-standard nobility found time to pursue this newfangled sport that was as it always would be-addictive. By 1502 bans on golf were lifted, primarily because James IV had taken up golf. From 1502 until 1688 every reigning monarch of the Stuart line was a golfer. Among them Mary Queen of Scots, before she lost her head at the order of her arch-rival Elizabeth I. A famous painting dated 1567 portrays her on the fields of Seton Palace near Edinburgh. All this Royal swinging gave impetus to the common folk to keep at it. By the seventeenth century, sources show multiple references that prove golf was flourishing.Meanwhile, over in America the Dutch founded New Amsterdam, purchased the island of Manhattan and brought golf to the New World. In 1650s America there are records proving the Dutch "het kolven" was played in the U.S and one declaration prohibiting cross-country golf on the streets of Albany, NY.
Timeline
- 1457: First written mention of golf when King James II banned play.
- 1502: James IV lifts ban and golf goes public.
- 1552-53: Evidence that golf was played at St Andrews Fife, Scotland; reference to Old Course, "on the proviso that Archbishop of St Andrews John Hamilton, was able to retain possession of the rabbits on the course, the town's right to play golf on the links was officially established."
- 1602: First set of custom golf clubs made for King James VI; this begets line of "Royal clubmakers."
- 1616: Royal Dornoch GC founded; third oldest club in Scotland.
- 1618: James I of Scotland grants James Melvill 21-year monopoly to manufacture golf balls; advent of featherie ball; right to play on Sundays.
- 1641-1642: When the Irish Rebellion of 1641 erupted, English King Charles I received the news while playing golf but finished his round.
- 1682: The first "international" golf match (held on the Leith Links with the Duke of York and John Paterstone representing Scotland against two Englishmen); match occasioned mention of the first recorded caddie, Andrew Dickson.
- 1687: Thomas Kincaid published "Thoughts on Golve," the first written account of clubmaking and mechanics of the golf swing.
- 1691: St Andrews in Scotland was billed "the metropolis of golfing."
Act Two (1700-1800):
"What Game Are We Playing?"
Big Picture Influences
The century opened with the accession of Queen Anne to the throne of England. One of her first acts was to unify England and Scotland which helped spread golf in both countries.In 1752 Benjamin Franklin perfected the first lightning rod which would someday save the lives of the many golfers who had the sense to get near one when caught on a course in a lightning storm.The Rosetta Stone (1799) is discovered in Egypt by Napoleon's troops but no mention is made of whether it also contained the secret to a perfect golf swing.While the "Royal" tag on early clubs became sought after in Britain, the American Colonies opted for democracy, won their War of Independence (1775-1783), and founded golf clubs with no regal affiliations.
Golf Chronicles
With the beginning of the eighteenth century, golf was played in many places but it still lacked formal structures. Two key events mark progress in this area. "The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh" was founded in 1735 as the first formal golf entity. The year 1744 is another major golf date: "Gentleman Golfers of Leith" (later renamed the "Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers") set down the first written Rules of Golf (which numbered 13); Leith also held the first known tournament, built the first golf clubhouse in 1768 and in 1788 required its members to wear red coats while playing...Antedating the first set of rules is a merchant's note dated 1743 and documenting the first shipment of equipment from Scotland to America-96 clubs and 432 balls.In 1745 "The St Andrews Society of Golfers" (later to become known as "The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews," forerunner of one of golf's two ruling bodies) was founded. Two decades later, in 1764, St Andrews reduced its links course from 22 to 18 holes which number became the standard for the modern golf round. It is around this time that the first set of forged clubs are made and the first stroke play event is recorded (1759).
Timeline
- 1722: Publication of "Sermons...
