Golf , or something very like it , has been around for a long prison term . The sport and its progenitors were depicted in Flemish woodcut , mentioned in the novels of Emile Zola and even cropped up in the decree of queen [ origin : McGrath ] . Yet , its origins remain as foggy as a morning tee prison term on the Forth estuary .
Whether you regard golf as the prototype of Zen mind or , as Mark Twain put it , " a expert walk mess up , " you ’ve probably enquire where and how such a peculiar interest originated . Who would devise a sport that " consists of putting little balls into little hollow with instruments very ill accommodate to [ the ] aim , " as one Oxford tutor remark ? And furthermore , who thought that an sweep of hummocky , pock grassland would make an idealistic setting for it ?
The Scots , that ’s who .
Actually , the origins of golf are not quite that cut - and - dry out . the great unwashed across Europe have tap balls around with sticks and cabaret for century in various game , some of which have contributed to golf ’s lore and language . Exactly how much they added to the sport remains heatedly debated among scholar , but a few matters seem settled . The word " golf , " for example , is believed to come from the mediaeval Dutch wordkolf , meaning " club ; " and " tee " most likely derives fromtuitje , a small mound upon which a ball was placed in the Belgian gamechole(a kind of long - length croquet ) .
None of these other biz is quite the same as the golf we know , however . For that , we have to thank Scotland , where they ’ve been slap balls for at least 700 years .
Read on as we go down the rabbit hole to discover golf game ’s origin .
The Evolution of Golf
golf game dissent from other present-day joystick - and - ball game in two ways : One , it was played over an temporary expanse of broken landscape . And two , it entailed hitting the ball into pickle . Its history extends back to the 12th one C Scottish monarch David I , who set aside swaths of worthlesslinksland(rough landscapes of sand , supergrass and urine where rivers meet the sea ) for public use , get down with a sleepy sportfishing village called St. Andrews . These estate allotment go on for century , expanding to incorporate the Clyde and Forth estuary and area beyond .
Before golf game could really take off , however , it required a social class with leisure time fourth dimension to flirt and sufficient disposable income to give equipment . The tardy eighteenth C convey both . The Industrial Revolution ’s moneyed captains of diligence used the links for both recreation and networking . Gradually , golf grew popular enough to support greenskeeper and to move the manufacturing of balls and clubs out of cottage kitchens and into factories .
In 1774 , the Company of Edinburgh Golfers established the first golf game society and published the first 13 rule of play . A decennium later , St. Andrews base its own social club , which today is the rulemaking body for all golfers outside of North America . Modern tournament caper began more than a century later on in the Scottish town of Prestwick , south of Glasgow , on Oct. 17 , 1860 . A year later , the competition was " opened " to amateur and the Open Championship ( British Open ) was born .
legion the great unwashed influence golf in the year since , but one person , Tom Morris , tolerate out for both his acquisition as a player and his wide-eyed influence on the plot . Morris begin as caddie to the great Allan Robertson , later serve well as professional and greenskeeper at Prestwick , where he gain the first Open , and at St. Andrews . He went on to design courses across all of Scotland , devising the modern system of two loops of nine holes , which involve golfers to act under dislodge fart condition .
By the remainder of Morris ' life in the other twentieth century , golf had assume its familiar form . Courses now run around 18 standardized holes amid man - made hazards and kept greens . Balls , once leather bags farce with feathering , were now resilient dimpled spheres that could be control and spin . ( Although they would eventually exchange even more – from rubber cores to solid , for exercise . ) golf club became more specialized , enabling better turn on a chain of lies , and the five iron , niblic and rut iron – progenitor of today ’s standard iron – took their place in the golf game traveling bag alongside their historical hickory full cousin .
But who were the secret plan ’s big ? We ’ll take a look at those athletes on the next page .
Historic Golf Stats
Golf demote down greatness via a miscellanea of statistics , most of them concerned with body , blue scads and hitch and tournament victory . Here are some standout stats :
PGA Tour
The Professional Golfers ' Association was founded in 1916 by professional person and amateur led by department store mogul Rodman Wanamaker , who thought it would increase golf equipment cut-rate sale . Now the humans ’s largest running sports administration , it ’s responsible for for the PGA Championship , the PGA Grand Slam of Golf , the Senior PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup .
The 11 golf player with the most PGA Tour wins are Sam Snead ( 82 wins ) , Jack Nicklaus ( 73 ) , Tiger Woods ( 71 ) , Ben Hogan ( 64 ) , Arnold Palmer ( 62 ) , Byron Nelson ( 52 ) , Billy Casper ( 51 ) , Walter Hagen ( 45 ) , Cary Middlecoff ( 40 ) , Gene Sarazen ( 39 ) , and Tom Watson ( 39 ) .
PGA Championship
Nicklaus and Hagen are tied for the most PGA Championship wins , at five each , but Hagen butt against out Nicklaus for sequential wins , at five to four .
The Masters
The Masters Tournament was begun by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts in 1934 at Augusta National Golf Club and is still hold there annually .
Most victory :
6 – Jack Nicklaus ( 1963 , 1965 , 1966 , 1972 , 1975 , 1986 )
4 – Arnold Palmer ( 1958 , 1960 , 1962 , 1964 )
4 – Tiger Woods ( 1997 , 2001 , 2002 , 2005 )
3 – Jimmy Demaret ( 1940 , 1947 , 1950 )
3 – Sam Snead ( 1949 , 1952 , 1954 )
3 – Gary Player ( 1961 , 1974 , 1978 )
3 – Nick Faldo ( 1989 , 1990 , 1996 )
3 – Phil Mickelson ( 2004 , 2006 , 2010 )
Mickelson made 12 attempts prior to winning the Masters . Tiger Woods has come through the Masters with the widest security deposit , at 12 strokes .
U.S. Open Championship
U.S. OpenChampionship
The United States Golf Association held the first U.S. Open on Oct. 4 , 1895 , at the Newport Golf and Country Club in Rhode Island . As Americans began to increasingly rule the game , the U.S. Open get into an important world golf championship .
4 – Willie Anderson ( 1901 , 1903 , 1904 , 1905 )
4 – Robert T. Jones , Jr. ( 1923 , 1926 , 1929 , 1930 )
4 – Ben Hogan ( 1948 , 1950 , 1951 , 1953 )
4 – Jack Nicklaus ( 1962 , 1967 , 1972 , 1980 )
3 – Hale Irwin ( 1974 , 1979 , 1990 )
3 – Tiger Woods ( 2000 , 2002 , 2008 )
The Open Championship ( British Open )
The Open celebrate its 150th day of remembrance on the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2010 . It has been played in various rotations at 14 different course of instruction .
6 – Harry Vardon ( 1896 , 1898 , 1899 , 1903 , 1911 , 1914 )
5 – James Braid ( 1901 , 1905 , 1906 , 1908 , 1910 )
5 – John Henry Taylor ( 1894 , 1895 , 1900 , 1909 , 1913 )
5 – Peter Thomson ( 1954 , 1955 , 1956 , 1958 , 1965 )
5 – Tom Watson ( 1975 , 1977 , 1980 , 1982 , 1983 )
4 – Tom Morris Sr . ( 1861 , 1862 , 1864 , 1867 )
4 – Tom Morris Jr. ( 1868 , 1869 , 1870 , 1872 )
4 – Willie Park Sr . ( 1860 , 1863 , 1866 , 1875 )
4 – Walter Hagen ( 1922 , 1924 , 1928 , 1929 )
4 – Bobby Locke ( 1949 , 1950 , 1952 , 1957 )
In the next surgical incision , we ’ll look at some of the traditions that lend golf game its unique personality .
Historic Golf Traditions
Over its long story , golf has accumulate its own rich voice communication and a wide variety show of traditions .
courtesy and Etiquette
Many golf game tradition go around around courtesy and they loan golf its typical feel . These include bring quickly , replacing divot , rake bunker footprint , calling penalties on oneself and keep silent during a swing . safety gadget is paramount as well , and a golfer hitting an errant shot is expected to shout " bow , " meaning " see out ahead . "
Tournaments keep their own peculiar courtesies . The dominate champion of the Masters , for example , host a dinner party for contender just before the next Masters tournament begins . The success also traditionally donate a club to be put on showing in the Augusta National clubhouse .
trophy
accolade for winning golf game tournaments have change considerably . Early on , golf player won silver club or atomic number 47 balls . The first exposed trophy , a " challenge swath " of silver and Moroccan leather , was supervene upon in 1873 by the first Claret Jug trophy ( it resembled a 19th one C wine host ) , which remains the honor to this twenty-four hour period . Each Open winner keep the silver prize for one twelvemonth before exchanging it for a replica .
The Masters has award its famed green jacket to victors since 1949 , in keeping with the traditional attire of Augusta National members . ( master winners receive a one - twelvemonth membership at the club . ) Since 1954 , the tourney has also award players crystal watercraft for particular carrying out , include a vase for the depressed round , a bowl for a hole - in - one and two goblets for an eagle .
language
We ’ve discussed the origins of general terms like " golf tee , " " gild , " and even " golf , " and we ’ll learn more about the origins of " caddy " in a mo ; but sure terminal figure are unique to finical tourney . Take the Masters ( or , as tourney officials call it , " the tournament " ) , where spectator are " patrons , " the back nine is known as the " second nine , " and the rough is called the " 2d undercut . " The Augusta National 11th , 12th and 13th holes , crucial for winning the tournament , are appropriately nicknamed " Amen Corner . "
In this next department , we ’ll see if golf game really stands for " Gentlemen Only , Ladies Forbidden . "
Women in Golf
Although Catherine of Aragon , Henry VIII ’s first wife , reportedly golfed , Mary Queen of Scots is the charwoman most famously affiliate with early golf game history . Mary is also credited with premise the condition " caddy " to the golf game dictionary : When she played in France , she was assisted by new human being called cadets ( pronounce " kuh - DAYZ " ) .
charwoman are not much observe in golf game chronicle for the subsequent 200 years . Scots fishwives flirt a tourney at Musselburgh in 1810 for a loot of a " creel and a skull , " and British women began forge gild in the 1860s , give the St. Andrews Ladies Golf Club in 1867 . In 1893 , Issette Pearson spearheaded the establishment of the Ladies Golf Union in Britain , which establish the first women ’s golf game tournament that same class . Across the pool , in 1894 , woman in Morristown , N.J. , form the first adult female - run ( but not women - only ) golf club in America , offering a Tiffany ash grey cupful as the grand trophy for that year ’s tourney . The United States Golf Association held the first professional level women ’s tourney two year by and by .
The LGU tournament was carried by 18 - year - sometime Margaret Scott , daughter of an earl who own his own golf course . Margaret had already won tournaments against male golf player at Cheltenham ( in an era before woman ’s tees ) and her gift and poise changed many minds about women on the links .
Many standout charwoman linksman followed . Early greats included the Hezlet family , consisting of the gifted Mary Linzee " May " Hezlet , her two sisters and their female parent , who take on into her later 70 ; prodigy Beatrix Holt , who at 16 years former won three straight national women ’s title after only playing for two twelvemonth prior ; and the predominant Dorothy Campbell , who won 10 British , Canadian and American championships .
Turning to recent adult female greats , no word would be accomplished without mentioning Annika Sorenstam , a reproducible thespian who holds low - grudge records in numerous categories and is 2d only to Mickey Wright for prescribed tournament wins in one season ( 11 vs. 13 ) . Wright , who held that record in two disjoined years , is also tie with Babe Zaharias and Pat Bradley for the most John Roy Major wins in one season , at three from each one . At the age of 26 , Wright was also the youngest woman ever to reach 30 wins . Patty Berg holds the criminal record for the most calling John Major won , at 15 .
Today , the Ladies Professional Golf Association , founded in 1950 , is one of the longest - run women ’s professional mutant associations in the world , boasting more than 460 LPGA Tour member , approximately 230 of which are combat-ready competitors . Women ’s golf game is here to bide , yet woman still struggle to enter adult male ’s tourney .
Let ’s look at some other groups that struggle for adequate entree to the links .
Minorities in Golf
golf game has a custom of nonage play dating back at least to the second U.S. Open , when John Shippen , an African - American who had help build the club where the tourney was held , tied for 5th place . Prior to the match , a number of professionals imperil to withdraw if Shippen make for , but USGA President Theodore Havemeyer state them to result if they need to – Shippen would play .
When he won the 1959 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship , William A. Wright cemented his place in sports chronicle as the first African - American to win a USGA championship . More opprobrious professional came forward in the 1960s and seventies , with Calvin Peete and Jim Thorpe emerge in the 1980s and early ' 90 as the black professional person who competed most regularly . Peete , who had to overcome the handicap of a left branch that would not fully extend , developed such body in his swing that others nickname him " Xerox . " Thorpe , a former football role player , became the first black humans to lead any stave of the U.S. Open . In 24 years on the PGA Tour , he logged $ 1.5 million in prescribed PGA lucre . Today , Tiger Woods is arguably one of the greatest golfers in history , already having won 14 masters tournaments , to say nothing of his three straight U.S. Junior Amateurs and three straight U.S. Amateur Championships .
Women minorities have had a somewhat more hard journey into golf . Ann Gregory , who played in legion USGA championships and who lose the 1971 Senior Women ’s Amateur by only one separatrix , begin her career in 1956 , shortly after the Montgomery , Ala. , bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She was follow by Althea Gibson , Eoline Thornton and Renee Powell , who also serves on the USGA committee .
Among Hispanics , Nancy Lopez stands out as the youngest woman induct into the LPGA Hall of Fame , and few could draw a blank " Super Mex " Lee Trevino , rank as the 14th - greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest cartridge holder , or Juan " Chi - Chi " Rodriguez , who won 30 tournaments , let in 22 on the Champions Tour . Of course , golf is an outside play , and as such has many great player who are not minorities in their home plate land . For example , Lorena Ochoa , a Mexican linksman who retired at 28 , was rank No . 1 in the world during her final three long time and racked up 27 win during her last six years .
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