The Big Question - Where did golf originate ?

The Scottish town of St. Andrews has the world-wide repute as "The Home of Golf". St. Andrews however has at best a tenuous claim to the accolade. Many cultures too have their own claim to being the originators of the game - the English with cambuca, the Flemish with chole and even the Chinese with Ch'ui Wan. The Germans also have their own claim to the title. Back in 1338, German shepards were granted special dispensation to mark out their territories by striking a pebble with their crooks. The distance which the shot covered would be the extent of their grazing rights. With so many canidates for the label, the big question still remains - "Who invented golf ?"

Earliest Records of the Game

The earliest traces of golf being played dates back to 1350 where in a sketch from a stained glas window at Gloucester Catherdral, England, scenes of the Battle of Crécy in France showed a man apparently preparing to strike a ball in a golf-like manner.It was perhaps not golf but the game of cambuca, a popular pastime of the day.

Is this Golf ? This detail from the Great East Window of Gloucester Cathedral has led some people to declare that golf must have been known in England around 1350 when the window was made. This however is unlikely. It is probable that the medival sport of cambuca or the Flemish game of chole is what is depicted.

The late Dutch golf historian Steven J. H. van Hengel, acknowledged as one of the foremost experts of the origins of golf, believes that golf was probably a mixture of the implements used in chole and the rules of jeu de mail, both games imported into Holland. The origins of the name golf is believed to be the Dutch word of "colf" which means "club". In the medieval ages, golf was also known as spel metten colve, literally "game with clubs". Van Hengel traced colf back to 26th December 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 choosen to mark the occasion is, suggested Van Hengel, is proof that the game was already popular by 1297, although he could say for how long. "Colfer" or golfers were a common sight in contemporary Dutch artworks, suggesting their popularity then. Colf continued until the early 18th century when it suddenly fell out of fashion as was replaced by kolf, a considerably shorter game played on a course of some 20 metres in length.

As mentioned earlier, St. Andrews is often recongnized as where the game was fostered. It was responsible for 18 "holes" being the established norm for a full game, a standard adopted in 1764.

At around 1650, golf was played in only about 12 locations in Scotland - at Domoch, Banff and Aberdeen in the north; at Montrose, Carnoustie, Perth, St. Andrews and Leven further south and at a few locations around the city of Edinburgh. Until the late 19th century, golfing was almost confined to the sandy turfs among the dunes of the east coast of Scotland.

The first Scottish reference to golf was in 1457, contained in a parliamentary decree by King James II, who declared that "fute-ball and Golfe be utterly cryit doune, and nocht usit !". He was worried that these two sports were keeping his subjects away from archery practices which was required to repel the frequent English incursions.

Van Hengel's theory of colf begetting golf is supported by the frequent trading links between Holland and Scotland from medieval times. Colf is believed to have travelled from east to west, across the North Sea.