A Brief History of Golf

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Millions of people play golf every day around the world. Young and old, men and women, enjoy the game that traces its roots as far back as 100 BCE in Rome. Through the magic of television, live streaming on the internet and other forms of media, people today see the majestic beauty of Augusta National, the ancient links of the Old Course at St. Andrews, the splendor of Pebble Beach, or any one of the hundreds of courses on which today’s professionals showcase their superhuman skills. Certainly, golf course design, technology, and the players have come a long way since the nascent years of the game. The following will examine some of the history behind the game of golf, specifically its development into what we know as golf today.

The earliest form of golf can be traced to ancient Rome where people played a game called paganica around 100 BCE. Players hit a stuffed leather ball with a bent stick. During the Song Dynasty (960 CE to 1279 CE) in China, participants played chuiw an, which was played with several clubs and a ball.

A 1261 manuscript of Flemish poet Jacob van Maerlant referred to a game with a ball and club. The reference may have been to the Dutch game called colf or kolf during which four players hit balls over a certain distance with the winner being the one who reached the starting point of one of the other players. Some colf or kolf games lasted multiple days.

However, the modern game of golf can trace its roots to Scotland. In a 1457 Act of the Scottish Parliament, the game of gowf (golf) received its first mention. The Act prohibited the game because King James II saw it as a distraction from archery practice, necessary for the defense of the country.   Further mention of the game can be found in government documents in 1471 and 1491 banning the sport. By 1500, Scotland lifted all bans and within a couple of years, King James IV purchased balls and clubs to play the game. At that time, balls were made of wood or hard leather while clubs were made of wood, mostly beech, holly, pear, and apple. In 1724, various documents referenced balls stuffed with feathers.

Royalty provided the impetus for the spread of golf in Europe.  Mary Queen of Scots began playing golf in 1552.  Later, while studying in France, Mary introduced the sport there.  Interestingly, the term “caddie” comes from her French military aides, referred to as cadets.  King Charles, I introduced the sport to England in the 17th century.  While playing a round of golf at Leith in Scotland in 1641, he learned of the beginning of the Irish Rebellion, which marked the beginning of the English Civil War.  Unperturbed, Charles finished his round.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (HCEG) established the first rules of golf in 1744. Twenty years later, the Old Course at St. Andrews reduced its total holes from 22 to 18, establishing the format for today’s game.

By 1826, hickory, imported from the United States, became the wood of choice for club shafts in Great Britain. About 20 years later, the gutta percha ball became the ball of choice. The ball makers placed strips of gutta percha (dried sap from a Sapodilla tree) in boiling water then molded the ball by hand before submerging in cold water to harden it.

The first British Open Championship was played at Prestwick in 1860. The Royal Liverpool Golf Club established the British Amateur Championship in 1885–Hoylake hosted the first tournament.

Montreal established the first permanent golf club in North America in 1873, Canada’s Royal Montreal Club, while in 1894 the United States Golf Association (USGA) was formed in New York with five charter members—St. Andrew’s Golf Club of Yonkers, New York; Newport (Rhode Island) Golf Club; Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in South Hampton, New York; The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts; and the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois.  A year later, the Newport Country Club hosted the first United States Amateur Championship and United States Open.  The USGA maintains the official rules of golf for the United States and Mexico.

By 1900, persimmon became the wood of choice for club heads while aluminum became a popular alternative. Groove-faced irons, which promote increased backspin, entered the market two years later.  Around the same time, the rubber-cored Haskell ball joined the list of new equipment. This ball revolutionized golf because it traveled farther than the gutta-percha ball and cost much less to manufacture. Golf enthusiasm and participation soared to new heights. By 1910, 267 clubs claimed USGA membership.

In 1916, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was formed and the first PGA Championship took place at Siwanoy Country Club in New York. Five years later the British team won the first Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland. However, the United States team won the first Walker Cup in 1922 at Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York.

Golf technology continued to evolve and the Royal and Ancient (R&A), the recognized stewards of the rules of golf everywhere except the United States and Mexico, accepted steel-shafted golf clubs for the first time in 1929. The next year, Bobby Jones became the only person to achieve the Grand Slam of golf with victories in the United States Amateur, the British Amateur, the United States Open, and the British Open. Not long afterward, Jones was instrumental in designing Augusta National Golf Club, where the first Masters took place in 1934. In 1939, the Royal and Ancient indoctrinated the 14-club rule to promote individual skill and to prevent golfers from using an inordinate amount of clubs.

Women shared the golf spotlight with the men beginning in 1932 when the United States team defeated the team of Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.   The United States Women’s Open was staged for the first time in 1946 at Spokane Country Club in Washington and four years later the Ladies’ Professional Golfers’ Association (LPGA) was formed.

Since 1952 the R&A and the USGA have worked together to produce a common set of rules for golfers worldwide called the “Rules of Golf.”  The rules are revised every four years.

More equipment changes followed World War II. Influenced by research in synthetic and composite materials, golf club manufacturing changed. In 1963, the casting method for manufacturing club heads was introduced.  This new technology lowered the costs of golf clubs, which led to increased participation in the sport. Graphite shafts hit the market in 1973, which were lighter and stronger than steel shafts. TaylorMade introduced the first metal woods in 1979. Callaway owns the honor of the best-selling golf club in history, the Big Bertha, which hit the market for the first time in 1991.

Golf has a long and rich history. The game may have its roots as far back as ancient Rome and China. Certainly, the game as we know it today can be traced to Scotland in the fifteenth century. As technology changed over the years and equipment costs fell, more and more people began to play the game. Arguably, it is the one sport that people can truly enjoy well into their later years in life.  Play the game once and you will probably be hooked. Just remember to yell “fore!” after an errant shot.

A Look at the Ryder Cup

 Courtesy of Dan Perry

Courtesy of Dan Perry

Samuel Ryder made his money selling seeds in packets in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  By 1908 Ryder began to experience health problems and at the behest of a local church minister started to play golf for exercise. He joined the Verulam Golf Club in St. Alban’s near London and quickly fell in love with the game.  Ryder hired Abe Mitchell, a professional golfer, to coach him.  Over a decade later, in 1921, a group of 12 American golfers came to the Gleneagles Golf Club in Scotland hoping to showcase their skills in order to compete in the British Open a couple of weeks later.  Ten Americans actually competed against a team of 10 British golfers, including Mitchell, on June 6.  The two sides competed in foursomes in the morning and singles in the afternoon.  The British team scored a resounding 9-3-3 victory.

The Walker Cup, a match play event featuring amateur American golfers against amateur British golfers, began the next year.  Ryder believed a similar event should take place between professionals and offered to present a special trophy to the winning side.  In 1926, another group of American golfers agreed to compete against a group of British golfers at the Wentworth Club in England as a tune up for the British Open. Again 10 golfers competed on each side.  The event consisted of five foursomes on the first day and ten singles on the second day.  As in 1921, the British scored a lopsided victory, this time by a score of 13-1-1. Mitchell again played for the British.  Some historians believe this outing was meant to be the first Ryder cup match and that Ryder would present a trophy to the winning team.  However, according to Golf Illustrated, it was unclear how many Americans would be able to compete in the contest because of a national strike in Britain, so Ryder decided to present a trophy the following year.

The first official Ryder Cup match took place at the Worcester Country Club in Worcester, Massachusetts from June 3-4.  A formalized Deed of Trust detailed the rules of the match well before the contest and the respective PGA organizations selected the teams. Players were not to be paid for their participation in the event. Each team carried nine golfers.  The format consisted of four foursomes playing alternate shot on the first day and eight singles matches the second day.  Led by team captain Walter Hagen, the American team won 9.5-2.5.  According to www.europeantour.com, Ryder paid 250 pounds for the construction of a 19 inch solid gold cup with a golfer on the top resembling his longtime coach, Abe Mitchell.  Even though Ryder could not make the match because of health reasons, the Cup was still presented to the American team.  Officials from both sides agreed that future matches would be held every other year because of the impracticality of trying to host one every year.  So the Ryder Cup was born.

The event would change in player inclusion and format over time.  For the first 22 Ryder Cups, the United States competed against Great Britain (including Ireland).  The United States won 18 of those, Great Britain won three and the 1969 match ended in a draw.  No matches were played in 1939, 1941, 1943 and 1945 because of World War II.  At the suggestion of Jack Nicklaus, the Great Britain team expanded its membership to all of Europe beginning with the 1979 match in an effort to make the matches more competitive.  The suggestion clearly has worked for the European team as they sport a 10-7-1 record since 1979.  The current overall record has the United States with 25 wins, Great Britain/Europe with 13, and two matches that ended in a draw.  The event switched to even years after the 2001 match was cancelled because of the 9/11 tragedy.  The Ryder Cup started anew the following year.

The process for selecting team members has changed over the years.  In the early matches the players were selected by their respective PGA organizations.  Later, team members earned their way onto the team based on performance standards. From 1929 through 1967 each team consisted of 10 players.  Beginning in 1969, each roster increased to 12 players.  From 1989 through 2014, nine team members on both sides earned their membership based on performance standards while the team captains picked three additional players.  For the 2016 Ryder Cup, the European team adhered to the three captain’s picks while the United States team decided to name four captain’s picks to go along with eight players who earned their way onto the team.

The format of the Ryder Cup has also changed over the years. From its inception through 1959, the Ryder Cup took place over two days, four 36-hole foursomes the first day followed by eight 36-hole singles matches the second day.  For the 1961 match, the format changed to four 18-hole foursomes in the morning and afternoon of day one while eight 18-hole singles matches took place in the morning and afternoon on day two.  From 1963 to 1971 the event spread to three days.  The first day witnessed four foursomes in the morning and the afternoon, the second day consisted of four four-balls in the morning and afternoon, and the third day eight singles matches took place in the morning and the afternoon.  The format changed some during the next three matches but remained contested over three days.  Beginning with the first European team in 1979 the format morphed into what it is today.  For the first two days eight foursomes/four-ball matches are played and 12 singles matches are played on day three. A total of 28 matches are played over the three days of competition under the current format.  The winning team must secure 14.5 points.  In the event of a 14-14 tie the defending champion keeps the Cup.  Team members on both sides still receive no pay for Ryder Cup participation.

From the dream of a man enthralled with the game of golf to the passionate event that it is today, the Ryder Cup has indeed evolved into one of the must-see spectacles in the world of sports.  Cheers to the vision of Samuel Ryder!