A Historical Preview of the Game of Golf

The game of golf has seen a slow and steady progression from its earliest form up until today. There are some great distinctions which set apart the one you will find at NetBet sport and the one played in the medieval times.

But for the sake of setting up a proper timeline, it is important to begin at the earliest of dates – ancient Rome. At this time, the Romans were under the rule of Julius Caesar who himself was an occasional golf player. In this form, golf was mainly a stick-and-ball game, the club consisting of a piece of wood and the ball being stuffed with feathers.

In a similar form to the one that used to exist back in ancient Rome, the Chinese Song Dynasty also engaged in golf. The period of such activity has persisted up until today, but the time between the second half of the tenth century and the near the end of the 13th century have seen golf grow and prosper in the far East. The Dutch are also credited for introducing their form of the game, especially renovated by the use of new and improved sticks- wood.

In its modern form, golf was born and nurtured in Scotland, under the influence of all these various sources. The main element that distinguished the Scottish version from all the rest is that they added the hole and made it the game’s goal to be able to hit it multiple times until making it fall inside. This game of golf reached a massive audience and gained great popularity, which even interfered with King James II’s military plans. In 1457, he declared a ban on both golf and soccer to keep his men from getting distracted, but despite further reassurance in the 70s and 90s of the 15th century, they were both legalized in 1502.

Once Scotland opened its gates to golf, the game swiftly spread all over Great Britain. Over the course of the following two centuries, people migrating to other lands had further spread golf and its rules. By the middle of the 1700s, Britain had already established the first official golfers club St. Andrews, later nominated the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews, in 1834.

With the first formal establishments slowly gaining their final form and its wide expansion to the North American continent, golf was definitely viewed as a sport that will persist. As the British Open in 1860 standardized the game to the most minute golf course and equipment-related detail, Canada and the USA were able to set up their own lands, associations and ultimately tournaments.

In today’s modern times, it is rare for a thing dating that far back into the past to have survived and retained all its glory. Nonetheless, the number of golfing legends it has managed to produce throughout the years have kept the image and the competition alive for the new generations that are yet to come.