The first written record of golf dates to 1457 when King James II of Scotland issued a law banning the game as it was interfering with his soldiers archery practice – “Golfe be utterly crit doune, and noche usit.”
What this tells us is that golf must have been sufficiently established by this time with his subjects as to warrant it being banned. So who invented it and when? The answer to this question has been puzzling historians for several hundred years and the time has in all likelihood past when a true and accurate answer can be given.
We know that many ancient civilizations and early medieval societies enjoyed many variants of ball and stick games. Paganica was played by the Romans, chuiwan by the ancient Chinese, chole by the Flemish in the middle ages, jeu de mail by the French ( which the English in the 1500’s called Pall Mall ), and colf was played by the Dutch in the 13th century. Given that there was considerable trade between the east coast of Scotland and Holland, and the obvious phonetic similarity, it is likely that golf was a derivation of colf. It can still be claimed, however, that golf was first played in Scotland as none of the previously cited games involved putting a ball into a hole in the ground.
Early developments in golf
1457 – “Golfe” banned by King James II of Scotland
1513 - Catherine of Aragon ( Henry VIII’s first wife ) mentions “golfe” in a letter
1567- Mary Queen of Scots is known to have played golf following the murder of her husband
1593 - John Henrie and Pat Rogie jailed in Edinburgh for playing “gowff on the links of Leith every Sabbath the time of the sermonises”.
1608 - King James VI of Scotland also becomes James 1 of England and a seven hole course was laid out on Blackheath Common by his Scottish ministers
c1650 – golf courses known to exist at Dornoch, Banff, Aberdeen, Montrose, Carnoustie, Perth, St.Andrews, Leven , Leith in Scotland
1744 – Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers first minuted meeting at Leith links and 13 Rules of the Game drawn up in preparation for a Silver Prize club competition.
1754 – St.Andrews Society of Golfers formed ( later to be renamed the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St.Andrews in 1834 )
Early Clubs and Balls
Some rare examples of ancient woods and irons remain but it is difficult with any certainty to date them accurately. A set of eight clubs ( 6 woods and 2 irons ), known as the “Troon Clubs”, are undoubtedly the earliest set known and by drawing comparisons with techniques used to make longbows it is believed that they possibly date to the early 1600’s, and maybe the late 1500’s.
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William St.Clair 1764
The Blackheath Golfers 1790 William Innes and Caddie
The Troon Clubs
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The Troon woods have long and flat heads in s style which prevailed until the 1880’s known a “long-nose”. Lead is used as ballast within the head and the leading edge is protected by a piece of cattle horn held in place with usually three wooden dowels. The head is joined to the shaft using a “scarf” or “scare” joint (referred to today as scare-neck or splice-neck). In this type of join two flat edges of the separate pieces of wood merely butt up against each other, are glued with adhesive made from animal sinew, and are bound externally with pitched whipping. Many golf clubs made before 1820 used ash instead of hickory for the shafts.
The heads of the two Troon irons are very sweeping in style with no clear point where the hosel ends and the blade begins. These clubs were used only in dire need to escape from bad lies.
It is believed that golf may have been played initially with wooden balls ( taking a lead from the similar Dutch and French games already mentioned ), but it is known that by the 17th century the ball of choice was the “featherie” or "feathery". This ball had an outer skin made from three pieces of leather sewn together, and got its name from the its filling of damp feathers that expanded when dry and gave the ball appropriate solid yet elastic properties. These featherie balls were very labour intensive to make and cost the modern equivalent of 50 British Pounds ( 100 US Dollars ).
A full set of clubs for this early period would’ve consisted of the following. Note, wooden headed clubs were much favoured over the odd iron or two as they were less likely to cause the expensive featherie ball to split. Wooden headed putters were the norm, and clubs were carried loosely in the arms of the caddie as golf bags had yet to be invented!
Wooden Playclub ( Driver )
Wooden Long Spoon ( 3 wood )
Wooden Middle Spoon ( 5 wood )
Wooden Short Spoon ( 7 wood )
Wooden Baffing Spoon ( 9 wood )
Heavy Iron ( no set loft but probabably about a 4 iron )
Light Iron ( no set loft but probably an 8 iron )
Wooden Putter
Feathery Golf Balls
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Troon Clubs