Who invented golf? Scotland, myths & medieval fairways
Who created golf? It’s a surprisingly tricky question to answer, but the sport can be traced back to medieval Scotland, where its popularity took root.
Image: St Andrews is home to arguably the most famous golf course in the world | Shutterstock.com
As a pastime, golf has many plus points. It gets you out into the invigorating open air, and there’s a strong social aspect, too. You can play golf with family and co-workers as well as meet new people at golf clubs.
Meanwhile, legendary superstar golfers like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Rory McIlroy are big names even to those who know little about the sport.
Still, even if you go golfing regularly, you could be surprised how much you don’t actually know about the sport. For example, you could be none the wiser about who created golf – but that would be understandable. The somewhat complex history of golf is a puzzle we at Sky HISTORY have enjoyed attempting to unravel…
Who created golf?
The simple answer is that we just can’t be certain. It doesn’t help that in antiquity, stick-and-ball games similar to golf were played in various countries around the world. Examples include paganica during Roman times and chuiwan in ancient China.
Such games could theoretically have inspired what we now recognise as golf. However, there is strong linguistic evidence that modern golf’s true progenitor was a Dutch game known as kolf. From the Netherlands, it may have been transported to Scotland due to the strong trade links between the two countries in the medieval period.
What’s the story about a hobbit inventing golf?
Who created golf in Middle-earth, the fantastical world conjured up by J.R.R. Tolkien for his Lord of the Rings books? Apparently, it was a hobbit. That’s according to the first chapter of The Hobbit, the prequel to the much lengthier Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In The Hobbit, Tolkien mentions a hobbit who fought as a cavalry soldier at the in-universe Battle of the Green Fields. Here, he ‘charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram … and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club’.
The head consequently went flying a hundred yards before falling down a rabbit hole. Tolkien remarks that ‘in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.’
How Scots shaped the modern game
Who created golf as we know it today? In many respects, it was the Scots. It’s thought that Scottish shepherds started playing the game in the 15th century, striking stones with sticks to stave off boredom.
Back then, the fairways would not have been purpose-built golf courses like the kind we see today, but instead public land. Hence, the terrain would also have been much more rugged, despite grazing animals like sheep and goats keeping the grass nicely cut down.
Golfing had evidently become a popular pastime in Scotland by 1457, when King James II went as far as banning it. In an age when war often broke out with neighbouring England, James feared that golf was distracting young men too much from their archery practice.
The rise of the golfing politician
In recent years, we’ve become pretty accustomed to seeing US presidents playing golf, with Barack Obama and Donald Trump just two examples. However, the first world leader to publicly take up ‘true’ golf was apparently King James IV of Scotland in the early 16th century.
By then, the Scottish government had finally lifted its golf ban. Mary, Queen of Scots was also said to be a golfer. In 1834, King William IV bestowed the appellation of ‘Royal and Ancient’ upon the Society of St Andrews Golfers. This golf club – founded in the Scottish town of St Andrews in 1754 – drew up official rules for the sport in 1897.
Today, ‘the R&A’ is one of the world’s two major governing bodies of golf, alongside the United States Golf Association (USGA). The latter was established in 1894 as golf became increasingly mainstream stateside.
What is the state of play today?
Today, golf is arguably a bigger deal than it has ever been, fuelled by prestigious televised competitions like The Open Championship and the Ryder Cup. It’s a sport widely played by men and women alike. (Contrary to the myth, the word ‘golf’ was not originally derived as an acronym for ‘Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden’).
In the 21st century, golf is a truly global phenomenon – in a way that those Scottish shepherds in the 15th century could never have imagined.
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