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History
of Golf (part 1: The Beginnings)
By
George White - June 26, 2002
Since
the beginning of time, man has preoccupied himself with a
stick and a rock, making his drudgery into a game.
In the earliest of times he swung the stick at the rock,
propelling it towards some predetermined destination. This, it
can be said, was the precursor of golf. Unfortunately, it also
is the precursor to just about all the sports that require a
ball and some object to propel it.
What country invented ‘golf?’ Many countries did. If there
were sticks and objects that could be hurtled along, then
there was ‘golf.’ Though the name didn’t come into being
until some time in the 15th century, there were many, many
games of early man that could be called an ancestor to golf.
Nearly every area around the world has some claim to the
origination of golf. Scotland, of course, has its claim. But
so do China, Rome, England, France, Holland, Belgium, even
Laos. Every country has a game consisting of sticks and balls,
and every country is correct in its assumption that it
invented the game. But there is no one country where
‘golf’ actually began.
Some say that it was first
played by shepherds tending their flocks, passing the
time by hitting rocks to targets with their shafts.
Games would have developed between competing shepherds,
playing across links land and back to their villages.
One theory is that fishermen on the east coast of
Scotland invented the game to amuse themselves as they
returned home from their boats.
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Other games which included a ball, a stick and some form
of a target included ‘paganica’in Rome, a Celtic
game called ‘shinty,’ and ‘khi’ in Laos. The
Chinese claim a form of golf – ch’ui wan (“beating
a ball”) – was played as early as 300 BC. The Roman
scribe Catullas describes the game of ‘pangea’ –
an ancient forerunner of modern hockey and hurling.
Roman emperors in Caesar’s empire apparently played
the relaxing game of paganica using a bent stick to
drive a soft, hair-filled or feather-stuffed ball. The
use of hair-filled balls can be traced to the spread of
the Roman empire, and similar balls were later used in
Europe. Over the next five centuries, the game developed
on several continents.
Shepherds’ implements were definitely used in games to
hit rocks, we know. In 1338, German shepherds were
granted special dispensation to mark their territories
by striking a pebble with their crooks. The distance
covered was the extent of their grazing rights, a
serious use of the rules of the game.
The Irish played a very rough game called
“camanachd” and the English played a game, “cambuca,”
in the 1300s. The goal of cambuca is unclear and it may
have even been a competition between enemies with one
attacking and one defending.
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.
Chole, which still survives in Belgium and under the
name of ‘soule’ in Northern France, is a halfway
stage between hockey and golf. A cemetery gate, a door,
a big rock or other large object – often as far
distant as 12 miles away – could serve as the
‘goal.’ One player or side would get three strokes
at the object, after which the opponent or opponents
would get to whack the object in the opposite direction
(dechole). |
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