Contrary to the popular notion that golf originated as an acronym standing for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”, the world “golf” can be traced to the medieval Dutch word “kolf” or “kolve” meaning club. The word was then passed to the Scots, who transformed it into “golve”, “gowl”, or “gouf”. The word “golf” did not emerge until the 16th century.

So where did the game come from? According to the USGA Museum, “While many Scots firmly maintain that golf evolved from a family of stick-and-ball games widely practiced throughout the British Isles during the Middle Ages, considerable evidence suggests that the game derived from stick-and-ball games that were played in France, Germany and the Low Countries”.

It is believed that by the 14th century the Dutch played games using sticks that were curved at the bottom to strike at a ball until it moved from its designated start point to its designated end point. This sounds suspiciously like golf, or perhaps even hockey since the game was predominantly played on ice. Furthermore, the Dutch and the Scots often traded with each other, so it seems plausible for the Scots to have adapted the game from the Dutch. Additionally, the Scots (at one point) also played their games with balls imported from Holland.

However, that doesn’t mean that the Dutch invented golf. Rather, the Scots adapted the Dutch game and turned it into one we recognize today as golf – using a club to repeatedly swing at a ball until it falls into a hole in the ground.

The earliest known reference to golf was in 1457 by King James II of Scotland, banning both golf and football so that people would practice archery instead. The game must have been quite popular, as the ban was repeated in 1471 and 1491. “It is Statue and ordained… that in no part of the country should football, golf, or other such pointless sports be practiced, but for the common good and for the defense of the country archery should be practiced and targets made up as previously ordained.”

Cartoon of the banning of golf

The government was not the only authority to disapprove of golf. Starting in 1580 the Church began making disapproving declarations concerning golf: “There shall be no public playing permitted on the Sabbath days such as playing at bowls, at the penny stone, archery, golf… And if any be found playing publicly in a yard or in the fields upon a Sabbath day from morning until evening they shall pay 20 shillings to the poor, and also make their public repentance before the pulpit.”

Royal opinion concerning golf changed so that by the early 16th century the King would often play the game, as evidenced by payments in the accounting books for golf clubs, balls, and additional money for wagers on the outcome of his games. From that point on, golf would become a “deeply rooted national pastime for king and commoner alike from the 16th century onwards”. (This might also have been aided by the new peace with England, which resulted in “military training being considered less essential, and consequently games and pastimes becoming more acceptable”.)

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