GOLF, anciently known as GOFF, GOUFF or GOWFF, a game of Dutch origin, but generally identified with Scotland, where as early as 1457 the local Parliament inveighed against its abuse. The Edinburgh town council in 1592 forbade the playing of the game on the Sabbath and offenders were severely punished. The game was played for the first time in England after the accession of James I, whose Scottish train played the game on Blackheath. For over two centuries, however, the game did not become popular in England. In Scotland it had spread throughout the land and many societies and clubs were formed for the practice and promotion of the game, of which the chief was the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews, established in 1754, and now the na tional club of Scotland. About the middle of the 19th century the game spread to India, Canada and the United States. The central authority in the United States is the United States Golf Association, organized in 1804 with four clubs. It now consists of about 200 clubs; and there are about 750,000 in the United States. The word, derived from the German Kolbe, in Dutch Kolf, signifies a club. Kolf, resembling golf, is a very ancient pastime in Holland and Belgium, where it is usually played on the ice.
The modern game of golf is played with clubs and balls on specially prepared courses called links, generally laid out on open suit able grounds. The simplicity of the game is at tractive to beginners, but with a little expe rience the beginner learns how necessary are practice, skill and judgment to make one play well enough to be classed as a good golf player. The prime necessity is plenty of room. The ground best suited for the purpose is a reach of undulating country with a sandy soil, short, crisp turf and plenty of holes or ruts, the lat ter forming the hazards—natural obstacles— or bunkers — artificial obstacles — necessary to prevent the game from being too easy. The links should not be less than three miles round nor more than five. Throughout it are dis tributed 18 artificial holes at any distance from 100 to 500 yards apart. The holes are four and one-half inches in diameter, and each is surrounded with a putting green, a space 60 feet square and made as smooth as possible to enable the player to aim with accuracy. The other requisites are two small balls about two inches in diameter and made of gutta-percha, and a number of clubs adapted to the various contingencies likely to arise.
There are two styles of clubs, the wood and the iron; these consist of a long wooden handle, preferably of hickory, securely attached to a head of beech wood, or of steel as the case may be. Altogether there are 19 shapes of clubs, but six are usually sufficient for a player's needs. The different clubs are used tinder dif ferent circumstances; for example, the chief wooden-headed clubs are the driver and the brassy, the first being used for driving the ball a long distance, and the latter, which is shod with brass, being employed in special situations, as when the ball is in a hollow. The club called the putter, used when the ball is near the hole, has the head either of wood or of iron, The iron-headed clubs are the deck, the iron, the mashie and the niblick, all adapted for special purposes. The clubs are used for driv
ing the balls into the holes, and the object of the player is to get his ball into all the holes successively with the fewest possible strokes. When played by two persons the game is called singles.; when played by four persons in pairs, it is called foursomes. There are two chief methods of playing the game, known as match play and medal play. In the former, two play ers are usually pitted against each other. At tended by their caddies, boys carrying the bags containing the clubs, the players start from the teeing ground where one of them begins the match by placing his ball on a small heap of sand, or on an artificial rubber cone, known as a tee, and driving it as near as possible to the first hole. A good driving stroke from a tee would be 200 yards. The record, made at Saint Andrews, Scotland, is 280
The other player does the same with his ball, after which the player whose ball is farthest from the hole plays again. They continue thus until both balls have been holed. The player who takes the fewest strokes to do this is said to win the hole and counts one, and if both have taken the same number of strokes the hole is halved and neither counts. Having holed hiS ball the player takes it out, tees it again and starts out for the next hole. Much of the interest of the game depends on the skilful play required to avoid the hazards and bunkers, scattered over the course, or to get one's ball out when it lands in a difficult spot. In medal play the win ner is the player who goes the round of the course in the fewest possible strokes irrespec tive of whether he had a majority of holes or not. Various modifications of these two modes of scoring are in use. A hole match may be won before the round is completed, as, for instance, when one competitor is four holes ahead with only three still to be played. When one player has a lead equal to the number of holes still unplayed, he is said to be dormy that number of holes, thus, a player when dormy three has a lead of three after playing the fourth last hole, in which case, though he may not win, he cannot lose. The central authority on the game in America regulating the various championships, etc., is the United States Golf Association organized 22 Dec. 1894, with which is now affiliated over 200 clubs throughout the country. Consult Beldan, G. W.,