History Of Golf Essay Research Paper Imagine

History Of Golf Essay, Research Paper

Imagine the sun bursting through the trees for the first time of the new day, the smell of freshly cut grass still potent to your nose as you tee the ball up for a round of golf in the cool mist of a spring morning. “That is what brings you back every time, the smell of the air, the coolness of the whether and the beautiful surroundings that make every shot enjoyable.” (Suess, PI) This is the game of golf in its finest and most exquisite time to many people and many people it has touched in its long history. Golf is a lifestyle and not just games to people that are avid in playing. The game of golf has a history that is rich in technological advances and personal accomplishments, which through time has shown to shape the sport into what it has become today.

The organ of golf in it most primary of forms is unknown, but there are many cultures that show golf in times as early as the thirteenth century. Three groups of people claim that they started golf: The English, the Dutch and the Scots. The English say that they started golf because of the sketches of a man apparently preparing to strike a ball in a golf like manner stained into the windows of the Gloucester Cathedral, England. Many scholars doubt that theory because it could have been a man playing cambuca, a popular pastime of English society in that time. The Dutch say that they started golf because they feel it is a mixture of the two Dutch games chole and jeu de mail. Many people believe that the word golf originated from Holland with the word “colf” which means club. A Dutch man named Van Hengal traced colf back to December 1297, in a town of Loenen in Northern Holland. In this month, local townsfolk played four holes of the game to commemorate the relieving of the Krnenburg Castle exactly one year before. This fact suggests that golf or colf was already popular by the late thirteenth century. The Scots state the case of organ because they are the home of St. Andrews, which was the first golf coarse with eighteen holes. There are also stories of men from medieval times trading supplies that could be used for golf between the shores of Holland and Scotland.

This new game that people were beginning to play in Scotland, seemed to take a hold of the people. At the time, the sport was open to all people- no fees to pay, no starting times- just a short game of golf that would always be followed by a trip to the local mead hall. Most golf played was on bets and times have not changed on that fact. Men would go and bet that they could beat the man next to them on the links, which at the time were only sandy, hilly pastures. It was because this game was at such a simple stage in its history; it required skill and finesse that almost all people could do. So, to meet the demand of the people, many courses were built along high bluffs on the eastern coastline in Scotland. It is here that nature developed dunes, ridges, gullies and hollows that would challenge the best of golfers.

Through the years there have been many forms of golf clubs used to strike to object used as a ball. Because of the increase in technology the tools of golf have been defined and redefined over and over again. The very first types of clubs that were used were just regular sticks that a person would find. These clubs were fashioned and modified with strips of leather at the top end to form a grip. These clubs were used all the way until the early 18th century.

In the early 18th century there was a new way of making clubs. Clubs no longer had to withstand the impact of striking a solid wooden ball because of the development of a new lighter ball. Soon clubs were being made out of ash, thorn, apple, and pear wood. These clubs were nice because the owners were able to place exquisite designs in the shafts and they were still functional. In 1826 hickory from America was being exported the isles to help with the demand of the wooden clubs. (Hist. Coarse, 11)

All the wooden clubs would start being replaced with steel and iron in 1848 when the gutta percha ball first appeared. The clubs did not have to be so soft at contact with the ball so metals were good to use in the clubs. In the beginning of the usage of metals many men would build and grind down the clubs themselves, but soon many American companies would join in and produce many of the brand name irons that are still around today. The wood in the shaft needed to be stronger so instead of ash the companies would use hickory witch is a stronger wood. The irons stayed about the same for many years until the 20th century.

In the twentieth century there have been more technological changes in clubs than the combined past. In the early part of the century people started putting metal in the shafts of the irons instead of just on the head. Different types of metal then started coming out due to the bounce that one would get off the club to the ball at impact. The shafts of clubs have become different also, instead of wood shafts now there is graphite and other types of synthetic fibers that go into a shaft. Today Shafts can be built for different types of swing speed and basically to fit a golfer to their swing and still get good distance and control.

Just as clubs have changed over the history of golf due to technology or enlightenment, the ball that golfers use has changed equally as much if not more. In the beg