Take A Look Back In Golf

One of the world's most popular sports today is the game of golf. Its history goes back to the 1300s when a game similar to golf was played with a stick and ball.

It is a great debate between the Scottish and the English where the origin of golf really started. There is a tainted glass window in the Gloucester Cathedral in England of a man resembling a golfer. This is the unquestionable evidence that English claim that golfing is a sport that they invented. Even as the Scottish believes on the other hand that the game of golf was their finding because of the rich history they have contributed.

It became more systematized in the early 1700s where clubs and organizations began to form. The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh is the world's oldest golf club which was formed in 1735. The Edinburgh Golfing Society and the Gentlemen Golfers of Edinburgh were the organizations that first to set rules and regulations for this most prestigious game.

In the beginning the number of holes on the courses was a largely disputed issue since some clubs played with five holes while others would play as many as twenty-two holes. In 1764, it was agreed that there would be 18 holes.

In England a club was formed in 1766 and in 1856 the first club in France was formed.The St. Andrews club in New York helped out brings fame to the game of golf in the United States in 1888 and the United States Golf Association was formed in 1894.

The first great known of the game of golf is the man name Allan Robertson. His family had golf in their blood and still had a ball manufacturing business that overlooked the 18th hole on St. Andrews golf course.

A man named Willie Park won the British Open completion which was played over 3 days on a 12-hole course with a score of 174. The United States held in 1895 its first Open in Newport, Rhode Island and the winner was Horace Rawlins.

The first golf balls were made of wood and were far from being perfectly round. Later a ball evolved called the feathery which was made from leather and had feathers stuffed inside. Both of these balls were handmade and did not have the same standards.

In mid 1800s, a man named Reverend Robert Preston made a useful ball called gutty. This ball is made from a mold with uniform size and weight. Then another type of ball came up called the Haskell which was made with dimples. The inside of the ball features a rubber core enfolded in elastic and then coated with a plastic dimpled surface.

The first golf clubs were made of wood. The shaft was glued to the head and supported with twine. Some of the different types of woods were used such as ash, pear, apple tree, hazel and beech. As the club evolved, Hickory, a more sturdy wood were used.Iron was used for the head of the club. The wood stood up well to the first golf balls,although as the balls evolved, so did the clubs. Graphite, aluminum and titanium were utilized to create more concrete clubs and were sold in sets of 14.

The standard 14 club set still plays by the golfers today. These sets compose of 3 woods, 9 irons, a sand wedge, and a putter. They now made a universally uniform ball with the size of 1.68 inches round and 1.62 ounces in weight.