What are golf’s origins around the world?
Posted on avril 29, 2013 by Frank
Golf is a sport that holds a very special spot in North American’s businessmen habits today. Many contracts will be negotiated on the greens, as it is definitely a very good sport to create personal relations and develop trust links before going to more professional-related subjects. However, golf hasn’t always been a notorious sport in North America; it actually started to penetrate the continent near 1873 in Canada, when was founded the first Montréal Golf club.. If you’d like to know a bit more about the start of discipline, you have come at the right place!
Very old roots
Even though North America has only known golf for one century, the first roots of this sport can be found during the Antiquity era. At that time, a game called panagica was played, and it was actually somewhat close to the golf we are currently seeing: the main goal was to send the ball in a « goal », possibly with a long stick. The rules of the sport could of course not be found be archaeologists and historians, but it does look like a mix of hockey and golf. Another similar sport called cambuca was also played later in England, using a wooden stick as a mean to move the ball.
Different other versions of this sport kept being played during the following centuries, but it would be during the 14th century that the activity actually took a similar name. In fact, at that time, Dutch people played a sport called « colf » in the streets. This troublesome activity seems to have led to a lot of broken glass or hurt people, as its practice became illegal in urban areas. Eventually, though, colf became less people.
A come back in Scotland
Scottish people decided that golf should become a more official sport during the 18th century. The first private golf club was founded in that country around 1744 and decided to edict the rules of golf that we currently use to play the sport. As more clubs were created around the country, golf became a sport which was mostly played by the elite: there was indeed an hefty fee to pay in order to join some of the most select golf clubs.
After that, the sport slowly spread to different countries of the British empire. India, for example, will see its first golf court around 1829 in Calcutta. Then, Australia will join the crowd in 1851. France will build a court in 1856, followed by New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and Hong Kong. After that, golf’s popularity was launched and nothing could hold it back.
The professional federation’s creation
Two last events worth noting would be the creation of the Professional Golfer’s Association of America in 1916 and the International Golf Federation in 1958, which first goal was to foster the promotion of the sport around the world. Since then, golf’s professional circuit has seen tremendous development!