thejockspot Scottish Golf

A major Scottish claim to fame is that The scot`s invented Golf, although there is some debate on that matter.

The word golf comes from the Scottish word, which most of us still use, gowff,which means to strike hard.

In the 16th century Mary the queen of Scot`s was known to play around or 2 and it was recorded at the end of the 16th century that fewer Scot`s were attending Church on a Sunday because they were playing golf.

With the Union of the Crowns in 1603, King James VI and his court took golf to Blackheath in London. By that time he had appointed an Edinburgh bowmaker as royal club-maker.

The first record of a caddie to carry the golf clubs is Andrew Dickson of Edinburgh, in the second half of the 17th century. As a young man he had caddied for the Duke of York - later King James VII. "Caddies" were originally an organised corps of message boys in Edinburgh and other large towns in Scotland.

Initially, golf balls were wooden and these continued even after hand-made balls made of leather stuffed with feathers appeared. In 1848 the solid gutta-percha (a flexible juice from trees in Malaya) was introduced which were cheaper to make.

In America, at the start of the 20th century, balls made of tensioned rubber thread were invented although initially there was opposition to them. But the winner of the Open Championship used them in 1902 and ordinary golfers were converted. The rules of golf were laid down by the Honorable Company of Edinburgh golfers in Leith, which was formed in 1744. The St. Andrews Society adopted these rules and over the next century took over the administration and development of the game. The famous Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is the governing body that continues to set the rules and standards for the world's golfers to this day.

i myself live within walking distance of 14 golfcourses including royal troon the scene of the open last year.....jimmy