Sport

Golf

Precision Sports

Golf glyph

Golf is a club and ball sport in which players attempt to sink a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible, scoring by stroke play (fewest total strokes) or match play (holes won). The modern game's codified origin is the 1744 rules of the Company of Gentlemen Golfers (later the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers) at Leith, Scotland, followed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, founded 1754, whose 1764 decision to play its links in eighteen holes rather than twenty-two fixed the number every course now follows. The game's deeper ancestry is unresolved: some historians trace family resemblance to the Roman game paganica, the Chinese game chuiwan, or the Dutch game kolven, but no continuous line of descent from any of these to fifteenth-century Scottish golf is established, so the sport's antiquity beyond its Scottish codification remains a matter of resemblance rather than documented lineage.

Facts

Disputed

Origin Year

1744 1

1744 marks the earliest surviving written rules, by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers at Leith; the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, founded 1754, became the game's most influential later standardizer. Golf itself is attested informally in Scotland from the fifteenth century, and claimed but unproven resemblances to the Roman paganica, Chinese chuiwan and Dutch kolven push proposed antiquity earlier still with no documented continuity, so no single origin year is settled.

Originating Region

Scotland 1

International Governing Body

The rules of golf are jointly governed by The R&A (the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews' rules arm) and the United States Golf Association (USGA); the two bodies undertook a complete joint rewrite of the rules effective January 2019. 1

Contact Level

Non-Contact 1

Identity

Symbol

A club used to strike a ball into a series of holes on a course. 1

Classification

Olympic Programme Status

Current Olympic Sport 2

Connections

Associated With

Darts

Source Darts - Wikipedia

Featured In

1900 Summer Olympics

Source Wikipedia: Golf at the 1900 Summer Olympics

2024 Summer Olympics

Asian Games

International Crown

Source International Crown (Wikipedia)

Masters Tournament

Source Masters Tournament (Wikipedia)

Olympic Games

Source Wikipedia: Olympic sports

PGA Championship

Source PGA Championship (Wikipedia)

Presidents Cup

Source Presidents Cup (Wikipedia)

Ryder Cup

Source Wikipedia, Ryder Cup

Solheim Cup

Source Solheim Cup (Wikipedia)

The Open Championship

Source The Open Championship (Wikipedia)

U.S. Women's Open

Source U.S. Women's Open (Wikipedia)

Walker Cup

Source Walker Cup (Wikipedia)

Women's PGA Championship

Source Women's PGA Championship (Wikipedia)

Long-Form Articles

Three Games That Might Be Golf's True Ancestor

Played By

Wentworth Club

Source Wentworth Club (Wikipedia)

William Auchterlonie

Source William Auchterlonie (Wikipedia)

Wyndham Clark

Source Wyndham Clark (Wikipedia)

Xander Schauffele

Source Xander Schauffele (Wikipedia)

Yani Tseng

Source Yani Tseng (Wikipedia)

Young Tom Morris

Source Young Tom Morris (Wikipedia)

Zach Johnson

Source Zach Johnson (Wikipedia)

Showing 151 to 157 of 157 in Played By, page 4 of 4.

In the Other Atlases

Found In

Scotland

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, Golf

Wikipedia

lead section
players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course
Infobox: contact
No
In Category: Sports
In Group: Golf and Club Sports, Lead
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.

Associated With

Featured In

Long-Form Articles

Played By

Found In

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