When it comes to knowing when golf began it is difficult. One can find examples of people hitting a rock or ball with a stick to pass time. The precursor of golf is also the beginnings of many other games that uses a round object and stick. Many countries claim to have invented the game of golf. The official name “golf” was not associated with any game until the fifteenth century.

The countries that have recorded early claims to golf include Scotland, England, China, France, Rome, Belgium, Holland and even Laos. All have valid claims to originating a golf game as no one country can claim the sole responsibility. It is even said that shepherds used their shafts to play a golf like game.

In Scotland fishermen were reported to pass the time playing ‘golf’ when they came home from their trips. In Rome their golf game was called paganica, in Laos khi and the Celtics called their version of the game shinty. As early as three hundred B.C. the game ch’ui wan was their form of golf.

In Ireland they played camanachd while the English played cambuca in the thirteen hundreds. Steven J. H. van Hengel a Dutch historian on the game of golf has stated that more than likely golf was a mixture of jeu de mail and chole from Holland.

In Belgium chole is still played but it is called soule. This game is some where in between golf and hockey. The name golf is thought to be derived from the Dutch word colf, which means club. Spel metten colve, game with clubs, was played in medieval times. Colf dates back to December 26, 1297 from documents found in the Holland town Loenen aan de Vecht. Only four holes were played. Dutch artists also represented the game of colf in many contemporary paintings.

You can even find references to golf in stained glass windows of the Gloucester Cathedral in England in the thirteen hundreds. This depiction might not actually have been the true game of golf but a reference to cambuca or chole.

Jeu de mail was played in France in the sixteenth century and pall mall was played in London in the fifteenth century. Many believe that the true game of golf emerged as pall mall was ousted from being played.

But with all the history of where golf originated it was the Scots that defined the game as we know it today.

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