Golf - a game with a long history

When we talk about sports, what comes to our mind most often is a mix of aggression, physical strength, endurance and so on. But, there are a number of sports which test certain other aspects of the players such as brain power and targeting skills.

Golf is one such sport, which at a glance it does not show much of action, yet it has come down the ages with majesty, skill, patience and many peculiar features. Let's see where it stands in the world of sports.

Golf, when looked at from a distance, seems to be a simple game. The primary objective is to hit a ball into each hole in a course, using different clubs in the lowest possible number of strokes.

It stands unique as a sport which does not use a standard playing area like football and cricket. Instead, it is played in an area known as the 'golf course', which has a unique design blended with the geography and consists generally of nine to eighteen holes.

A study done by the Golf Digest magazine in 2005, has revealed that there were nearly 32000 golf courses in the world, and about half of them were in the United States. According to this, the countries with most golf courses in relation to population were Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England.

But, you must also remember that our country too has a long history with regard to the sport which we will look at in our next edition and the Victoria Golf Course of Kandy has been rated among the 100 most beautiful golf courses in the world by the Golf Digest.

History

Golf is a very old game, and the exact origins are unclear. This has led to many arguments which state that the origin of the game is Chinese, Dutch or Scottish. However, the most accepted fact is that this sport originated from Scotland in the 1100s.

A game somewhat similar to golf has been first mentioned in D'ngxu'n Records, which is a Chinese book of the 11th Century. However, according to records, the first game of golf has been played at Bruntsfield Links, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in A.D. 1456.

The word golf has been first mentioned in writing in 1457 on a Scottish statute on forbidden games as 'gouf', possibly derived from the Scottish word 'goulf' meaning 'to strike or cuff'.

This word may, in turn, be derived from the Dutch word kolf, meaning 'bat' or 'club' and the Dutch sport of the same name. However, modern golf is considered to be a Scottish invention.

Play of the game

The way the game goes is pretty simple although there are many peculiar words associated with the game. Every game of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A round typically consists of 18 holes that is played in the order determined by the layout of the course.

On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two successive nine-hole rounds to complete 18 holes. In most typical forms of game play, each player plays his or her ball from the tee until it is finally in the hole.

A hole of golf consists of hitting a ball from a tee on the teeing box and once the ball comes to rest, striking it again. The 'teeing box' is a marked area designated for the first shot of a hole which is known as a 'tee shot'. Once the ball comes to the 'green' which is an area of finely cut grass, the ball is usually 'putted' into the hole. 'Putting' refers to slowly hitting the ball along the ground in a manner which would glide it in to the hole.

The goal of resting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible may be disturbed by hazards, such as bunkers and water hazards. A hole is classified by its 'par'; the number of strokes a skilled golfer needs to complete the play to the hole. For example if we consider a par-four hole, a skilled golfer expects to reach the green of this hole in two strokes.

That would be made up of one from the tee which is known as the 'drive' and another stroke to the green, which is known as the 'approach' and then roll the ball into the hole with two putts.

Traditionally, a golf hole is either a par-three, -four or -five; some par-six holes exist, but are not usually found on traditional golf courses. Normally, the 'par' of a hole is determined by the distance from the tee to the green.

Aravinda Dassanayake