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Scots as inventors: a popular fallacy

Golf in scotland, early british societies, the united states and canada, other countries, the feather-ball era, the gutta-percha era, the rubber ball, the 1.62 formula, early clubs, manufacturing methods, the premier championships, british tournaments and players, u.s. tournaments and players, the ladies professional golf association (lpga), matches and tournaments, golf in the olympic games, the senior pga tour.

• Match and medal play
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• Historic UK - The History of Golf
• Official Site of International Golf Federation
• Official Site of the PGA Championship
• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Golf
• National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - The relationships between golf and health: a scoping review
• golf - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• golf - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

How much does a golf ball weigh?

Shortly after World War I, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews enacted what is called the "1.62 formula". Regulation golf balls have a maximum weight of 1.62 ounces (45.93 grams) and a minimum diameter of 1.68 inches (4.27 cm).

Where did golf originate?

The origins of golf are obscure and much debated. Evidence suggests that golf, as we understand it today, was firmly established in the Netherlands by the middle of the 16th century.

What is the diameter of a golf hole?

A golf hole measures 4.25 inches (10.8 cm) in diameter and is at least 4 inches (10.2 cm) deep. It is set in an area of turf called a green, which is especially prepared and maintained and closely mowed for putting.

What is the average distance of an 18-hole golf course?

Standard 18-hole golf courses measure from 6,500 to 7,000 yards (5,900 to 6,400 meters), and individual holes are from 100 to 600 yards (90 to 550 meters).

Is golf an Olympic event?

Golf was included in the Paris 1900 Olympic Games and the St. Louis 1904 Games. Golf was then discontinued as an Olympic sport for more than a century, returning in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games as a 72-hole event for men and women.

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golf , a cross-country game in which a player strikes a small ball with various clubs from a series of starting points (teeing grounds) into a series of holes on a course. The player who holes his ball in the fewest strokes wins. The origins of the game are difficult to ascertain , although evidence now suggests that early forms of golf were played in the Netherlands first and then in Scotland.

From a somewhat obscure antiquity, the game attained worldwide popularity, especially in the 20th century. Nothing is known about the early game’s favourite venues on the European continent, but in Scotland golf was first played on seaside links with their crisp turf and natural hazards. Only later in the game’s evolution did play on downs, moorland, and parkland courses begin. Golfers participate at every level, from a recreational game to popular televised professional tournaments. Despite its attractions, golf is not a game for everyone; it requires a high degree of skill that is honed only with great patience and dedication.

The origin of golf has long been debated. Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica , which involved using a bent stick to hit a wool- or feather-stuffed leather ball. According to one view, paganica spread throughout several countries as the Romans conquered much of Europe during the 1st century bc and eventually evolved into the modern game. Others cite chuiwan ( ch’ui-wan ) as the progenitor, a game played in China during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and earlier and described as “a game in which you hit a ball with a stick while walking.” Chuiwan is thought to have been introduced into Europe by traders during the Middle Ages. However, upon close examination, neither theory is convincing.

Other early stick-and-ball games included the English game of cambuca (a term of Celtic origin). In France the game was known as chambot and may have been related to Irish hurling and Scottish shinty , or camanachd , as well as to the French pastime (derived from an Italian game) of jeu de mail . This game was in turn exported to the Low Countries , Germany , and England (where it was called pall-mall , pronounced “pell mell”).

As early as 1819 the English traveler William Ousely claimed that golf descended from the Persian national game of chaugán , the ancestor of modern polo . Later, historians, not least because of the resemblance of names, considered the French cross-country game of chicane to be a descendant of chaugán . In chicane a ball had to be driven with the fewest possible strokes to a church or garden door. This game was described in the novels of Émile Zola and Charles Deulin, where it went by the name of chole .

Chicane closely resembled the game of kolf , which the Dutch golf historian J.H. van Hengel believed to be the earliest form of golf. Many traditions surround the game of kolf . One relates that it was played annually in the village of Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the killer of Floris V , count of Holland and Zeeland, a year earlier. No evidence supports this early date, however, and it would seem to be a clear anachronism .

Based on the evidence, it may well be that golf came into being only a little before the 15th century. It may be conceived as a domesticated form of such medieval games as football , in which the size of the goals and the ball was radically reduced and in which, as a consequence, the element of violence had to give way to the element of skill. Seen from this perspective, golf would be the result of the process of civilization as described in the work of German-born sociologist Norbert Elias .

For many years it was believed that golf originated in Scotland . This belief rested on three references in Scottish acts of Parliament from the second half of the 15th century. In a resolution of the 14th Parliament, convened in Edinburgh on March 6, 1457, the games of football and golf (“futbawe and ye golf”) were banned with a vengeance (“utterly cryt done”). This ban was repeated in 1471 when Parliament thought it “expedient [th]at…ye futbal and golf be abusit.” In a resolution passed in 1491, football, golf, and other useless games were outlawed altogether (“fut bawis gouff or uthir sic unproffitable sports”). In addition, these texts enjoined the Scottish people to practice archery , a sport which might be put to good use in defending the country.

In more recent times the validity of these sources has been called into question on two grounds. First, pictorial evidence now seems to point to a continental European origin of golf. The earliest golfing picture is a miniature in a book of hours formerly owned by Adelaïde of Savoy, the duchess of Burgundy. Executed about the middle of the 15th century (Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 76), it predates the earliest of the Scottish sources quoted above. The miniature from Adelaïde’s book is, in turn, the forerunner of the well-known example from a book of hours in the British Library that is ascribed variously to the workshops of two Flemish artists, Simon Bening (c. 1483–1561) and Gerard Horenbout (c. 1465–1541), both of whom were active in the Ghent-Bruges school in the first half of the 16th century. There is yet another miniature, from the book of hours of Philip I (the Handsome), the son of Emperor Maximilian I (Colegio Real de Corpus Christi, Valencia). Created in 1505, one year before Philip’s death, it shows golfers in the process of swinging and putting.

In addition to the books of hours, there are engravings that highlight golf. Playing Monkeys , by Pieter van der Borcht (1545–1608), features a monkey taking a swing at a teed ball, and Venus, Protectress of Lovers , by Pieter Janszoon Saenredam (1597–1665), shows, in the margins of a picture of an embracing couple with Venus and Cupid, some people playing games such as football and golf. The latter work is a copy of an earlier work by engraver Hendrik Goltzius (1558–1617).

The earliest known scenes depicting golf in Scotland are found in two paintings dated 1680 (or 1720) and 1746–47. The earlier work is an oil painting by an unknown artist who depicted a gentlemen foursome and two caddies against the backdrop of the town of St. Andrews . The second, a watercolour by the Englishman Paul Sandby (1725–1809), shows a squad of soldiers fighting over a golf ball in the shrubbery at the foot of Edinburgh Castle .

As to the Scottish acts of Parliament, the difficulty there lies in the uncertainty concerning the meaning of the term golf in 15th-century Scotland. In the equally controversial debate about the origins of cricket , British historian Eric Midwinter pointed out that a sport’s provenance cannot be proved by a mere textual reference to a game unless the context and the meaning of the reference are exactly known:

Thus, by the strictest definition of historical evidence, we require both the name, and its [being attached] to some description which is recognizable cricket, before it is safe to talk about the origin of the game.

The Scottish sources fail to meet this standard for the origins of golf.

As early as 1360 the magistrate of Brussels issued an ordinance according to which anyone caught playing a similar club-and-ball game was threatened with a fine of 20 shillings or confiscation of his upper garment (“Item. wie met coluen tsolt es om twintich scell’ oft op hare ouerste cleet.”). While it seems plausible that met coluen (which is the dative plural of colve , of which kolf , meaning “with clubs,” is a variant) yielded the Scots loanword golf , it is clear from the verb tsollen (from the French souler , “to play football”) that the text envisaged the rough competitive team game of soule played with a curved stick.

That on the Continent kolve primarily denoted a hockey stick becomes evident from the Boek van Merline (1261), poet Jacob van Maerlant ’s translation of Robert de Boron ’s Livre de Merlin , in which young Merlin is engaged in a game of soule à la crosse (hockey). Where in the French source Merlin viciously hits one of his playmates with a crosse (a hockey stick), in Maerlant’s Flemish version the word used is kolve . Proof that golf in Scotland had exactly the same meaning as its Flemish counterpart kolve comes in The Buik of Alexander the Conqueror , a translation, by Sir Gilbert Hay (c. 1460), of the medieval Roman d’Alexandre . In Hay’s French source, Alexander the Great had received a ball ( estuef ) and a hockey stick ( crosse ) from the king of Persia. In his Scots version, Hay rendered crosse into golf-staff and further alludes to the stick as a means with which to chase the Persian emperor and his lords to and fro like a ball in a hockey match. Such a description leaves hardly any doubt that in 15th-century Scotland the term golf primarily referred to a fiercely contended team game, and this accounts for its being banned in the acts of Parliament quoted above.

A continental origin of golf is also suggested by a linguistic analysis of golfing terms and a recently discovered Dutch description of golf from the first half of the 16th century. Golf historians have long surmised that the terms tee and stymie are based on the Dutch word tuitje (a diminutive of tuit , meaning “snout”) and the phrase stuit me (meaning “hinders me”), but these derivations have been questioned on phonological grounds and therefore have never been accepted by historical dictionaries. However, a Dutch origin of tee is still plausible, as a variation of the Flemish tese , meaning “target” (as in curling ); the word originally referred to the hole but eventually came to mean a “pile of sand taken from the hole.” There are also good reasons to posit a Dutch origin for the words putt (from putten , “put into a hole”) and bunker (a possible back-formation of bancaert kolve ).

However, the source most likely to tip the scales in favour of a Dutch origin is a phrase booklet written by a Dutch schoolmaster, Pieter van Afferden, or Petrus Apherdianus (1510–80). The book, Tyrocinium latinae linguae ( Recruits’ Drill in the Latin Language ; 1545), was intended to impart a knowledge of Latin in everyday situations by matching Latin phrases with Dutch ones. This source predates the earliest Scottish description of golf—the 1636 Vocabula by Scotsman David Wedderburn—by almost a century. Its remarkable feature, however, is that in a chapter titled “De Clauis Plumbatis” (“On the [Game with the] Leaded Clubs”) it is much more explicit than other early sources. In the Tyrocinium the club is indeed called a kolve , and the game as such is referred to as kolven (the infinitive of a verb used as a noun). This confirms that the Scots word golf is indeed based on kolve or kolf . In the course of a dialogue in this text, the fictitious players also give the first indication of the existence of rules. For instance, a golfer who misses the ball is said to lose the right to strike (wastes a stroke); to step onto the teeing ground before it is one’s turn is against the rules because a certain order of play has to be adhered to; a player must be allowed to swing freely, necessitating that other players step back; a golfer is not allowed to stand in the light of his partner; and, lastly, in order to putt, the ball has to be struck—merely pushing it is forbidden and is called a knavish trick. The hole, however, is called not a put but a cuyl . Generally speaking, then, the Tyrocinium proves that, by the middle of the 16th century, golf in the Netherlands was a firmly established and rather sophisticated game.

Despite the likelihood of a continental origin of golf, King James IV , who had prohibited the hockeylike game of golf earlier (in 1491), nevertheless became the first authenticated player of “real” golf. That royalty were the leaders of this new sporting fashion is to be expected. The route of transmission to Scotland was likely to have been Flemish traders and craftsmen who had found employment at the Scottish court.

The lord high treasurer’s accounts for the years 1502, 1503, and 1506 include payments for the king’s “golf clubbis and ballis” and other equipment during stays at Perth, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. In addition, the entry for the year 1506 specifies the amount of three French crowns lost by the king in a golfing bet (betting on the outcome of games was widespread in the Middle Ages).

The Stuarts also gave the game its first woman golfer— Mary , Queen of Scots, who was charged with playing in the fields beside Seton only a few days after the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley . The contemporary account of the queen’s misconduct also makes it clear that at the time a golf club was still called a golf in Scotland. The fact that in Scotland golf counted royalty among its followers and the fact that the first pictorial representations of the game are to be found in books of hours owned by members of the continental high aristocracy suggest that from the middle of the 15th century there are two games to distinguish: one was kolve / kolf , a variety of hockey that was popular with townspeople and the peasantry, and the other was golf, the preserve of the upper crust of society. However, there is no evidence of the existence of the latter in Scotland much before the 16th century.

Development of golfers’ associations

There is another provenance story that says James I introduced golf to Blackheath in 1608, long thought to be the year the historic royal Blackheath Golf Club was founded. Although King James and his courtiers played golf somewhere in the vicinity , it is doubtful whether any organized society then existed, and research has set the earliest date of such a society nearly two centuries later. W.E. Hughes, editor of the Chronicles of Blackheath Golfers , ascribes the club’s foundation to 1787.

The oldest club with documentary proof of its origin is the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith, now the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers , whose modern home is at Muirfield in East Lothian . Its genesis was a move by a group of players to hold a competition or tournament . In 1744 “several Gentlemen of Honour skillful in the ancient and healthfull exercise of Golf” petitioned the Edinburgh city council to provide a silver club for annual competition on the links of Leith. The Society of St. Andrews Golfers, now the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R&A), Scotland, was formed in 1754 by a group of 22 golfers who played there. The rules that the society adopted were almost identical to the Edinburgh Gentlemen Golfers’ rules. These two clubs played major roles in the development of the game in Scotland. Eventually the R&A became, by common consent , the oracle on rules. In 1919 it accepted the management of the Open Championship (also known, particularly in the United States, as the British Open) and the British Amateur Championship. The R&A thus became the governing body for golf in the British Isles and throughout most of the Commonwealth.

With the birth of the Royal North Devon Golf Club in 1864, golf took a firm foothold in England. The Devon club was the first course on seaside links outside Scotland. The Royal Liverpool Golf Club was established in 1869 on a rabbit warren at Hoylake. In its infancy players simply cut holes with their penknives and stuck feathers in them for the guidance of those who were coming behind. The rabbits were the greenskeepers. By 1870 the club was fairly established, and members played matches against players from clubs such as Blackheath and the Royal North Devon Club at Westward Ho!. The Royal Liverpool Club hosted Great Britain’s first Amateur Championship in 1885 and the first English Amateur Championship in 1925. The first Scotland-England amateur match was organized in 1902, and it was at Hoylake in 1921 that an unofficial contest between British and U.S. players, a curtain-raiser to the Amateur Championship, was played and served as the genesis of the Walker Cup series.

The following advertisement, which appeared in James Rivington’s gazette in New York on April 21, 1779, clearly refers to golf:

To the GOLF PLAYERS: The Season for this pleasant and healthy Exercise now advancing, Gentlemen may be furnished with excellent CLUBS and the veritable Caledonian BALLS, by enquiring at the Printer’s.

The South Carolina and Georgia Almanac of 1793 published, under the heading “Societies Established in Charleston,” the following item: “Golf Club Formed 1786.” The Charleston City Gazette and Daily Advertiser of September 18, 1788, reported: “There is lately erected that pleasing and genteel amusement, the KOLF BAAN.” However, this perhaps pointed to the existence of an indoor facility for the Dutch game of kolf , a variety of the French jeu de mail mentioned above. Later notices dated 1791 and 1794 referred to the South Carolina Golf Club, which celebrated an anniversary with a dinner on Harleston’s Green in the latter year. Although these fragments constitute the earliest clear evidence of golf clubs in the United States, the clubs appear to have been primarily social organizations that did not survive the War of 1812 .

The first permanent golf club in the Western Hemisphere was the Royal Montreal Golf Club, established in 1873. The members played on Fletcher’s Fields in the city’s central area until urban growth compelled a move of some miles to Dixie, a name derived from a group of Southern refugees who arrived there after the U.S. Civil War. The Royal Quebec Golf Club was founded in 1874; the Toronto and Niagara, Ontario, clubs in 1876; and the Brantford, Ontario, club in 1879. In the meantime, golf was played experimentally at many places in the United States without taking permanent root until, in 1885, it was played in Foxburg, Pennsylvania. The Oakhurst Golf Club in West Virginia , which later became the Greenbrier Club, is said to have been formed in 1884; and the Dorset Field Club in Dorset, Vermont, claims to have been organized and to have laid out its course in 1886, although in both instances written records are lacking. The Foxburg Golf Club has provided strong support for the claim that it was organized in 1887 and is the oldest golf club in the United States with a permanent existence. Foxburg also claims the oldest American golf course.

Golf as an organized game in the United States, however, usually is dated from the founding of the St. Andrew’s Golf Club at Yonkers , New York, in 1888. Its progenitor was John Reid, a Scot from Dunfermline who became known as “the father of American golf.” Reid, on learning that fellow Scot Robert Lockhart was returning to the old country on business, asked him to bring back some golf clubs and balls. This done , Reid and his friend John B. Upham tried them out on February 22, 1888, over an improvised three-hole layout. That fall, five men formed the club, and in the spring they moved to a course in an apple orchard. There, it is said, they hung their coats and a jug of good Scotch whisky in a convenient apple tree, and they subsequently became known as the “Apple Tree Gang.” The club made its final move in 1897 to Mount Hope in Westchester county, New York.

Other early courses included Newport, Rhode Island (1890); Shinnecock Hills on Long Island (1891); and the Chicago Golf Club (1892) at Wheaton, Illinois. The Tuxedo Golf Club in New York, founded in 1889, met the Shinnecock men in 1894 in what has been assumed to be the first interclub match in the United States. The Newport club staged an invitational tournament for amateurs in September 1894, and in October the St. Andrew’s club promoted a similar competition. These were announced as championships, but that was questioned because the events were each promoted by a single club and on an invitational basis. It was from the controversy roused by these promotions that the United States Golf Association (USGA) was instituted in 1894. Its aims were to organize the U.S. Amateur and Open championships and to formulate a set of rules for the game. The founding fathers, two from each club, were from St. Andrew’s, Shinnecock Hills, Chicago, the Country Club at Brookline, and Newport. The U.S. national championships—the Amateur, the Women’s Amateur, and the Open—were inaugurated in 1895.

Before organized clubs had been established in North America , colonies of British settlers, merchants , and civil servants carried golf with them. India has the oldest club outside Great Britain; the Royal Calcutta Golf Club was founded in 1829, and the Royal Bombay Golf Club came about 12 years later. The Royal Calcutta initiated an amateur championship for India, and the two clubs paved the way for many in East Asia . The Royal Bangkok Golf Club (1890) was first housed in an ancient temple. Golf came to China when the Shanghai Golf Club was formed in 1896, until which time the game was apparently unknown outside Hong Kong . The Japanese a few years later constructed a course at Kōbe. The Tokyo Golf Club was founded in 1914. With the boom in the popularity of the game in Japan after World War II , players came to be numbered in the thousands, despite the fact that the shortage of open land made the game enormously expensive to play. The first club in Australia , the Royal Adelaide Golf Club, was formed in 1870, and it is believed that the game was played in Melbourne in 1847 but went into abeyance for nearly half a century, the gold rush having taken priority over golf for the settlers. New Zealand origins have been dated from the formation of the Christchurch Golf Club in 1873. South Africa’s first course was at the Maritzburg Golf Club in Natal in 1884, though the Royal Cape Golf Club (1885) has been rated as the country’s senior club.

On the European continent the first golf course was laid in France at Pau in 1856. Until 1913, when the count of Gallifet was admitted as a member, the club “Golf de Pau” remained the preserve of Scottish residents at the foot of the Pyrenees, some of whom were descendants of Wellington’s army. Biarritz Golf Club came into being in 1888, and Cannes Golf Club was founded by the “King of Cannes,” the Russian grandduke Michael, in 1891. The French golf federation, the Union des Golfs de France, was inaugurated in 1912. In Germany, golf was first played by English tourists in spas such as Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden. The first golf club in Germany, Berlin Golf Club, now Golf- und Landclub Berlin-Wannsee, was founded in 1895 and run by Anglo-Saxons. The German Federation (Deutscher Golfverband) was established in Hamburg in 1907. In Switzerland the first golf course, in Davos, was planned in 1895 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , who after its completion was annoyed by the fact that cows enjoyed chewing up the red flags that marked the greens.

Development of equipment

How the ball is hit and directed is the essence of golf. The changing story of the ball’s manufacture falls broadly into well-defined phases, beginning with the “feathery,” which was used for centuries until it was superseded by gutta-percha.

The history of the golf ball

For many years golf balls were made from wood, but in the early 17th century feather balls were introduced and were hailed as an advance. “Featheries” were manufactured by compressing boiled feathers into the pieces of stitched leather that composed the cover. For stuffing in the feathers a wooden tool was first used, after which the stuffing iron had to complete the job. When the leather case was crammed beyond increase, the hole was stitched up and the case left to dry; then the ball was hammered and made as round as possible and painted white. The whole process was so slow that the maker did well to finish four balls in a day, so that they cost as much as five shillings each. Although the feathery could be hit a long way, it became sodden and disabled in wet weather and was destroyed by hacks from iron clubs, and thus the balls were short-lived as well as expensive.

Gutta-percha , the evaporated milky juice or latex of various South American and South Pacific island trees (especially those of Malaysia), is soft and impressible at the temperature of boiling water but becomes hard and nonbrittle and retains its shape when cooled. It is not affected by water except at boiling temperature. In the mid-1840s it was discovered to be a substance ideal for the easy and efficient manufacture of golf balls; the manufacturing process consisted simply of boiling a strip of gutta-percha, molding it into a spherical shape, and allowing it to dry.

It took a few years, however, for the potential of the “gutty” to be realized. The first prototypes were smooth as billiard balls; they were difficult to get airborne and tended to duck (drop) quickly in flight. It was soon discovered that ball flight improved tremendously once the ball acquired the nicks, cuts, and scuff marks that resulted from a round of play. Ball makers learned to mold balls with raised or indented surface patterns, thus ensuring proper flight.

The emergence of the gutta-percha in 1848 brought about a revolutionary change in the game. The professionals had divided views, however. At St. Andrews Allan Robertson , a leading manufacturer of feather balls, would have nothing to do with gutties at first; but “Old Tom” Morris , who was then his assistant, wisely foresaw the possibilities of the new ball, and on this issue the two actually parted company in 1852, Morris going into business on his own (he returned to St. Andrews in 1859, after the death of Robertson). The ball was heartily welcomed by the golf community , not least for its economy (cost: one shilling each), and its coming immediately swelled the golfing ranks.

The beginning of the 20th century introduced a new ball and a new era. The U.S. patent of the three-piece rubber ball—the invention of Coburn Haskell, a golfer from Cleveland, and Bertram G. Work of the B.F. Goodrich Company—involved a tension-wound rubber thread around a solid rubber core. The new design allowed for a ball that flew and rolled farther than a gutty; it was also easier to hit and gave its striker a greater sense of power. Older men found it easier to play, and hosts of women and children were drawn into the game. Early concerns as to the controllability of the rubber ball were quelled when the 1901 U.S. Amateur and the 1902 U.S. Open and Open Championship (British Open) were won by players using the Haskell ball, defeating opponents playing gutties.

Early rubber balls were covered with a layer of gutta-percha molded into a pattern of bumps (called a “bramble pattern”) that covered the entire surface. The Spalding company introduced a ball covered with balata , a natural rubber, in 1903; it proved more durable and easier to control than gutta-percha. Experiments with ball design also revealed that balls with indentations produced better results than balls with bumps (in that they reduced the drag on a ball’s surface by increasing turbulence in flight), and in 1905 the dimpled cover was patented by England’s William Taylor. A number of ball varieties then appeared from manufacturers catering to the golfer’s desire to hit the ball farther. Length was the lure, and the trade race upset the design of courses. Championship and other tees had to be sited farther back.

Another factor that greatly increased the popularity and playability of golf was the introduction of the golf tee, patented in 1899 by George F. Grant, one of the first African American golfers. Previously players forged a tee from a pinch of wet sand or used other early tees made from cardboard, rubber, or steel. Grant’s invention increased the average player’s chances of getting the ball airborne .

Shortly after World War I the R&A enacted what is called the “1.62 formula”—that the ball should have a maximum weight of 1.62 ounces (45.93 grams) and a minimum diameter of 1.62 inches (4.11 cm). For two years the USGA tried a ball which weighed 1.55 ounces (43.94 grams) and was 1.68 inches (4.27 cm) in diameter, but in 1932 it reverted to a weight of 1.62 ounces while retaining a diameter of 1.68 inches. This larger-sized American ball was ruled mandatory by the British Professional Golf Association in 1968 and replaced the smaller ball throughout the world by 1980.

By the turn of the 21st century, golf balls still conformed to the above standards, although a host of new designs were available. Traditional three-piece balata-covered balls were still popular, but golfers could also choose from two-piece balls (with a solid core and a hard Surlyn cover), two-piece “performance” balls (with thicker cores and thinner covers, allowing for the feel and control of a three-piece ball), and three-piece double-cover balls (consisting of an inner core covered by two layers of varying hardness). Experiments in the size, depth, and arrangement of dimples have also produced balls with longer flight and a higher degree of backspin. Modern golf balls can have anywhere from 324 to 492 dimples arranged in sophisticated patterns, such as multiple triangular or pentagonal groups.

A major challenge for ball manufacturers is to produce improved products that still conform to USGA standards. A ball that would travel 600 yards (550 metres) is more than possible, but such a ball would not conform to the USGA’s edict of 1942, which limited the velocity of a golf ball to 250 feet per second at impact. Nevertheless, ball makers have great flexibility in terms of materials used, dimple patterns, and size and weight (providing this design conforms to the standards of size and weight) and are free to design any ball that takes advantage of such leeway .

The history of the club

Early specimens of clubs with lead-alloy shells, as described by Pieter van Afferden in the 16th century ( see above ), came to light in 1970 when the Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland , sunk off the Shetland Islands in 1664, was excavated. Previously the oldest clubs known were discovered in a house in Hull, England, along with a newspaper carrying a date of 1741.

In the British Golf Museum at St. Andrews there are specimens of ancient clubs including two woods and an especially notable putting cleek—i.e., a putter having an iron head on a wooden shaft—made in the second half of the 18th century by Simon Cossar of Leith, club maker to the Company of Gentlemen Golfers. When Allan Robertson ( see above ) of the R&A saw that golfing would not be ruined by the gutta-percha ball, he realized the value of iron clubs for approach shots and made a cleek for steadier putting. Other developments included “Young Tom” (son of “Old Tom”) Morris’s idea for the cup-faced niblick (what would be a nine iron in today’s parlance) for playing the shorter approaches.

The club makers of outstanding repute in the early 19th century were Hugh Philip at St. Andrews and the McEwan brothers of Musselburgh, notably Douglas, whose clubs were described as models of symmetry and shape. They were artists at a time when clubs were passing from “rude and clumsy bludgeons” to a new and handsome look.

The hickory shafts of the woods—the play club (modern driver), the spoons, and the brassie—had been spliced to heads of apple or beech faced with horn. The harder rubber ball, however, brought about the use of persimmon wood and, later, laminated club heads. Hard insets appeared in the faces. Increased demand led to the adaptation of shoe-last machine tools for the fashioning of wooden club heads. Sockets were bored in the club heads, and shafts were inserted rather than spliced. Drop-forging completely replaced hand forging in the fashioning of iron clubs, and faces were deepened to accommodate the livelier ball and were machine-lined to increase the spin on the ball in flight. Composition materials were developed as an alternative to leather in grips, and the grip foundations were molded in so many ways that they were regulated in 1947. Inventive minds created novel clubs, not only centre-shafted and aluminum putters and the sand wedge but also types that were such radical departures from the traditional form and make that they could not be approved by the USGA or the R&A. In its revised code of 1908 the R&A ruled that it would not sanction any substantial departure from the traditional form and make of golf clubs. This principle has been invoked many times since then.

Improvement of the shaft was accompanied by the general introduction of numbered, rather than named, clubs and by the merchandising of matched sets rather than individual clubs. Clubs had become more numerous and more finely graduated than the names that traditionally had been applied to them (brassie, spoon, niblick, mashie, etc.), and shafts could be manufactured to specifications for flexibility and point of flex. Whereas formerly a golfer seeking new clubs went through a rack of mashies until he found one that “felt right” and then tried to find other clubs of similar feel, he later bought a whole set manufactured to impart the same feel. The merchandising opportunities inherent in the numbered and matched sets were carried to an extreme, and in 1938 the USGA limited the number of clubs a player might use in a round to 14. The R&A concurred in a similar edict the next year.

Experiments with steel shafts went through several phases. In 1924 the Union Hardware Company of Torrington, Connecticut, U.S., drew a seamless shaft of high-carbon steel that could be heat-treated and tempered. It was approved by the R&A in 1929 and substantially replaced hickory in the early 1930s. In the 1960s aluminum shafts had a brief spurt of popularity; shafts of fibreglass, graphite, and titanium were introduced into the game in the decades thereafter. By the 1970s the technique of investment casting , a method of casting rather than forging to enhance the perimeter weighting of iron clubs, was commonplace, and a decade later “woods” made of metal were in widespread use by tournament professionals. The stainless-steel club heads of the 1980s gave way to titanium (a lightweight, extremely hard metal) heads in the 1990s. By the turn of the 21st century, the conversion to metal-head “woods” was near-complete. Virtually all touring professionals used them, and the term metals was gradually replacing woods in golf parlance.

Players and tournaments

There is no doubt that the development of golf as an organized sport was distinctly British, and Britain produced the first great players of the game. As the early golfing associations, or clubs, became established in Scotland and then England, there emerged a group of professionals who made golf balls, fashioned and repaired clubs, laid out and maintained courses, and gave lessons. Many of them were outstanding golfers and would take on all comers in the popular stakes (money) matches of the day. Allan Robertson of St. Andrews, for example, was regarded as the greatest golfer of his time and, according to legend , was never beaten in a stakes match played on even terms (that is, without giving his opponent a handicap). The British professionals and their amateur counterparts represented the best golf in the world from the second half of the 19th century, when the sport began to gain some world prominence, up to about the 1920s, when American players began to excel. With the tremendous increases in financial rewards to be gained in golf during the latter half of the 20th century, especially on the U.S. professional tour, and with the great mobility provided by jet transportation, golfers from other countries (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Fiji, Spain, and Argentina) began to appear in the top tournaments.

The most prestigious tournaments for nonprofessionals are the British Amateur Championship and the United States Amateur Championship . For professionals the coveted Grand Slam tournaments are the Masters , the U.S. Open , the Open Championship (British Open), and the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship . The Players Championship has also steadily gained in popularity and prestige , to the extent that it has earned the unofficial designation of a “fifth major.” The Walker Cup for amateurs and the Ryder Cup for professionals are important team golfing tournaments that have pitted American golfers against those of Europe.

The Open Championship of the British Isles, which the British like to call “the Open” to emphasize the tradition and priority of the event begun in 1860 (but which is also known as the British Open), was the concept of the Prestwick Club in Scotland, whose minutes recorded a proposal that all clubs should contribute to raise a fund for a trophy for professional competition. Their hope, however, was badly disappointed, and the offer of support was so meagre that Prestwick decided to go it alone and spent 30 guineas on the ornamental challenge belt to be awarded to the champion. The early championships were dominated by Willie Park, “Old Tom” Morris , and his son, “Young Tom,” who retired the belt by winning it three times in succession , 1868–70. In the absence of a prize, there was no championship in 1871; but the next year a cup, which has been in competition ever since, was put up.

At the end of the 19th century, England was producing great players. John Henry Taylor and Harry Vardon , together with James Braid , a Scotsman, among them won the Open Championship 16 times between 1894 and 1914. These three supreme golfers were known as “the great triumvirate” and were primarily responsible for the formation of the Professional Golfers Association in 1901. This body is responsible for professional tournaments in Great Britain and for the biennial Ryder Cup match (for professionals) when it is played there.

The British Amateur Championship was started in 1885 after the Royal Liverpool Golf Club at Hoylake had proposed a tournament “open to all amateur golfers.” The tournament attracted nearly all the best amateurs of the time, but it was not immediately recognized as the championship. The following year the Royal Liverpool suggested to the R&A that the tournament be established as the Amateur Championship, and 24 clubs joined together to purchase a trophy and manage the event. Among British players who won the Amateur Championship at least two times before the series was interrupted by World War I were H.G. Hutchinson, John Ball (who won it eight times), J.E. Laidlay, and H.H. Hilton. The interwar years were marked by many outstanding players, including Cyril Tolley, Amateur champion in 1920 and 1929; Roger Wethered, Amateur champion in 1923; and Scots Hector Thomson, Jack McLean, and A.T. Kyle.

The Ladies’ Golf Union in Britain was formed in 1893. The first Ladies’ British Amateur Championship was held that year on the old St. Anne’s course in England. One of the first outstanding woman golfers was Dorothy Campbell, who won the Ladies’ British Amateur Championship in 1909 and 1911 and was runner-up in 1908. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 1909, 1910, and 1924 and the Canadian championship in 1910, 1911, and 1912. Among the many notable women who played championship golf between the wars were Joyce Wethered (Roger Wethered’s sister) and Cecil Leitch, each of whom won the Ladies’ British Amateur title four times.

The first official U.S. Open , Amateur , and Women’s Amateur championships were held in 1895. Walter J. Travis was the first great American golfer. He proved his ability as a golfer by winning the U.S. Amateur (1900–03) and the British Amateur (1904, the only year he entered this event) titles. Jerome D. Travers, the next great American champion, was a player with indomitable courage and nerve that rarely failed him. He won the U.S. Amateur Championship (1907–08, 1912–13) and the U.S. Open title (1915).

After World War I the influence of the many Scottish golfers who had emigrated to the United States became evident. American golfers virtually monopolized the Open Championship in Britain until the mid-1930s. From the 1920s into the 1980s American teams dominated the Walker Cup and Ryder Cup matches, as American women golfers did the Curtis Cup tournament from its inception in the 1930s.

American golfers had begun to show their prowess in 1913, when Francis Ouimet became a national hero by defeating Vardon and Edward Ray, two of the best British professionals, for the U.S. Open. Also notable was Charles (“Chick”) Evans , who was the first golfer to win the U.S. Open and Amateur in the same year (1916). But Bobby Jones has been regarded as the greatest amateur golfer of modern times. His career was brilliant from his debut in national competition in the U.S. Amateur of 1916 until his unparalleled performance in 1930 of winning all four of the world’s most difficult titles—the British Amateur, the Open Championship (British Open), the U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. Open.

The popular appeal of the U.S. Amateur Championship has been seriously weakened by departures to the professional ranks, however, and it has become exceptional for an Amateur champion to resist the lure of tournament money. In the late 1930s the professional circuit, underwritten by civic and club organizations throughout the country, began putting up major prize money for the experts. In 1936 aggregate prize money totaled $100,000. By 2000 the PGA was offering more than $135,000,000 in prizes annually.

The first outstanding American professional golfers were Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen . Hagen, a colourful and stylish player known as “The Haig,” is credited with raising the social standing of golfers. His record of 11 major tournament victories ranks second on the all-time list. Sarazen attained a career Grand Slam; that is, he won the U.S. Open, the Open Championship (British Open), the PGA Championship , and the Masters Tournament during the course of his career. (It should be noted that when Bobby Jones won a Grand Slam during the 1930 season, the four tournaments that constituted the Grand Slam were different; the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur tournaments would be supplanted by the PGA Championship and the Masters.) Dominant players of the 1940s included Sam Snead , Ben Hogan , Byron Nelson , and Jimmy Demaret. Snead, one of golf’s most humourous and ingratiating players, was recognized for the easy grace of his natural, self-taught swing. His 81 PGA Tour victories still stand as the all-time record for men ( Kathy Whitworth holds the record for the most tour wins, with 88 in the Ladies Professional Golf Association). Equally dominant was Hogan, who in many ways was the polar opposite of Snead. An aloof, intense player nicknamed “the Hawk,” Hogan possessed a swing regarded as technically perfect and almost machinelike in consistency. Critically injured in an auto accident in 1949, Hogan was not expected to walk, let alone play golf, again, but he adhered to a rigorous exercise program and returned to the game within a year. His fragile legs allowed him to play only a limited schedule, but many feel that Hogan played his best golf after his comeback. In 1953 he became the first player to win three major tournaments (the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship [British Open]) within a single season.

Golf steadily increased in popularity throughout the 20th century, becoming something of a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1950s and early ’60s. The catalyst for this was Arnold Palmer . Handsome, charismatic , and possessing an exciting, go-for-broke style of play, Palmer was the perfect star for the new age of television coverage in golf. A major drawing card at tournaments, his legions of fans became known as “Arnie’s Army.” He became the first player to win four Masters Tournaments, which he accomplished in every even-numbered year from 1958 to 1964.

His popularity was such that many resented the arrival of the comparatively dour Jack Nicklaus , who turned professional in 1962 and was soon to dominate the game. In time, however, Nicklaus captured the hearts of golf fans throughout the world and came to be regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A career Grand Slam winner, Nicklaus holds the all-time record of 18 victories in the major professional tournaments. He achieved his final major victory at age 46 in the 1986 Masters, regarded as one of the most memorable and emotional moments in golf history.

Also dominant during the 1960s and ’70s were the South African Gary Player (another career Grand Slam winner) and the Americans Billy Casper and Lee Trevino . Other outstanding players of these and the following decades included Tom Watson , Johnny Miller , Chi Chi Rodriguez , Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin , Greg Norman , Seve Ballesteros , José Maria Olazabal, Davis Love III, and Vijay Singh.

By the 1990s it seemed inconceivable that any single player would come along to challenge Nicklaus’s dominance, Palmer’s popularity, or Hogan’s precision. The inconceivable happened in 1997 with the emergence of Tiger Woods . Heavily touted in the press for years as a child prodigy (he is reported to have shot 48 for nine holes at age three), Woods at age 21 fulfilled his promise by winning the 1997 Masters with a record score of 270 and by a record margin of 12 strokes. At his young age he was already one of the most powerful and disciplined players in golf history, his game exhibiting no weaknesses in any area. Woods went on to achieve within the next four years what many top golfers can only dream of accomplishing within a lifetime. At age 24 he utterly dominated the U.S. Open and Open Championship (British Open) tournaments of 2000 and became the youngest player to achieve a career Grand Slam. He scored his second Masters victory in 2001, thus becoming the first to hold all four major professional titles simultaneously, an accomplishment regarded as one of the great feats in the history of professional sports . Before Woods’s arrival, it would have seemed absurd to tout so young a player as the greatest in the game’s history, yet he has been afforded such praise by the likes of Nicklaus, Snead, and other veteran players. That he is of African American and Asian descent is also significant in that, within a few short years, he almost single-handedly transformed a game that once seemed the domain of white males into one that is now enjoyed by all ethnic groups. He is perhaps the perfect embodiment of golf’s potential in the 21st century.

Several professional tournaments for women were staged during the 1920s and ’30s; important players from this era include Glenna Collett from the United States and Joyce Wethered of Great Britain. It was not until the 1940s that efforts began in earnest to form a professional golf organization for women. The first, the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), was chartered in 1944. Standout players soon emerged, including Patty Berg , Louise Suggs , Betty Jameson, and, especially, the multisport legend Mildred (“Babe”) Didrikson Zaharias . Even Zaharias’s popularity, however, could not ensure success for the WPGA, which folded in 1949. Nevertheless, it proved within its brief existence the need for a professional women’s organization.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) was incorporated in August 1950 by the aforementioned golfers plus eight others. Funding for LPGA tournaments was at first so poor that golfers themselves performed many of the organizational tasks and course maintenance chores. Soon, however, the introduction of the Weathervane series of tournaments (a series of four 36-hole tournaments that offered a $3,000 prize for each tournament and a $5,000 prize for the overall winner of the four) proved sufficiently popular to sustain the organization throughout the decade.

The play of such outstanding golfers as Kathy Whitworth , Mickey Wright , Carol Mann, Sandra Haynie, and Sandra Palmer helped maintain a reasonable level of popularity for the LPGA throughout the 1960s. Star players who emerged during the following decade include Jan Stephenson, Jo-Anne Carner, Amy Alcott, and Judy Rankin. The most notable player to emerge during the ’70s was Nancy Lopez, who, by winning nine tournaments (including a record five straight) during her first full season on the tour (1978), was a major force in increasing the popularity and prestige of the LPGA.

Pat Daniel, Betsy King , Patty Sheehan , Juli Inkster , and Laura Davies were among the top players of the 1980s and ’90s. By the turn of the century, when the annual purse for LPGA events had increased to more than $37 million per year, the tour was dominated by such players as Karrie Webb , Annika Sörenstam , and Pak Se Ri . Sörenstam made headlines in 2001 by becoming the first female golfer to score 59 in competition and by becoming only the fourth player in LPGA history (after Whitworth, Wright, and Lopez) to win four consecutive tournaments.

International competition

The first organized series of regular international matches were between Great Britain and the United States . The amateur team match between the two countries for the Walker Cup was inaugurated in 1922, and the professional team match for the Ryder Cup in 1927. The women’s amateur team match for the Curtis Cup began in 1932. Although the competition in all these contests has often been close, the U.S. teams managed to win the cups with great consistency. In an attempt to bring parity to the Ryder Cup, the format was changed in 1979 to broaden the British team to include continental European players as well. This strategy has proved successful, and subsequent Ryder Cup matches have been fiercely contended, with both teams exhibiting excellent play. Between 1979 and 2000 the United States won six times and Europe four times, while one match (1989) ended in a tie.

The coming of jet transport stimulated competition. Ocean hopping became routine, enabling outstanding players from such places as South America , Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, Spain, Japan, and Korea to compete in the premier championships in Great Britain and the United States and on the lucrative U.S. PGA Tour. Since being launched in 1971, the PGA European Tour has grown in terms of prestige and prize money to the extent that American players are frequent participants. By the turn of the 21st century, professional golf was a worldwide phenomenon, with players of various nationalities competing on multiple international tours.

Golf was included in the program of the Paris 1900 Olympic Games , the second modern Olympic Games . That competition consisted of a 36-hole stroke-play event for men and a 9-hole event for women. A men’s team event replaced the women’s competition for the 1904 St. Louis Games , but afterward golf was discontinued as an Olympic sport for over a century. In 2016 golf returned to the Olympics as a 72-hole stroke-play event for men and women.

Begun in the early 1980s, the Senior PGA Tour (later renamed the Champions Tour) quickly became popular. Designed for golfers 50 years of age and up, its total purse was $10 million within a few years of its creation, and it had swelled to some $50 million by 2000. Although veterans such as Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino , Rodriguez , and Irwin were no longer competing with the young men of the PGA Tour on a daily basis, they extended their competitive careers into the 21st century with this tour, demonstrating some excellent golf in the process.

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108 Golf Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Golf is a sport that has been enjoyed by millions of people around the world for centuries. Whether you are a professional golfer or just a casual player, there is always something new to learn and explore in the world of golf. To help inspire your next golf essay, here are 108 topic ideas and examples to get you started:

• The History of Golf: From its origins in Scotland to its global popularity today.
• The Mental Game of Golf: How to stay focused and confident on the course.
• The Physical Benefits of Golf: How playing golf can improve your health and fitness.
• The Best Golf Courses in the World: A guide to some of the most prestigious and beautiful golf courses.
• Golf Equipment: From clubs to balls, a look at the essential gear for every golfer.
• Golf Etiquette: The dos and don'ts of golfing behavior on the course.
• The Rise of Women in Golf: A look at the growing popularity of women's golf.
• Golf and Business: How playing golf can help you network and build relationships.
• Famous Golfers: A profile of some of the greatest golfers in history.
• Golf and the Environment: How golf courses are adapting to be more eco-friendly.
• The Psychology of Putting: Tips for improving your putting game.
• Golf and Technology: How advancements in technology are changing the game of golf.
• Golf and Gambling: The history and controversy of betting on golf.
• The Future of Golf: What changes can we expect to see in the world of golf in the coming years?
• Golf and Health: How playing golf can improve your mental and emotional well-being.
• The Benefits of Golf for Seniors: Why golf is a great sport for older adults.
• Golf and Fitness: How to use golf as a workout to improve strength and flexibility.
• Golf and Education: How golf can teach important life skills like patience and perseverance.
• Golf and Culture: How different cultures around the world approach the game of golf.
• Golf and Travel: The best golf destinations around the world for your next golfing vacation.
• Golf and Weather: How different weather conditions can affect your golf game.
• Golf and Nutrition: The best foods to eat for peak performance on the course.
• Golf and Injuries: Common golf-related injuries and how to prevent them.
• Golf and Fashion: The evolution of golf fashion over the years.
• Golf and Yoga: How yoga can improve your golf game and prevent injuries.
• The Science of Golf: How physics and biomechanics play a role in the game of golf.
• Golf and Leadership: How golf can help develop leadership skills on and off the course.
• Golf and Meditation: How mindfulness and meditation can improve your golf game.
• Golf and Charity: How golf tournaments are raising money for important causes.
• Golf and Technology: How apps and gadgets are changing the way we play golf.
• Golf and Philosophy: The life lessons that can be learned from playing golf.
• Golf and Architecture: The design and layout of golf courses around the world.
• Golf and Wildlife: How golf courses are helping to protect and preserve natural habitats.
• Golf and Music: The role of music in the world of golf and on the course.
• Golf and Literature: The best golf books and novels to read for golf enthusiasts.
• Golf and Movies: The best golf movies to watch for some inspiration on the course.
• Golf and Art: How golf has inspired artists and creatives throughout history.
• Golf and Comedy: The funniest moments and jokes in the world of golf.
• Golf and Technology: How virtual reality and simulators are changing the way we practice and play golf.
• Golf and Sponsorship: The role of sponsors in the world of professional golf.
• Golf and Gambling: The history and culture of betting on golf tournaments.
• Golf and Innovation: How new technologies are revolutionizing the game of golf.
• Golf and Social Media: How golfers are using social media to connect and share their love for the game.
• Golf and Business: How golf can be a powerful tool for networking and building relationships in the business world.
• Golf and Fashion: The evolution of golf fashion and style trends over the years.
• Golf and Mental Health: How playing golf can help reduce stress and improve mental well-being.
• Golf and Teamwork: The benefits of playing team golf and how it can improve communication and collaboration.
• Golf and Diversity: The importance of promoting diversity and inclusion in the world of golf.
• Golf and Technology: How advancements in technology are changing the way we play and watch golf.
• Golf and Community: The role of golf clubs and organizations in bringing communities together.

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15 Reasons Why Golf is the Best Sport

Golf Monthly firmly believes that golf is the best sport of them all

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To us at Golf Monthly golf is more than a sport, it's a way of life. Golf is the best sport, and here are our top 15 reasons why.

Golf is the best sport

Arguments all over the world take place day-in day-out over which sport is the best with everyone believing their sport is the best of them all. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of opinion. Here at Golf Monthly we state our claim that golf is the premier sport.

Golf is known for its un-written rules like never walking on your playing partners' putting lines, shaking hands at the end of each round, and the way everyone in the group gets together to help look for strayed golf balls. The game teaches good manners and respect, and this is something we should be very proud of as golfers.

-There's nothing better than playing a lovely course on a sunny day

Golf on a warm, summer's day with your pals on a lovely course cannot be beaten can it?

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See our Top 100 Golf Courses in UK&I list.

-There's plenty of different formats

You can play medal, stableford, texas-scramble, foursomes, greensomes, the list goes on. There are so many different ways to score and enjoy your golf meaning that it never gets boring.

Pros and Cons of Golf Formats

-Versatility

Golf is such a versatile game. You can play on your own or with up to three of your mates at one time. Four if you’re feeling rebellious.

-You can compete with anyone despite contrasting abilities

Thanks to the handicap system, golfers of all different abilities can compete against one another on a level playing field. You can compete against a professional, what other sport can you do that in without a blindfold or a weapon?

-You can eat and drink while you play

You can walk down the fairway eating anything from a banana to last night’s dinner out of a tupperware container. What other sport can you do this in? This is the same with beverages. If you fancy a coffee you can have one, if you fancy a beer that’s doable, or why not bring your own hipflask and celebrate a birdie with some port?

-Different ways of transporting your clubs

There are various ways of transporting your clubs. Most golfers carry, use a trolley, or a buggy but you can even transport them on a GolfBoard.

-No age limit

Tiger Woods started playing when he was two, and the world’s oldest golfer is 103. Every club has its senior section and every club has its junior section. Golf is enjoyed by people of all different ages which is unseen in most other sports.

-You can play as many holes as you want

You can play the standard 18 or nine but if you fancy less it’s usually easy enough to just play certain loops of five or six holes. If you’re feeling ambitious you can play 100 holes in a day, just make sure you wake up early.

Golf can be extremely rewarding. It’s also very painful, agonising, and frustrating but that just makes it even more rewarding when it all comes good, and it does, eventually. That feeling when you first break 90, 80 or even 70 is a momentous occasion and makes you realise all the pain was worth it.

-You can practice anywhere (literally)

You can practice at the club, on the range, the garden, the living room - anywhere.

-Professional careers are longer in golf than most sports

Take Tom Watson for example, if he was a footballer he’d have retired 30 years ago. Yet in 2009 at the age of 59 he came one shot away from winning the Open Championship at Turnberry.

-You can play as a team or an individual

Golf is commonly played as an individual game but can be played as a team event in all sorts of different varieties. You can have teams of any number: pairs, three-balls, fourballs or 12-man Ryder Cup style teams.

-No round of golf is ever the same

If you're a member of a golf club you'll inevitably have been asked by your non-golfing companions "don't you get bored of playing the same course over and over again?" Well the answer is always no. The conditions are never the same, the company is never the same, and your golf is certainly never the same. Every single round of golf is different and that's why we love it and keep coming back to it.

-Exercise 

Whilst it's not the most physically demanding sport out there, many forget that golfers walk over six miles on an average 18-hole round. That's up hill, down hill, on sand, in thick rough and through all sorts of different terrains. We've all sprinted back to the tee in a medal like Usain Bolt when we've lost our tee shot - great exercise.

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook , Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV

The Asian Tour player represents India at the Paris Olympics – here are some things you may not know about him

By Mike Hall Published 31 July 24

The New Zealander has one DP World Tour win since turning pro in 2019 - here are 15 things you may not know about him

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Essay on Golf

Students are often asked to write an essay on Golf in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Golf

What is golf.

Golf is a sport where players use clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. It is unique because it does not require a standard playing area. Instead, courses have different terrains featuring grass, sand, and water.

Playing Golf

Rules of golf.

Golf has many rules, but the main idea is to play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair. Players must act with honesty and follow the rules.

Golf Equipment

Basic equipment includes a set of clubs and golf balls. Clubs come in different types for various shots, like drivers for long distances and putters for rolling the ball on the green.

Why People Enjoy Golf

250 words essay on golf.

Golf is a sport where players use clubs to hit a small ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. It’s different from many sports because there’s no standardized playing area; courses have unique designs and natural landscapes.

Playing the Game

To play golf, you need a set of clubs and a golf ball. Each hole on the course has a starting point called the “tee.” From there, you aim to get your ball into the hole marked by a flag. The goal is to use as few swings, or ‘strokes,’ as possible. The player with the lowest number of strokes at the end wins.

The main tools in golf are the clubs. There are different types for different shots, like drivers for long distances, irons for precision, and putters for rolling the ball on the green. Golf balls are small and have dimples to fly better.

Rules and Etiquette

Golf has many rules, like not touching the ball unless you’re on the green. Players also follow an etiquette to show respect, like being quiet while others take their shots and not walking in their line of play.

Many enjoy golf for the challenge and the chance to play in beautiful outdoor settings. It’s a game you can play at any age, making it a lifelong sport for some. Plus, it’s a great way to make friends and spend time outdoors.

500 Words Essay on Golf

The history of golf.

Golf began hundreds of years ago and is often thought to have been created in Scotland. It has a long history and has been played by many people around the world. Over time, the game has grown and changed, with new rules and equipment, but the main idea has stayed the same.

To play golf, you need clubs and a ball. There are different clubs for different kinds of shots. For instance, a driver is used for long shots, while a putter is used when you are very close to the hole. The game starts with a player hitting the ball from the tee area. After the first shot, the player hits the ball again from where it landed, and this continues until the ball goes into the hole.

Golf Courses

People like golf for many reasons. It can be relaxing and a good way to enjoy the outdoors. It also allows people to challenge themselves and improve their skills. Golf can be played alone, with friends, or in competitions. It’s a game that people of all ages can enjoy.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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64 Golf Research Topics & Examples

If you’re looking for golf research topics, you’ve stumbled upon the right page. Explore the tournaments, golf clubs, and hot strategies with the titles prepared by our experts .

🏆 Best Golf Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

🏌️‍♀️ good golf research topics, ⛳ interesting golf topics to write about.

• History of Golf as a Collegiate Sport: Over 500 Years of Games Golf is a sport that has been in existence for over 500 years thanks to the Scottish who are believed to be the founders of the sport. This has seen the development of more golf […]
• Safe Golf in Sacramento: Solving the Homelessness Problem There are many problems and misunderstandings related to the problem of homelessness in Sacramento, but the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex is probably the most damaged organization in this context.
• Homelessness Solutions for the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex The point is that there is a homeless encampment behind the organization on Roseville Road, and the behavior and lifestyles of its resident deter golfers and potential guests of the complex from playing at the […]
• War Eagle Golf Ltd.: Management Case Study Therefore, the new production strategy should focus on the customization of products while also shifting from the make-to-stock assembly process. Butch Pearl should make changes to the assembly, and delivery, and work with suppliers.
• Designing a Playing Field for Putt-Putt Golf The main goal of the game, therefore, is to traverse the entire course in the minimum number of steps. Each hole in the ground requires a 0.
• Callaway Golf Company’s Acquisition of Topgolf Callaway’s golf equipment and soft products companies benefit from Topgolf’s efforts to introduce new players to the game of golf. The combined consumer reach of Callaway and Topgolf will result in enhanced promotion, exposure, and […]
• Geometry Web Quest for Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Golf, Volleyball and Pool Field for golf is the biggest and made of grass, sand and water and is the biggest and it has no fixed shape. Soccer field is made of grass or synthetic material and is the […]
• Motor Skill Acquisition and Motor Development in Relation to Coaching Golf The investigation of the essentiality of motor development in these stages in a practical approach towards ascertaining what is best for these groups with regard to golf skills development.
• Golf Company Startup’s Business Model In this research, my business “problem” goal was to choose the proper option and present the business model of a golf company startup in order to attract more people to golf and help them to […]
• Thailand Golf Course and Triple Bottom Line Sustainability refers to the progress that satisfies the desires of the present society while protecting the needs of coming generations. The goal is to determine the success of the course using the TBL concept.
• The American Golf’ Marketing Figure 1 below captures the declines in the number of participants and golf courses in the recent past.  The figure above shows that golfers are declining at a faster rate than the golf courses, hence […]
• First Flight Associates v. Professional Golf Co Following the failure by FFA to disclose the terms of the contract as required, Pro Golf notified the former of the intention to terminate the contract unconditionally due to failure to observe the contractual duties […]
• Grip Golf Glove – Pricing an Innovative Product Competent company executives always strive to provide leadership that enables the marketing staff to clearly identify the characteristic of the target market and enable them to provide tailor made products and services that are suitably […]
• Product Marketing Strategy: 3M Greptile Grip Golf Glove The other characteristic of the golf market in the United States is that it has been on the decline. The recession has significantly reduced the spendable income on the side of the government and the […]
• Slow Growth of Golfers in the Golf Equipment Industry The introduction of new rules that limit innovation in the Golf Equipment Industry is a major reason for the slow growth in the number of golfers in the recent years.
• Competition in the Golf Equipment in 2009 Although the game of golf developed rapidly and became an important part of the American life between1950s and 2000s, it is worth noting that the nature, strength and performance of the national economy have been […]
• Competitive Intensity in the Golf Industry In this paper, competition in this sector is examined from the perspective of the companies involved in the manufacture and distribution of golf equipment. The author of this essay looks at the negative effects of […]
• Maxfli and golf ball survey It is impossible to test the ball over the phone and give people a feel of the equipment. Structural observation and field experiments could be used as well since people respond well to the environment […]
• Competition in the Golf Equipment Industry For instance, he examined the bargaining power of customers and the threat of the entrance of new entrants into the market.
• The game of golf In the US, the sport of Golf was introduced in the 1700s. In the 1950s, Golf gained popularity in the US owing to rampant coverage in the mass media.
• Ethnography of a Discourse Community: Golf and the Power of Communication The peculiar feature of the communication process in golf is that golfers may use different gestures or even glances to send information, this is why the chosen community turns out to be a powerful example […]
• 8 Important Steps To Achieve The Perfect Golf Swing
• Advice on Succeeding in Playing Golf
• Analysis of Exercising By Playing Frisbee Golf
• Analysis of the Classical Decomposition Method for Calloway Golf
• Analysis of the Experiment on the Golf Balls
• Analysis of the Golf Swing as a Complex and Unnatural Motion
• Analysis of the Proper Golf Etiquette
• Analysis of the Sport Event Ryder Cup in the United States and Europe on the Play of Golf
• Benefits Of Golf Practice Drills
• Comparing Tennis Vs. Golf
• Does Cheating in Golf Predict Cheating in Business?
• Does Proximity To A Golf Course Matter?
• Does The World Need Another Golf Pro?
• Do You Fear A Golf Weight Training Program?
• Health Benefits Of Golf
• How Do The Golf Pros Train?
• How To Choose A Golf Fitness Trainer?
• How To Use Golf Training Aids To Improve Your Putting?
• What Are Long Drive Golf Exercises?
• Who Was Invented Golf?
• Biography of Eldrick Tiger Woods, the Golf Player
• Brief Note On Golf’s Environmental Impact
• Tiger Woods Who Started Learning Golf When He Was Six Months Old From His High Chair
• Advice On Golf Training Aid Products
• Philosophy on Golf Instruction and Training
• Benefits Of A Golf Ball Industry
• Business Plan for a Golf Course in China
• Competition in Golf Equipment Industry
• Environmentally Responsible Golf Course Management
• Environmental Pressures on Tourism Companies: Simulation of Scenarios in Golf Course Operators
• Experiment To See If Soaking A Golf Ball Affects Its Distance
• Golf Apparel It S All About Good Golf Etiquette
• Golf Clubs The Most Essential Piece Of Golf Equipment
• Fitness Exercises For The Woman Golfer
• Golf Industry in Indonesia
• Golf Industry in Malaysia
• Golf Industry In United States
• History of Golf One of the Fastest Growing Sports in America
• Mental Tips To Improve Your Golf Game
• Motives and Points of Attachment of Professional Golf Spectators
• Strength Training For Junior Golf
• United States and Golf Industry
• NFL Research Topics
• Health Promotion Research Topics
• Motivation Research Ideas
• Hobby Research Ideas
• Success Ideas
• Hard Work Research Topics
• Career Ideas
• College Education Essay Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Golf — Golf, Its History & Best Players

Golf, Its History & Best Players

• Categories: Golf

About this sample

Words: 1129 |

Published: Mar 3, 2020

Words: 1129 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Work Cited:

• Doster, R. (n.d.). 20 Greatest Golfers of All Time (Updated). Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://athlonsports.com/golf/greatest-golfers-all-time
• Golf Rules in Brief. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2018, from http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/golf_rules.htmPenmaenmawr
• Golf Club. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://pengolf.co.uk/information/the-benefits-of-golf
• Home. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://www.igfgolf.org/about-golf/history/
• Gillmeister, H., Goodner, J., & Moran, F. (2017, December 08). Golf. Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/sports/golf
• Hit Straight with The 10 Best Golf Swing Tips Ever. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2018, from https://www.golftipsmag.com/instruction/quick-tips/10-best-swing-tips-ever/3/

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How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

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Essay on Golf | My favourite Sport is Golf

December 4, 2017 by Study Mentor 2 Comments

Sports are very important for us as it helps to remain fit, healthy and has a positive impact on our overall development as well. There are many sport games which still exist and are centuries old. Out of this golf is also one of the old games. The most famous golf player which people in the present century know is Tiger Woods.   

Table of Contents

History of Golf  

The history of most of the sport games date backs to centuries. Even golf has an interesting history. Earlier the game of golf was like a stick and ball game. The modern game of golf was first seen in Britain, Scotland during the 1400’s. The king of Scotland King James II and King James IV were against the game of golf because people paid more attention on it rather than on their military training. But during the 1500’s King James IV started to like the game.

Soon, peace was settled between England and Scotland. The game now became popular in both these countries. But when war started golf’s popularity started to reduce in England. In 1603 when the country of England was taken over by the King of Scotland, King James VI, the game of golf was back to England.   

Both the countries continued to played this game not as a sport of one class but as game together of all the class. There were very less rules regarding the game and the holes for the game. There were golf courses in Gosford (Blackheath) and St. Andrew’s.

Mostly the people who belonged to the upper class and the noble people visited these golf courses very often. The foundation of Blackheath was in 1608, St. Andrew’s and Ancient Club in 1754. Even the lower class played this game but in an open land. Men even played golf among the sheep.   

Playing golf by the lower class became a problem as they could not afford the price of the golf balls. Earlier, feather and leather were used to make the balls. It was very difficult to make the golf balls due to which only four to five could be made by only one man. During the middle of eighteenth century, the price of golf balls started to reduce. But still the lower-class people could not buy these balls.

The golf clubs were made of wood and iron. This is similar to today’s as well. But their use is completely different. As the clubs were made of iron and wood, both types were used differently. The way they are used now has completely changed. Slowly, many new golf clubs were made.

The oldest golf club is the world is Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Earlier they were called Company of Gentlemen Golfers. This company made rules for the game. Even when St. Andrew’s Golfers was established, they borrowed rules from the Company. Mostly the golf clubs existed in Scotland.

There were none outside Scotland. But in 1787 there was a golf club in Blackheath. Then, United Kingdom had around 35 clubs by the end of 1850. The Scottish soldiers formed a golf club at Pau in France in the year of 1856.   

In the 19 th century the equipment for the game was changed. In 1848, a new ball was made from the rubber sap of Gutta tree. This was made by Rev. Adam Patterson. This was very cheap and slowly it took over the game. This ball gained popularity because it was easy to repair it.

It had one problem. It could not ravel for a long distance. Slowly there were more changes in the balls. New materials were being used to make new balls. Some companies even used mold to make the golf balls. This was easily affordable. But these balls which were handmade started losing its importance because the rubber companies took over them. These rubber companies produced the golf balls in large numbers.

Allan Robertson and Tom Morris were important people in this game during this period. They were both golf players and ball makers. Still, golf was not played in a proper way. There were no formal rules for this game.   

Rules of Golf and how  it’s  played  

In the starting there were no proper rules for golf. But it was important to have proper rules so that everyone played the game in the right way accordingly. Otherwise all the people would play their own way by making their own rules of the game. In golf the player has to hit the ball in such a way that it goes inside the hole.

One gets only eighteen chances to hit the ball. In golf, a player does not compete with any other player. Instead he competes himself so that his scored improves from the previous one. This why all golf players have a very high sportsmanship. They battle with their own self.  

Sometimes when the player hits the balls towards the hole, there are chances that the balls may get diverted. This happens because of bunkers or rough ground.

Beside every hole a flagstick is kept so that the player can easily see the target or the hole. In the first nine holes, the flagsticks are yellow in color. While in the rest nine holes, the flagsticks are red in color. The golf courses are usually of six thousand yards. This is why it takes almost four hours to play all the eighteen holes.   

A player gets the score for putting the ball into the hole on the basis of the number of shots they have used in doing so. But if they make a penalty then they are in a loss. The person who takes the least number of shots to finish the game is declared as the winner.

The scoring is given around the par for that particular course. There are a few terms which are used while scoring in golf. These terms are albatross, birdie, bogey, double bogey, triple bogey and eagle. Albatross is when there are three shots less than par, birdie is one shot less, and bogey is one shot more.

Double bogey and triple bogey is when there are two and three shots more respectively. While eagle is when there are two shots less. Sometimes a player is given extra shots so that they play better than the other players. This is referred as handicapping.   

Golf usually does not have any umpire or a referee like other games. Very often it is expected from the players that they know the rules of the game very well. No player is allowed to interfere or move the ball except under a few circumstances.

Everyone is expected to maintain proper etiquette while playing this game. This may be by following the rules of the game and giving respect to the other players in the game. This is why golf is known for its values among other sports.   

What are the changes that the game of golf has undergone?

There have many changes which golf has gone through. These changes have been in the golf balls, golf shafts, club heads and the rules of the game. It is more than six hundred years that people have been playing this game. From the starting of the game till today, we have seen many types of golf balls.

Golf balls have improved a lot from before. Earlier the balls were made from rubber sap and also from feather and leather. Today, a player has a variety of options to choose the type of ball they want to use. The variety of golf balls can be found anywhere.

Today, the golf balls have improved in durability, specificity and smoothness. There are even different balls made for older people, women and men. Earlier the golf clubs were made of wood or iron. After that steel came into the light and then graphite too.

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Is Golf a Sport and Are Golfers Athletes?

• History of the Golf Debate

U.S.  golf  was an $84 billion industry in 2018, up front $69 billion in 2011. Add in golf’s worldwide appeal and the industry easily tops $100 billion annually.  But despite the obvious popularity of golf and its omnipresence globally, debate still rages over how to classify the game and its participants. Specifically, is golf a  sport  and its players athletes? Read more background…

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1 Golf meets the definition of sport and golfers that of athlete by requiring physical exertion. Golfing without a cart burns an average of 360 calories per hour. Golfers who play a nine-hole course (2-2.5 miles) without a cart while carrying their own clubs burn 721 calories (613 calories if a caddie carries the bag of clubs, which weighs 30-50 pounds on average). Professional tournaments have four rounds of 18 holes, which would be 4,904 calories burned over four days. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 29 ] Further, golf’s demand for physical exertion often results in injuries. Golf is so physically demanding that up to 62 percent of amateur golfers and approximately 88 percent of professional golfers suffer injuries each year. Playing golf can lead to problems in the lower back, elbow, wrist, hand, shoulder, or head. More than half of professional golfers have had to stop playing because of their injuries. One-third of PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) players have experienced lower back injuries that lasted more than two weeks. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] Stephen W. West, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of Calgary, explained, “The physical demands of competitive golf are characterised by long periods (typically over 5 hours) of low/moderate intensity exercise, punctuated by the high speed movements required to accelerate the golf ball to speeds exceeding 160 mph. Successful performance is reliant upon the athlete’s ability to execute a wide range of fine motor skills within the context of very changeable environmental conditions.” [ 80 ] For the casual or recreational player, golf still offers the benefits of sports and athleticism: strength and endurance, flexibility, aerobic fitness, and balance and core stability because the sport requires walking, strength training, and balance. Carrying his own 25-pound golf bag, the average male golfer can expect to burn about 1,442 calories playing 18 holes. Even using a push-cart for the golf bag results in burning about 1,436 calories over an 18-hole course. [ 78 ] [ 79 ] Read More

Pro 2 Golf meets the definition of sport and golfers that of athlete by being competitive. “Golf is a sport. Many people enjoy it on a solely social level and that’s fine. But, first and foremost, it’s a sport where players compete against the course and each other, trying to better previous performances or outplay an opponent,” according to Fergus Bisset, Contributing Editor of Golf Monthly . [ 86 ] Golf tournaments such as the four Majors can be some of the most difficult contests in all of sports to win. Golfers are not only playing against their opponents but themselves, the golf course itself, and external conditions including the weather. Padraig Harrington, who won multiple Majors, stated, “The test is there for all golfers, all across time…. It’s what we all want to measure our careers.” [ 88 ] [ 89 ] Golfers can be competitive as athletes when playing socially and not playing in a tournament. A post at GolfGurls.com, stated: “Still, I don’t think of golf as your usual competitive sport. At least not for me. When I play a round of golf my focus is seldom on beating the other players. I actually pay very little attention to anyone’s score but my own. My competition is with my own game: with how I am playing today compared with how I have played yesterday, or the day before. I am always competing with myself: one hole at a time, one round at a time. I am always trying to best my past record, lower my handicap and increase my ability.” [ 87 ] Read More

Pro 3 Golf meets the definition of sport and golfers that of athlete by requiring skill to play. Golf requires coordinated muscle use. The golf swing uses at least 17 muscle groups in the coordinated movement of the hands, wrists, arms, abdomen, and legs according to a study in the British Medical Journal . Playing golf on a professional level requires athletic ability to walk long distances (4-5 miles per 18-hole course) and hit long drives with consistent depth and aim. [ 8 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] Plus, physical training leads to improvement in a golfer’s performance. In golf, like in other sports, there is a correlation between an athlete’s physical training and improved performance. A 2009 peer-reviewed study found that golfers who focus on balance, flexibility, posture, core stability, strength, power, and cardiovascular training have better results. [ 8 ] Rory McIlroy, World No.1 for 95 weeks (2012-2015), credits his training regimen with helping him reach the top spot. Tiger Woods has reportedly bench pressed as much as 315 pounds. [ 20 ] Golf Educate summarized, “Golf is rated as one of the most difficult sports to play well, and while there are millions of golfers in the US, only 3% of them play at very high skill levels of scratch or better, and only 10% of golfers break 80 regularly. There’s no denying it; golf is hard.” [ 82 ] Read More

Con 1 Golf does not require enough physical exertion from golfers to meet the definitions of sport or athlete. Burning 360 calories per hour playing golf without a cart or caddie is far less than the number of calories athletes burn per hour in more vigorous sports: 900 in soccer and 727 in football, basketball, and tennis. [ 9 ] [ 29 ] Moreover, nearly half of the maximum calories burned while playing golf are from walking the course and carrying the clubs, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that walking is not an essential aspect of golf. In PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin (2001), the justices ruled 7-2 that the pro tour had to allow a golfer with a disability to use a golf cart because it would not “fundamentally alter the nature” of the activity. Using a cart while playing golf reduces the number of calories burned even further, by 42% percent (from 721 to 411 for nine holes). [ 4 ] [ 9 ] Professional golfers are sometimes overweight, old, or out of shape, and their caddies carry the equipment for them. There is no running, jumping, or cardiovascular activity in golf. Many pro golfers smoked while playing (Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Fuzzy Zoeller) or both smoked and drank while playing (John Daly). If an activity does not make you break a sweat, or if it can be done while drinking and smoking, then it is not a sport and the player is not an athlete. [ 73 ] When ESPN ranked the athletic difficulty of 60 activities in 2004 based on ten categories such as endurance, agility, and strength, it ranked golf 51, lower than ping-pong and just ahead of roller skating. [ 31 ] Golf is certainly competitive, and it requires skill, but it is simply good exercise and does not require enough physical exertion to be a sport. For elderly male golfers, an 18-hole game is moderate to high intensity; however, the game requires only moderate exercise for middle-aged men and is low intensity for young men. Regardless of age, all golfers perceived their exercise as weak to moderate, which is a far cry from the sweat dripping off the faces of basketball and football players. [ 81 ] Read More

Con 2 Golfers are not consistently competitive enough to meet the definitions of sport and athlete. Golf involves competition, keeping score, and declaring a winner, but those facts alone do not make it a sport and do not make golfers athletes. Spelling bees, poker, and darts are competitions with scores and winners, which are sometimes broadcast on the sports network ESPN, but those activities are not sports and the players are not athletes. [ 30 ] The fact that golfers are able to be competitive professionally so far past the age of peak athleticism — which is age 26, according to a June 2011 peer-reviewed study — shows that golf is not competitive enough to be a sport. For example, Tom Watson nearly won one of the biggest tournaments in professional golf, the British Open, at age 59 in 2009. Jack Nicklaus won 11 of his 18 majors after turning 30. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] According to Chris Mile, President of Miles of Golf, “‘Golf’ and ‘Competitive Golf’ are almost two different activities. Both are fun but the competitive part of the game makes it really different. Golf is mostly about being with friends and enjoying the beauty of the game, the exercise, and the challenge. Competitive Golf should have everything that Golf has but with the added twist of beating other players. The addition of this little variation really changes the game.” Golf is frequently played during business meetings or for social events, without much or any competition. By contrast, few players distinguish between “tennis” and “competitive tennis,” because the goal is nearly always for one side to win. [ 85 ] Read More

Con 3 Golf requires skill but involves too much happenstance to be considered a sport and its players athletes. “The more I practice, the luckier I get,” said golfer Jerry Barber (although the quote is frequently attributed to golfer Gary Player). [ 82 ] From avoiding water hazards and sand traps to hoping your ball isn’t carried off by winds or local wildlife, golf is widely influenced by luck. As Gary N. Smith, Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College, explained: “A total of 222 golfers have won at least one of the four majors ( Open , Masters , U.S. Open , and PGA Championship ). Of these major winners, 140 (63%) never won another major afterward. Even among the best golfers, luck is endemic. There is considerable happenstance in gusts of wind and in fortunate and unfortunate bounces. Sometimes a ball lands on a bank of grass and sticks; sometimes it rolls into a lake or sand trap. Sometimes a ball whistles through a tree; sometimes it bounces off a branch. Sometimes a branch ricochet puts the ball back on the fairway, where the grass is cut short and the ball can be played cleanly; sometimes the ball bounces into foot-high grass.” Rarely if ever is an ace in tennis, a three-point bucket in basketball, or a pitched strikeout in baseball affected by a wind, a wet or dried-out and bumpy playing service, or a freakish happenstance of nature, all of which routinely affect golf and who wins and loses. [ 90 ] Read More

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Advertisement

Fun facts about olympic golf, a sport where 10 countries have medaled but the u.s. dominates, share this article.

Golf is an Olympic sport for the fifth time.

The American contingent at the 2024 Summer Games is made up of four men — Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark — and three women — Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang.

The men’s competition is up first at Le Golf National, which also hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup. They start Thursday, Aug. 1 and the top three finishers will be on the podium getting their medals on Sunday, Aug. 4.

Then it’s the women’s turn, and they start Wednesday, Aug. 7 and conclude on Saturday, Aug. 10.

For a closer look at golf in the Olympics, check out this list.

Golf joined the Olympics in 1900

Golf at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The 1900 Games in Paris are considered the second edition of the modern-era Olympics. It was there that golfers first competed for gold, silver and bronze medals.

The men’s medalists were Charles Sands, USA (gold), Walter Rutherford, Great Britain (silver) and David Robertson, Great Britain (bronze) while the women’s medalists were Margaret Abbott, USA (gold), Pauline Whittier, USA (silver) and Daria Pratt, USA (bronze).

Abbott went down in history as the first American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics in any sport.

Compiegne Club, about 30 miles north of Paris and known for its “postage-stamp” greens, hosted the golf competitions then and was one of just 25 golf courses that existed in France in 1900. The golf course was closed for good in 2017.

Golf in 1904 was for men only

Pictures of the USA Team from the 1904 Summer Olympics hosted at Glen Echo Country Club! Team USA: Edward Cummins, Kenneth Edwards, Chandler Egan, Walter Egan, Robert Hunter, Nathaniel Moore, Mason Phelps, Daniel Sawyer, Clement Smoot, Warren Wood pic.twitter.com/WwwkIpGPRW — Glen Echo CC (@GlenEchoCC) July 8, 2024

In 1904, the Olympic Games were staged in St. Louis but this time, the women’s competition was dropped. Instead, the 1904 games consisted of an individual men’s tournament and a team men’s tournament. 

George Lyon, Canada (golf), H. Chandler Egan, USA (silver) and Burt McKinnie, USA (bronze)/Francis Newton, USA (bronze) won the individual medals. Organizers also switched to match play for the 1904 games.

In the team portion, American teams made up of regional golf associations won all three medals. Individual silver medalist Egan won a team gold and bronze co-medalists Burt McKinnie and Francis Newton won team silver medals.

There were 77 golfers in the 1904 Games, with 74 of them Americans. The other three were Canadians.

Glen Echo Country Club was the host venue. It was the first golf course built in St. Louis and the first golf course built west of the Mississippi. Glen Echo’s website also notes that the private golf course is the “oldest, continuously operating Olympic venue in the world.”

After 112-year hiatus, golf returned in 2016

Adilson da Silva of Brazil hits the first tee shot to open the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Chris Condon/PGA Tour/IGF)

The 2016 Games saw the return of golf and host Brazil built a new course for the competitions. This time, golf was two individual stroke-play, 72-hole, four-round events.

“It’s the end of a long journey,” International Golf Federation president Peter Dawson said about the sport’s return to the Olympic program. “We’re beginning a new one.”

The top four golfers in the world ranking withdrew from the Brazil Games. There was a major issue with the Zika virus at the time.

Justin Rose, Great Britain (gold), Henrik Stenson, Sweden (silver) and Matt Kuchar, USA (bronze) won the men’s medals. Korea’s Inbee Park (gold), Lydia Ko, New Zealand (silver) and Shanshan Feng, China (bronze) took home the medals on the women’s side.

2020 Olympics were staged in 2021 after global pandemic

Mariajo Uribe of Colombia tees up her ball on the ninth hole during the Women’s Golf Final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

After the Zika virus concern in 2016, the COVID pandemic affected the 2020 Games in Tokyo, forcing them to be postponed a year.

In 2017, the membership at host venue Kasumigaseki Country Club voted to change its policy so as to start including women, which kept the club from being stripped of hosting the golf competitions.

Xander Schauffele, USA (gold), Rory Sabbatini, Slovakia (silver) and C.T. Pan, Chinese Taipei (bronze) won the medals. Pan survived a seven-way playoff for the third-place spot. On the women’s side, Nelly Korda, USA (gold), Lydia Ko, New Zealand (silver) and Japan’s Mone Inami (bronze) won the medals. Ko became the first woman to win a second medal.

The U.S. contingent in 2020 was Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed as well as Nelly Korda, Jessica Korda, Danielle Kang and Lexi Thompson.

U.S. leads all-time Olympics golf medal count

The Olympics medal count for golf.

Watch the entire 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock

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2024 Olympics golf leaderboard: Live coverage, updates, golf scores today for Round 1 in Paris

Live scores, updates and highlights from the first round of men's golf in the 2024 paris olympics.

Golf returns to the Olympics for the third time since 1904, and it will have a tremendous backdrop this year at Le Golf National. The field for this 2024 Paris Olympics tournament is tremendous with many of the best golfers in the world in competition to join England's Justin Rose (2016) and the United States' Xander Schauffele (2020) with gold medals to their name.

Schauffele, who has already won two major championships this year (U.S. Open, The Open), has a chance to become the first golfer to capture a major and gold medal in the same campaign. Given he's the hottest player in the world right now, that possibility is certainly high. However, the likes of countrymen Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, Swedish sensation Ludvig Åberg, Spain's Jon Rahm and Norway's Viktor Hovland will be among the heavy hitters seeking to bring home gold for their nations.

CBS Sports will be with you the entire way with the latest from men's golf in the 2024 Olympics. Keep it locked here for scores, updates, analysis and highlights throughout the first round at the Summer Games in Paris. Check out a full slate of Olympics golf tee times to find out when your favorites are taking the course.

First round suspended

With just a few holes to go, play has been suspended at Le Golf National because of lightning. The final group that teed off is currently on the 15th hole. Xander Schauffele, who is T2 at -6 is on the 18th hole. It is unclear when play will resume.

As soon as I wrote that below, Carlos Ortiz joined the bronze medal party at -6. He's tied with van Rooyen.

Erik van Rooyen makes it a trio at the top

If they were handing out medals after Round 1 (they are not), there wouldn't even be a playoff if things stay like they are right now. Here's what the top of the board looks like.

1. Hideki Matsuyama: -8 2. Xander Schauffele: -7 3. Erik van Rooyen: -6

Xander Schauffele creates some separation

He's one back of Hideki with a few holes to go. Xander is two clear of the field, while Hideki -- who finished an hour ago -- is three clear of everyone else. There's not really anyone else on the course that has a chance of catching them (perhaps Jon Rahm at -5 thru 14 holes has a slight chance).

Xander Schauffele remains dialed

He has a real chance to make a run at Hideki's 8-under lead over the next few holes as he tries to stay hot from his PGA-Open double from earlier in the summer. He's 6-under through 12 holes and within two of that Hideki lead. Tough holes remaining, though.

Scottie Scheffler has a chance to close

It has not been a perfect round from world No. 1, but he's -4 with one hole left and an opportunity to get within three of Hideki Matsuyama. A reminder that in the last nine rounds in which he has gained shots with the putter, Scheffler has won or finished second in eight of them. 

Joaquin Niemann opens with 66

The Chilean shoots 5 under to get near the top of the leaderboard after the first day. He definitely has the firepower to contend here all week, but he'll be two back of Hideki Matsuyama, who parred his last four holes to shoot 8-under 63.

Matsuyama moves it to -7

Hideki hit it close on the 13th to get to -7, and now the course record of 62 is coming into play a bit. He's flying around Le Golf National, and has opened a two-shot lead on the rest of the field. He'll play a tough group of holes upcoming so it will be interesting to see if he can hold on, but he has joined Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele as the three live favorites right now.

Michael Phelps and Matthieu Pavon could be related.

Hideki Matsuyama starts hot

Matsuyama is -6 through 12 holes and leads early on at Le Golf National. He's trailed by Joaquin Niemann (-5) as well as Ryan Fox (-5). Ludvig Åberg is -4 early on as well. There are already some big names on the hunt for a podium in Paris. 

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When is Olympic men's golf tournament? Schedule, how to watch, stream 2024 Paris Olympics

The highly anticipated 2024 Paris Olympics men's golf tournament runs through Sunday, Aug. 4.

What time do the rounds start? How can I watch it? How can I stream it? What are the tee times?

Here's what to know about the 2024 Olympics men's golf tournament, which is being held at Le Golf National outside of Paris.

The 2020 Olympics champion, Xander Schauffele, is among the notable golfers in the field, as are Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

The field is made up of 60 golfers from across the globe, with many of the best golfers in the world in the field.

How to watch 2024 Paris Olympics today: Schedule, times, TV channels, streaming

When does Olympic golf start?

The 2024 Paris Olympics men's golf tournament began on Thursday, Aug. 1, at midnight MST, 3 a.m. EST. The first group of the course was Victor Perez (France, Matti Schmid (Germany) and C.T. Pan (Chinese Taipei), teeing off at midnight MST. It is scheduled to continue on Friday, Aug. 2, Saturday, Aug. 3 and Sunday, Aug. 4 with each round starting at midnight MST (3 a.m. EST).

How can I watch the men's Olympic golf tournament?

Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds of the tournament, at midnight MST on Thursday, Aug. 1; Friday, Aug. 2; Saturday, Aug. 3, and Sunday, Aug. 4.

USA Network is also scheduled to air Sunday's final round beginning at 11 a.m. MST, 2 p.m. ET.

How can I stream the Olympic men's golf tournament?

The 2024 Paris Olympics men's golf tournament will be streamed on Peacock , NBC's streaming service all four days of the competition.

Steam the 2024 Paris Olympics men's golf tournament on Peacock

What are the tee times for men's Olympic golf?

Here are Friday's second-round tee times:

• Midnight MST, 3 a.m. ET – Victor Perez (France), Matti Schmid (Germany), C.T. Pan (Chinese Taipei)
• 12:11 a.m. MST, 3:11 a.m. ET – Thorbjørn Olesen (Denmark), Alejandro Tosti (Argentina), Joaquin Niemann (Chile)
• 12:22 a.m. MST, 3:22 a.m. ET – Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), Alex Noren (Sweden), Ryan Fox (New Zealand)
• 12:33 a.m. MST, 3:33 a.m. ET – Min Woo Lee (Australia), Corey Conners (Canada), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa)
• 12:44 a.m. MST, 3:44 a.m. ET – Wyndham Clark (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Tommy Fleetwood (Great Britain)
• 12:55 a.m. MST, 3:55 a.m. ET – Sepp Straka (Austria), Jason Day (Australia), Tom Kim (Korea)
• 1:11 a.m. MST, 4:11 a.m. ET – Scottie Scheffler (USA), Rory McIlroy (Ireland), Ludvig Åberg (Sweden)
• 1:22 a.m. MST, 4:22 a.m. ET – Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Belgium), Daniel Hillier (New Zealand), Guido Migliozzi (Italy)
• 1:33 a.m. MST, 4:33 a.m. ET – Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand), Gavin Green (Malaysia), Gaganjeet Bhullar (India)
• 1:44 a.m. MST, 4:44 a.m. ET – Phachara Khongwatmai (Thailand), Abraham Ancer (Mexico), Dou Zecheng (China)
• 1:55 a.m. MST, 4:55 a.m. ET – Yuan Yechun (China), Camilo Villegas (Colombia), Matteo Manassero (Italy)
• 2:06 a.m. MST, 5:06 a.m. ET – Adrian Meronk (Poland), Sami Valimaki (Finland), David Puig (Spain)
• 2:17 a.m. MST, 5:17 a.m. ET – Erik van Rooyen (South Africa), Keita Nakajima (Japan), Kevin Yu (Chinese Taipei)
• 2:33 a.m. MST, 5:33 a.m. ET – Stephan Jaeger (Germany), Nicolai Højgaard (Denmark), Thomas Detry (Belgium)
• 2:44 a.m. MST, 5:44 a.m. ET – Byeong Hun An (Korea), Shane Lowry (Ireland), Nick Taylor (Canada)
• 2:55 a.m. MST, 5:55 a.m. ET – Xander Schauffele (USA), Viktor Hovland (Norway), Jon Rahm (Spain)
• 3:06 a.m. MST, 6:06 a.m. ET – Matthieu Pavon (France), Collin Morikawa (USA), Matt Fitzpatrick (Great Britain)
• 3:17 a.m. MST, 6:17 a.m. ET – Shubhankar Sharma (India), Rafael Campos (Puerto Rico), Carlos Ortiz (Mexico)
• 3:28 a.m. MST, 6:28 a.m. ET – Nico Echavarria (Colombia), Mito Pereira (Chile), Kris Ventura (Norway)
• 3:39 a.m. MST, 6:39 a.m. ET – Fabrizio Zanotti (Paraguay), Joel Girrbach (Switzerland), Tapio Pulkkanen (Finland)

More Olympics: When does Team USA women's basketball play next? 2024 Olympics schedule, TV, streaming

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