History of Golf Timeline

In 1603, James VI of Scotland succeeded to the throne of England, helping carry Scottish culture, including golf, southward and aiding the eventual spread of the game beyond Scotland.

Image source: James VI and I

In December 1650, near Fort Orange (modern Albany, New York), settlers played the first recorded round of kolf (golf) in America. A group of four men played in pairs for points, and afterwards a party came to Steven Jansz's tavern to drink brandy after their round.

On July 22, 1657, several men were cited and warned not to play Kolf on Sundays, showing that the Dutch game had taken hold in the New Netherland settlement.

On December 10, 1659, an ordinance was issued to prevent playing Kolf in the streets of Albany due to too many windows being broken, one of the earliest golf-related laws in America.

Scottish soldiers, expatriates and immigrants took the game to British colonies during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (1829) is one of the oldest golf clubs outside the British Isles, along with the Mauritius Gymkhana Club (1844) and the club at Pau (1856).

Image source: Royal Calcutta Golf Club

The railways came to St Andrews in 1852, making the home of golf far more accessible to visitors and helping fuel the game's growing popularity in the late 19th century.

Image source: St Andrews

In 1864, the golf course at the resort of Westward Ho! became the first new club in England since Blackheath, and the following year London Scottish Golf Club was founded on Wimbledon Common.

Image source: Royal North Devon Golf Club

The game in England had progressed sufficiently by 1890 to produce its first English-born Open Champion, John Ball, marking a milestone in the sport's expansion beyond Scotland.

Image source: John Ball (golfer)

After the Meiji restoration of 1868 Japan modernised its economy on western lines. In 1903 a group of British expatriates established the first golf club in Japan, at Kobe.

In 1913 the Tokyo Golf Club at Komazawa was established for and by native Japanese who had encountered golf in the United States; it was moved to Asaka in Saitama prefecture in 1932.

Image source: History of golf

By 1880 England had 12 courses, rising to 50 in 1887 and over 1000 by 1914, demonstrating the explosive growth of golf in England in the decades after it spread from Scotland.

In 1921, Japan established the first golf course in Korea at Hyochang Park, which then contained the tombs of Korean royalty.

In 1922, Walter Hagen became the first native born American to win the British Open Championship, a landmark for American golfers on the world stage.

Image source: Walter Hagen

In 1924 the Japan Golf Association was established by the seven clubs then in existence, organizing the sport in Japan.

Image source: Japan Golf Association

During the Roaring Twenties the game expanded greatly in popularity in America, and by 1932 there were over 1,100 golf clubs affiliated to the USGA, up from 267 clubs by 1910.

Image source: United States Golf Association

By 1956 there were 72 courses in Japan, and in 1957 Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono won the Canada Cup (now World Cup) in Japan, an event often cited as igniting the post-war golf boom. Courses only began returning to Japanese control in 1952 after wartime requisition.

Between 1960 and 1964 the number of golf courses in Japan increased from 195 to 424, reflecting the rapid growth of the sport in post-war Japan.

The 1987 Resort Law that reduced protection on agricultural land and forest preserves created a further boom in course construction in Japan, and by 2009 there were over 2,400 courses.

The oldest surviving rules of golf were written in 1744 for the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which played at Leith Links. Their "Articles and Laws in Playing at Golf," preserved in the National Library of Scotland, became known as the Leith Rules and support the club's claim to be the oldest golf club, though a later almanac first records a rival claim that The Royal Burgess Golfing Society had been set up in 1735.

Image source: Muirfield

As early as the 15th century, golfers at St Andrews established a trench through the undulating terrain, playing to holes whose locations were dictated by topography. In 1764, several holes were deemed too short and were therefore combined, shaping the course toward the standard round.

Image source: St Andrews Links

As the golf ball developed and became more durable with the introduction of the "gutty" around 1850, the club head was also allowed to develop, and a variety of iron headed clubs entered the game.

Image source: Golf ball

In 2003 the USGA and R&A began limiting the spring-like effect, also known as the coefficient of restitution (COR), to 0.83 and the maximum club head size to 460 cm³ in an attempt to maintain the challenge of the game.