Golf Courses: The Sport That Greens

It is played by presidents and prime ministers – wish should warn us about something. Mark Twain regarded it as a good walk ruined. More enthusiastically, on Jerry Lewis’ opinion, “A great golf course is like a beautiful, unattainable woman – full of challenges, surprises, difficulties and delights.”

While used today more broadly, the original links flanked sea-bound coasts. The description is Scots and derives from Old English hlinc, rising ground or a ridge, often coastal sand dunes, although sometimes simply open parkland. And while ever and yon arguments rage over where golf originated – Roman pananica, with a bent stick and stuffed leather ball or the ancient Dutch game of coif, historically modern golf originated in 15^th century Scotland. A century later, Stephen Clarke noted that Mary, Queen of Scots, “to go out to the heath and play golf, a game she had loved since her Scottish childhood. She is credited with inventing the term ‘caddy’ – her clubs were carried by the young sons of French noblemen, known as cadets, which is pronounced ‘cadday.’”

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