golf

Introduction & Top Questions
History
- Origins
- Scots as inventors: A popular fallacy
- Golf in Scotland
- Development of golfers’ associations
  - Early British societies
  - The United States and Canada
  - Other countries
- Development of equipment
  - The history of the golf ball
    - The feather-ball era
    - The gutta-percha era
    - The rubber ball
    - The 1.62 formula
  - The history of the club
    - Early clubs
    - Manufacturing methods
- Players and tournaments
  - The premier championships
  - British tournaments and players
  - U.S. tournaments and players
  - The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA)
  - International competition
    - Matches and tournaments
    - Circuits
    - Golf in the Olympic Games
  - The Senior PGA Tour
- LIV Golf controversy
Play of the game
- Courses
- Equipment
  - Golf balls
  - Golf clubs
- Rules
- Procedure
- Forms of play
  - Match and medal play
  - Handicaps
  - Par golf
- Variants
  - Par-three golf
  - Driving ranges

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Tiger Woods follows through on his golf swing after teeing off, standing in tall grass with spectators watching in the background at St Andrews Golf Links.

Golf ball being struck by the club; photograph taken with an exposure of 10−6 second

At a Glance

Tiger Woods kissing the Claret Jug, 2006

golf summary

Quizzes

Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)

Great Moments in Sports Quiz

Cricket bat and ball. cricket sport of cricket.Homepage blog 2011, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics

Sports Quiz

Golf putter hitting golf tee and ball. (game; sport; golf ball; golf club)

A Hole in One

Usain Bolt of Jamaica reacts after breaking the world record with a time of 19.30 to win the gold medal as Churandy Martina (left) of Netherlands Antilles and Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe come in after him in the Men's 200m Final at the National Stadium during Day 12 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 20, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Summer Olympics, track and field, athletics)

I Am the Greatest (Athlete)

Assorted sports balls including a basketball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and others.

American Sports Nicknames

Related Questions

How did St. Andrews establish the 18-hole golf course?
How did Tiger Woods become the youngest golfer to complete a career Grand Slam?
How did Tiger Woods's 1997 Masters victory set records?
How did Walter Hagen help raise the social standing of professional golfers?
How did the Chinese game of chuiwan resemble golf?
How did the Dutch game of kolf resemble modern golf?
How did the Haskell rubber golf ball improve on the gutta-percha ball?
How did the Royal Liverpool Golf Club develop from its early days at Hoylake?
How did the St. Andrew's Golf Club at Yonkers help establish organized golf in the United States?
How did the gutta-percha golf ball change the game in the 1840s?
How did the major tournaments in Bobby Jones's Grand Slam differ from the modern professional majors?
How do water hazards make a golf hole more difficult?
How does a golfer begin each hole on a golf course?
How does a pitch shot differ from a chip shot in golf?
How does rough affect a golf shot?
How does the Ryder Cup differ from an individual golf tournament?
How large and how deep is a standard golf hole?
How many Masters titles did Tiger Woods win?
How many major professional championships did Jack Nicklaus win?
What are the teeing ground markers used for in golf?
What is a fairway on a golf course?
What was the Apple Tree Gang in early American golf history?
What was the Tiger Slam?
When did the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews begin managing the Open Championship?
When might a golfer choose an iron instead of a driver from the tee?
When was the Scottish ban on golf lifted?
When was the first permanent golf club in the Western Hemisphere founded?
Where did the modern game of golf develop?
Where was golf first organized in India?
Which Canadian city is home to the Royal Montreal Golf Club?
Which Scottish king made the first recorded purchase of golf equipment?
Which U.S. national golf championships began in 1895?
Which country had the oldest golf club outside Great Britain?
Which four championships did Bobby Jones win during his 1930 Grand Slam season?
Which four tournaments make up the modern men's professional golf Grand Slam?
Which golfer has the most Ladies Professional Golf Association tour wins?
Which golfers have completed the men's career Grand Slam?
Which three major championships did Ben Hogan win in 1953?
Who was Mary, Queen of Scots, and how was she connected to golf?
Why are clubs called woods even though modern woods are often made of metal?
Why can a golfer carry no more than 14 clubs during a round?
Why did Arnold Palmer become a major star of television-era golf?
Why did Francis Ouimet's 1913 U.S. Open victory become famous?
Why did King James IV of Scotland play golf after earlier bans on the game?
Why did golf become expensive to play in Japan after World War II?
Why did scuffs and patterns help early gutta-percha golf balls fly better?
Why did the Scottish Parliament ban golf in 1457?
Why do golfers use a putter on the green?
Why do modern golf balls have dimples?
Why is the Players Championship sometimes called golf's unofficial fifth major?
Why is the first shot from a teeing ground called a drive?
Why was Ben Hogan's return to golf after his 1949 car accident remarkable?
Why was Jack Nicklaus's 1986 Masters victory especially memorable?
Why was the United States Golf Association formed in 1894?
What are the main types of sports that involve ice skating?
What is the age limit for competitive figure skating?
Who invented volleyball?
What was volleyball originally called?
What are the six volleyball positions?
When did volleyball become an Olympic sport?
What is field hockey?
When did field hockey become an Olympic sport?
What are the main differences between field hockey and ice hockey?
What is the history of skiing?

Sports & Recreation Olympic Sports

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External Websites

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 - Improving performance in golf: current research and implications from a clinical perspective

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

golf - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
golf - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

golf

sport

Written by

Heiner Gillmeister

Professor of Middle English at the University of Bonn and a scholar of the history of sports. Works include The Cultural History of Tennis.

Heiner GillmeisterAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 24, 2026 •History

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 the 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,...

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