#Who invented the game golf full

In 1636, David Wedderburn, a Latin master in Aberdeen, used the word 'Baculus', which is Latin for 'club' as the title for his 'Vocabula', listing Latin terms for golf, which supports this derivation. Only Scotland had the right combination of club, ball and links to create golf. Many historians use the word golf to describe games played on the continent, when they are clearly a different game or when we do not know what game was being played. It is important to note that the word 'golf' is never used in Europe to describe any of the games there and the word 'colf' is never used in Scotland to describe golf. The history in the Rules of Thistle Golf Club documented this origin as far back as 1824.

They are commonly believed to be derived from a pre-modern European language term, following Grimm's grammatical law that details the clear phonetic similarities of these words. Golf, colf, kolf and chole are all presumed to have originally meant 'club' and are associated with the Middle High German word for club, 'kolbe', (Der Kolben), and the Dutch word 'kolven' for the game of modern kolf. The terms golf, colf, kolf and chole which were the names for a variety of medieval 'stick and ball' games in Britain and in continental Europe. The verb 'to golf' is recorded in dictionaries in the 18th century onwards. This view may be based on the possible derivation of the relevant words to the ancient Greek word κολάφος (kolaphos) meaning to 'strike with he fist', for which there are obvious cognate links through the Latin terms 'colaphus' and 'colapus'. Some claim 'golf' is a purely Scottish term, derived from Scots words 'golf', 'golfand' and 'golfing', which mean 'to strike' as in 'to cuff' or 'to drive forward with violence'.

The Loudoun Gowf Club maintains the tradition of this terminology. In Gaelic the word is 'goilf' and a golf course is 'raon goilf' or 'cùrsa goilf'. Dr John Rattray, the winner of the Silver Club at Leith in 1744, 17, refers to the 'Gouffers' in a letter in 1752. Allan Ramsay referred to 'gouff' in his Elegy to Maggy Johnston in 1711. Certainly, the word 'gouf' is found extensively in written texts, long after 'golf' was the acknowledged game. The first documented reference is spelt 'golf', but most people believe the old word 'gowfe' was the most common term, pronounced 'gouf'. Goff, gowf, golf, goif, goiff, gof, gowfe, gouff and golve have all been found in Scottish documents.

#Who invented the game golf full

On balance, however, it more likely that the 'golf' examples date to 1460 and the full details are discussed here.īefore the creation of dictionaries, there was no standardised spelling of any word. In between the above edicts were two references to the word 'golf' in a translation of a French poem by Sir Gilbert Hay in c 1460. The original text is lost and the oldest extant version with the words in it has been dated to c 1554.

Golf on the links may have continued unabated. These bans may not have been applied to links golf, as we know it, but a target variant played in city streets or churchyards. The royal ban on golf was repeated in 1471 by James III, son of James II and again in 1491 by James IV, his grandson. (It is ordained and decreed that football and golf be utterly condemned and not practised) 1457 Item it is ordanyt and decretyt that ye futbawe and ye golf be uterly cryt done and not usyt.