Hello All! GamePlan Today Talks will be getting you all to the exciting history of the golf game. Let us move further into account.
GamePlan Today Talks – An Overview
Home of Golf
We will see the home of golf to introduce a program that charts the development of the ancient royal game during the 20th century.
A lot has changed since Tom Morris Senior and his son Tom Morris Jr dominated golf in this region during the second half of the 19th century. But it is also the case that much has remained the same.
Golf is still the noble sport it always was, and none of the commercial pressures attached to it during the 20th century has done anything to alter that central fact.
It is still a game in which honour prevails above all else. There is no point in winning if an individual hasn’t adhered to the spirit of the game. Likewise, no disgracing while losing if you have given your all to the cause.
The Origins
The origins of this golf game are shrouded in the mists of time. But what we know is that as far back as the 15th century, a rudimentary form of the game was played in some areas of Scotland.
From its inception, the purpose of Scottish golf was to get the ball into a hole in the ground. But by contrast, other British and continental balls and stick games seem to have been aimed at targets above the ground.
Dutch golf was played across the country in the streets of towns and on ice. The object of the game was to hit a target above the ground. Thus, it is a more accessible skill than the global game.
The great Winston Churchill once said that the game aimed to get a small ball into a tiny hole with weapons singularly ill-suited for the purpose. However, since the game was started, a succession of designers has come forward with ingenious clubs designed to extricate the ball from all sorts of situations. And the only reason why they no longer have any use for them is that their courses are no longer so rough and unkempt as they once were.
Before this century, golf courses were rudimentary facilities from whatever land became available when holes were dug in suitable spots. The golfers were then left to get on with it.
There was no such thing as an artificial hazard because nature had provided more than enough of a challenge on its own.
The Scottish landscape was ideally suited for the game. Indeed golf was so popular that King James II of Scotland was forced to issue an act of parliament in 1457 to ban the game because it was interfering with archery practise and thus the realm’s defence.
At that time, the game was confined to small enclaves near the eastern seaboard of Scotland. So it was to remain for all of the following four centuries.
19th Century – Mid & Final Half
Fast forward the clock to the second half of the 19th century, and you will find that the game was still the preserve of a small band of scots.
Between 1850 and 1900, it remained a national pastime enjoyed by no more than a couple of thousand people.
Entering the third quarter of the 19th century, it was undoubtedly true that it was still a relatively insignificant sport. But that was about to change and to change fast.
The first big boom in golf came in the 30 or so years leading into the 20th century. During that time, Britain’s number of clubs grew from under 50 in 1870 to over 2000 by 1900. That’s a staggering growth rate.
Summing Up, GamePlan Today Talks expects that our viewers have got more insights into Golf sports.