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The origin of the game of golf has never been clearly established.

The Romans during the reign of Caesar played a game resembling golf by striking a feather-stuffed ball with club-shaped branches.

Book illustrations show the Dutch playing a similar game on their frozen canals about the 15th century.

Cross-country variations were popular in France and Belgium.


In 1457 golf was banned in Scotland because it interfered with the practice of archery, which was vital to the defense effort. Nevertheless the Scots continued to brave the opposition of both Parliament and church by playing the game on seaside courses called links.

Scotland is the home of the world's oldest golf course, St. Andrews, which was used as early as the 16th century.

Golf became firmly established in Great Britain by the 17th century when James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, was attracted to the sport.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews, the cradle of golf, was founded in 1754.

During the 1800s the gutta-percha ball, or "gutty," replaced the feather-filled ball that had been used for centuries.

In 1860 the first British Open was played at Prestwick, Scotland. The competition was opened to both professionals and amateurs the following year.

The first permanent golf club in North America, Canada's Royal Montreal Club, was founded in 1873.

St. Andrews, one of the oldest golf clubs in the United States, was established as a 3-hole layout in 1888 at Yonkers, N.Y. Its founders were known as the "Apple Tree Gang" because of the many apple trees on their course, which was extended to 6 holes on a cow pasture.

During the next few years numerous 6-, 8-, 9-, and 12-hole courses were opened in the East.

The first 18-hole course in the United States, the Chicago Golf Club, was founded near Wheaton, Ill., in 1893.



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Individual coutries have argued for decades as to who invented the game of golf. The Scots and Brits have the best documentation and here is two links to help you learn more for yourself.

The first is a timeline of golf from iGolf.

The second is an article written by By Malcolm Campbell titled "Battles Lost But A Game Won , The Illustrious History of Scottish Golf" , this is brought to you by World Golf.

To return to "Not Just Another Golf Page" use the back button on your browser when done reading these files.





Tournament Golf and Champions

The governing body of golf in the United States is the United States Golf Association (USGA), which was founded in 1894. The organization, whose headquarters are in Far Hills, New Jersey, rules on ball and club specifications and such regulations as hazards and scoring. It works with the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews in reviewing international rules.

The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) was founded in 1916, 15 years after the first Professional Golfers' Association was established in Great Britain. It conducts the PGA and PGA Senior tournaments and Ryder Cup competition between members of the American and British PGAs.

Both amateurs and professionals compete in open tournaments. Among major tournaments that have the support of the PGA are the United States Open, United States Women's Open, PGA, Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), Masters, British Amateur, British Open , Canadian Open, and United States Amateur and United States Women's Amateur (also known as National Amateurs).

Beginning in 1981, the name of the pro circuit was officially changed to the Tournament Players Association (TPA) Tour.

Tournament golf became well established as a spectator sport in the United States during the 1920s.

Such colorful professionals as Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and Tommy Armour added much to the game's public image and popularity. One of the most outstanding early amateurs was Robert T. Jones, Jr., of Atlanta, Ga., who between 1923 and 1930 won five United States Amateurs, four United States Opens, three British Opens, and a British Amateur four of these in 1930 for an unprecedented Grand Slam.

Tournament golf suffered during the depression, but after World War II the circuit flourished with such players as Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret, and Lloyd Mangrum.

Purses and gates increased steadily during the 1950s.

With the emergence of Arnold Palmer in the late 1950s and Jack Nicklaus in the early 1960s, tournament golf once again captured the imagination of sports fans everywhere. Nicklaus became the first golfer to win more than 200,000 dollars in a single season (1971) and also the first to earn more than 300,000 (1972).

Tom Watson was the first whose season's earnings topped 400,000 (1979) and 500,000 (1980).

Curtis Strange was the first million-dollar-a-year player (1988).

Tom Kite, the 1989 Player of the Year, set a single-season money-winning record with 1.4 million dollars.

By the late 1960s only one player had earned more than one million dollars in his career. Palmer was the first golfer whose career earnings passed the million-dollar mark (1968).

Nicklaus, the only golfer to be chosen five times as the PGA Player of the Year, was the first to earn more than 2 million (1973), 3 million (1977), 4 million (1983), and 5 million (1988) dollars.

Kite reached 6 million dollars in 1990.

Others whose career earnings had passed the 2-million mark by the mid-1980s were Lee Trevino, Watson, Tom Weiskopf, Hale Irwin, and Lanny Wadkins.

Outstanding among the early woman golfers was Joyce Wethered, who won the British Ladies' Amateur four times between 1922 and 1929.

The Women's Amateur Championship, originated in 1895, produced such champions as Beatrix Hoyt, Alexa Stirling, Margaret Curtis, and Virginia Van Wie all three-time winners and six-time winner Glenna Collett Vare. Winners since 1938 have included such diverse players as Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Mildred (Babe) Zaharias, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, and Anne Quast. The first three later turned professional and formed the nucleus of the LPGA.

Judy Rankin was the first woman golfer to earn more than 100,000 dollars in a season (1976); Beth Daniel, 200,000 (1980); Carner, 300,000 (1982); Nancy Lopez, 400,000 (1985); Betsy King, 500,000 (1989); and Daniel, 600,000 (1990).

In 1981 Kathy Whitworth became the first woman golfer with career earnings of more than 1 million dollars. The 2-million mark was reached by Pat Bradley and then Carner in 1986 and by Amy Alcott in 1988. In 1990 Bradley topped 3 million. All of these women are Americans.







Some Famous Players



Anderson, Willie (1878-1910).

An early golfing great from Scotland. Won U.S. Open four times (1901, 1903-05).


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Ballesteros, Severiano (born 1957).
Spanish golfer who turned pro at age 17. Headed Sony World Rankings 1985 when he had five victories. Won six European tournaments in 1986, including his fifth win of the World Matchplay in Wentworth, England. Victories include British Open (1979, 1984, 1988), Masters (1980, 1983).


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Berg, Patty (born 1918).
Won U.S. Women's Amateur in 1938, U.S. Women's Open in 1946, and seven Women's Titleholders tournaments (1937-39, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1957).

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Carner, JoAnne Gunderson (born 1939).
Record five-time winner of U.S. Women's Amateur (1957, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1968). Twice won U.S. Women's Open (1971, 1976).
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Curtis, Margaret (1883-1965).
With sister, Harriot, launched biennial Curtis Cup matches between amateur U.S. and British women golfers. In 1907, when her sister was defending champion, won first of three U.S. Women's Amateur titles.

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Evans, Charles (Chick) (1890-1979).
First amateur to capture U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in one year (1916). Played in 50 consecutive U.S. Amateurs, winning again in 1920. Founder of Evans Scholarship Foundation for caddies.

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Hagen, Walter (1892-1969).
First full-time tournament pro, beginning in 1919. Won five PGA titles (1921, 1924-27). Took two U.S. Opens (1914, 1919) and four British Opens in 1920s. First American to hold French and British titles in same year (1922).

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Hogan, Ben (born 1912).
Named greatest pro golfer of all time. Won U.S. Open (1948, 1950-51, 1953), PGA (1946, 1948), Masters (1951, 1953), and British Open (1953). Seen here with his friend Bing.


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JONES, Bobby (1902-71).
Regarded as the greatest amateur golfer of modern times, Bobby Jones was the only player in the world to win the grand slam in golf.
In one year, 1930, he won the four major tournaments of the time: the British Amateur, the British Open, the United States Amateur, and the United States Open.
From 1923 through 1930, Jones won 13 championships in those four annual tournaments, a record that stood until it was surpassed by Jack Nicklaus, a professional, in 1973.
During his career Jones won the British Open three times, the British Amateur once, the United States Open four times, and the United States Amateur five times.
He played for the United States against Britain in the Walker Cup team matches in 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, and 1930, winning nine of ten matches.
Born on March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, Ga., Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., became a practicing lawyer in that city. After he completed his grand slam in 1930, he never became a professional golfer and rarely played in championship competition.
He helped to organize the annual Masters Tournament, first held in 1934, at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
In 1958 Jones received the freedom of the burgh of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, home of the oldest golf course in the world. He was pronounced honorary burgess and guild brother of the city. He was the first American recipient of this award since Benjamin Franklin was so honored in 1759.
Jones died in Atlanta on Dec. 18, 1971.
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Lopez, Nancy (born 1957).
Won 1978 LPGA Player and Rookie of the Year. Won 9 of 24 tournaments in rookie year, and 8 of 19 in 1979. Won Season's Player of the Year award in 1985 by winning five tournaments. Victories include three LPGA tournaments (1978, 1985, 1989).

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NICKLAUS, Jack (born 1940).
The only golfer to win all four of the top professional tournaments at least twice was Jack Nicklaus.
At 21 he was the youngest player since Bobby Jones to win the United States Open, and at 46 he was the oldest to win the Masters.
When he became golf's first 5-million-dollar man in 1988, no other player had amassed as many major titles.
Jack William Nicklaus was born in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 21, 1940. His father, a pharmacist, took up golf as therapy for an ankle injury, and Jack tagged along on the greens.
He played his first round when he was 10. In 1959, while a student at Ohio State University, he became the youngest golfer in 50 years to win the United States Amateur.During that year he was defeated only once in 30 matches. He won the Amateur again in 1961 before he turned professional at an exhibition on Dec. 30, 1961.
Nicklaus won no tournaments during his first five months as a pro, but his legendary career took off in June 1962 when he defeated Arnold Palmer at the United States Open. He won that title again in 1967, 1972, and 1980.
There were six lean years without a major victory and two years with no victory at all before Nicklaus won his sixth Masters in 1986 by shooting a final-round 65. (The five other Masters titles were gained in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, and 1975.)
He is considered the greatest final-round player ever. Slow and deliberate, yet powerful, Nicklaus was called the Blond Bear for his sunlit blond hair and sturdy bearing. He won the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) championship (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, and 1980), the British Open (1966, 1970, and 1978), and six Australian Open titles.
He has designed several golf courses and has written books on golf.

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Nelson, Byron (born 1912).
Earned prize money in 113 consecutive tournaments. Won Masters (1937, 1942), U.S. Open (1939), and PGA (1940, 1945). Holds record for tournament wins in a season 19 out of 31 in 1945.


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Ouimet, Francis (1893-1967).
Famous "caddy champion." First amateur to win U.S. Open (1913). Won U.S. Amateur (1914, 1931) and French Amateur (1914).
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PALMER, Arnold (born 1929).

Whenever Arnold Palmer appeared on a golf course, his hordes of fans dubbed "Arnie's Army" were sure to follow.
Palmer was the first professional golfer to earn more than a million dollars a year in prize money, the first golfer to fly his own plane to tournaments, and the first to win the Masters four times in 1958, 1960, 1962, and 1964.
From 1954, when he became a professional, through 1975 he won 61 tournaments sanctioned by the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA).
Palmer was born in Youngstown, Pa., on Sept. 10, 1929. His father was a golf professional at the Latrobe Country Club.
Arnold was given cut-down clubs at the age of 3, and his father taught him a firm grip. By the time he entered high school he was already an excellent golfer.
Palmer attended Wake Forest University on a golf scholarship from 1947 until 1954, with time out for service in the United States Coast Guard. He left college without a degree and worked briefly as a salesman.
Palmer turned professional in 1954 after winning the United States Amateur championship. The next year he won his first professional tournament, the Canadian Open.
In addition to his four Masters tournament victories, Palmer won the United States Open in 1960 and the British Open in 1961 and 1962.
His total winnings were more than a million dollars by 1967. In 1970 Palmer was named athlete of the decade.
By the late 1960s Palmer was gradually overtaken in PGA tour victories by a younger golfer named Jack Nicklaus. By the late 1970s Palmer was playing in professional golf's senior circuit. He won senior tournaments in 1980, 1981, and 1984.
Much of his time is devoted to Arnold Palmer Enterprises, a division of the National Broadcasting Company. In 1982 he negotiated an agreement to build the first golf course in China.

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PEETE, Calvin (born 1943).
First major black golfer. Highly ranked for driving accuracy. During 1982-85 won more money and more PGA events than any other golfer. In 1984 won Vardon Trophy for lowest stroke average on tour. Continued to win tournaments 1985, 1986.

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PLAYER, Gary (born 1935).
South African winner of most major events worldwide. Won British Open (1959, 1968, 1974), Masters (1961, 1974, 1978), PGA (1962, 1972), U.S. Open (1965). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

RAWLS, Betsy (born 1928). Won four U.S. Women's Opens (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960). Won 55 tournaments, ten of them in 1959. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

SARAZEN, Gene (born 1902). One of the longest careers in golf history. Won U.S. Open in 1922 at age 20. Took U.S. and British Opens (1932) and PGA (1922-23, 1933). Scored record double eagle in winning Masters (1935). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

SNEAD, Sam (born 1912).

Noted for perfect timing of swings. Won record 84 PGA tournaments. Victories included British Open (1946), Masters (1949, 1952, 1954). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

STRANGE, Curtis (born 1955).

In 1987 set record for all-time highest earnings in one year ($925,941). Broke that record following year by earning $1,147,644. Won World Amateur Cup (1974), Canadian Open (1985, 1987), U.S. Open (1988, 1989). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

TREVINO, Lee (born 1939).

First pro golfer to win U.S., British, and Canadian Opens in one year (1971). Won British (1972), PGA (1974, 1984), Canadian (1977, 1979). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

VARDON, Harry (1870-1937). Greatest of early English golfers. Six-time winner of British Open (1896, 1898-99, 1903, 1911, 1914). Won U.S. Open (1900). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

WATSON, Tom (born 1949). Leading PGA money winner (1977-80, 1984). Twice won Masters (1977, 1981). Five-time winner of British Open (1975, 1977, 1980, 1982-83). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHITWORTH, Kathy (born 1939). Set record of 88 career wins (1985). Leading LPGA winner (1965-68, 1970-73). First LPGA winner of 1 million dollars and eight-time LPGA money-winning champion. Won three LPGA Championships (1967, 1971, 1975). ------------------------------------------------------------------------

WRIGHT, Mickey (born 1935). Won four U.S. Women's Opens (1958-59, 1961, 1964) and four LPGA Championships (1958, 1960-61, 1963). Top LPGA money winner of early 1960s. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

ZAHARIAS, Babe Didrikson (1914-56).



The outstanding American woman athlete of the 20th century was Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

She performed in basketball, track and field, and golf. She turned to golf as a form of relaxation in 1932, but in a few years she became the United States' leading woman golfer.

Zaharias was born Mildred Ella Didrikson in Port Arthur, Tex., on June 26, 1914. She became an all-American basketball player in 1930 and 1931 while still in high school. In 1932, at the women's annual track and field tournament sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union, she entered eight events and won five.

In the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles she won gold medals for the javelin throw and the 80-meter high hurdles, in both of which she set records. She was deprived of a gold medal in the high jump because of a technicality.

She also excelled in softball, baseball, swimming, figure skating, billiards, and even football.

After the 1932 Olympic Games she turned professional and took part in exhibitions throughout the country.

Didrikson began to play golf casually in 1932, but after 1934 she played the game exclusively. She soon became the leading amateur woman golfer in the United States. In 1946 she won the United States Women's Amateur tournament.

In 1947 she won 17 straight golf championships and became the first American winner of the British Ladies' Amateur. She became a professional golfer in 1948, and in 1950 she won the United States Women's Open.

In 1954, after a seemingly successful operation for cancer the previous year, she won the Open again as well as the All-American Open. From 1948 through 1951 Didrikson was the leading money winner among women golfers.

Didrikson married professional wrestler George Zaharias in 1938. The 1953 cancer surgery proved to have been unsuccessful and had to be repeated in 1956. She died that year on September 27, in Galveston, Tex. Her autobiography, 'This Life I've Led', was published in 1955. A television movie of her life entitled 'Babe' was made in 1975.




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