History of GolfHistory of GolfThere is general agreement that the Scots were the earliest of golf addicts but who actually invented the game is open to debate. We know that golf has existed for at least 500 years because James II of Scotland, in an Act of Parliament dated March 6, 1457, had golf and football banned because these sports were interfering too much with archery practice sorely needed by the loyal defenders of the Scottish realm! It has been suggested that bored shepherds tending flocks of sheep near St. Andrews became adept at hitting rounded stones into rabbits holes with their wooden crooks. And so a legend that persists to this day was born!
Various forms of games resembling golf were played as early as the fourteenth century by sportsmen in Holland, Belgium and France as well as in Scotland. But it was a keen Scottish Baron, James VI, who brought the game to England when he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. For many years the game was played on rough terrain without proper greens, just crude holes cut into the ground where the surface was reasonably flat!
Early golfers played at the game for many years without any thought of forming a society or club until finally a group of Edinburgh golfers in 1744 formed a club called the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. At this time, the first rules of golf, 13 in all, were drawn up for an annual competition between sportsmen from any part of Great Britain and Ireland. A few years later the Society of St. Andrews Golfers was formed and in 1834, when King William IV became the Societys patron, the title was changed to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
The earliest clubs formed outside of Scotland was the Royal Blackheath Golf Club of England which came into existence in 1766, followed by the Old Manchester Golf Club founded on the Kersal Moor in 1818. 18th century golf in the United States, while known to exist, did not catch on and it was in Canada that golf first established firm roots in North America. The Royal Montreal Club was formed in 1873, the Quebec Golf Club in 1875 followed by a golf club at Toronto in 1876. It wasnt until 1888 that golf resurfaced in the United States. A Scotsman, John Reid, first built a three hole course in Yonkers, New York near his home and later that same year formed the St. Andrews Club of Yonkers on a nearby 30 acre site. From those austere beginnings, golf literally soared as a new national pastime in the United States. A modern jewel, Shinnecock Hills, was founded in 1891 on Long Island and by the turn of the century, more than 1000 golf clubs had opened in North America.
The very earliest club makers were thought to be the skilled craftsmen who produced bows and arrows and other implements of war! The first authentic record of a club maker was in 1603 when William Mayne was appointed to the court of James I of England to make golf clubs for the king and his coherts! Two Scottish club makers are recognized from the late 1600s, Andrew Dickson of Leith and Henry Mill of St. Andrews. These clubs featured carved wooden heads of beech, holly, dogwood, pear or apple and spliced into shafts of ash or hazel to give the club more whip. Improvements were made by filling the back of the head with lead and by putting inserts of leather, horn or bone into the club face. In time, skilled blacksmiths of the day took on the challenge of forging iron faced clubs, initially without grooves, to provide more loft for shorter shots. The earliest balls were hand stitched leather, painstakingly stuffed with boiled feathers!
The earliest club makers were thought to be the skilled craftsmen who produced bows and arrows and other implements of war.
One of those who is associated with the American Renaissance was the founder of the club maker company in 1759. In the late 1630s, William Mayne produced the famous Ball of Hope, but as his father was leaving England, William did not approve. Later he would be elected to help build a bar and baroque baroque complex at the Walsingham Hotel. William’s son, Thomas, became one of the earliest American club makers.
The earliest club makers were thought to be the skilled craftsmen who produced bows and arrow and other implements of war.
On the 19th of May 1759, James Voll’s brother Peter, then working as a barber for the Walsingham Bar and Rooster, became the first to use a club to win the first American boxing championship. They were married to William Mayne’s daughter, Charlotte, and had a daughter named Lillian, born when they were young.
During the early 1650s, William Mayne bought the Walsingham Bar and tavern, the Walsingham Tavern Company, and established it as the bar and shop for the club and tavern. The tavern’s proprietor held a private hearing before the court for William to hear whether or not he should try to have two different clubs awarded. He accepted the offer as granted and William said he would pay his debts by selling club stock. On February 9 of the same year, on appeal from his father, his father-in-law, John A. Stokes, granted him that right by taking away the original Walsingham Company’s monopoly of making club stock in 1789. This was the first time that owners of multiple bar and club clubs combined and Charles and Charles D. Mayne had no business together.
James Voll was the founding president and chancellor of the University of Maine. He died on March 17, 1763. A gift was given to the university by a member of Stoke’s family, and a gift certificate was given to Charles on his way to the funeral from Stoke’s widow. On May 15 James Voll’s wife, Ann, received two presents: a fine English gentleman’s coin and a ticket for the funeral of Ann Mayne, and she paid $4. James Voll had just made $1000 in cash and $10 dollars in other merchandise. The second gift was to the University of Maine, where he was also a member of the trustees of the school for a year.
William had been educated at Salem College, in London, by St. Paul Thomas and a cousin known as the “Old School” students, who were raised in England and had become accustomed to being used by club players. They played the sport for about three years after they graduated from college, starting with a single round game. They had never shown any interest in dancing. At the beginning of each round, the game ended with a winner, then the player would advance from that round. St. Paul Thomas taught the players two rules from the beginning: that they must not go up any distance, that they must never move if they were not being chased or fouled, and that they should never run in a way that would injure the person who led them to the target.
As the game grew more involved, other local clubs took up the sport. The Walsingham Pub in Plymouth was