The term seems to have originated from the old Scots words golve, gowl, or gouf and is possibly borrowed from medieval Dutch ( colf being club and 'spel metten colven' being game (played) with club-this club- this was a Dutch game resembling golf). As time has passed, the name has remained and been refined to golf, as we know it today, You will stil hear older Scottish golfers refer to the game as
the Gowf, keeping the older Scots name in use. Indeed, a golf club in Ayrshire is stil called Loudoun Gowf Club today. The earliest known reference to golf dates to 1457, when King James II of Scotland banned golf and footballon the grounds that they where keeping his subjects from their archery practice. The ban was repeated in 1471 by James III and in 1491 by James IV for the same reason. A golf links is a stretch of land near the coast characterised by undulating terrain, often associated with dunes , infertile sandy soil and indigenous grasses such as marram, sea, lyme and fescues and bents which , when properly managed , produce the fine textured, tight turf for which links are famed. The course rota used for the Open Championship is made up of Links golf courses. Why are there 18 holes on a golf course? Initially, there was no standard number of holes on a golf course. St. Andrews for example had 22 holes until baout 1764 when 4 were merged to make an 18 hole course. As far as we can establish, there is no specific date for when 18 holes became the Standard number of holes on a corse. In 1858, the R&A issued new rulesfor its members; rule 1 stated:
"one round of the Link sor 18 holes is reckoned a match unless otherwise stipulated"
We can only presume that, as many clubs looked to the R&A for advice , this was slowly adopted throughout Britain. By the 1870s, therefore, more courses had 18 holes and a round of golf was being accepted as consisting 18 holes.
