Golf Clubs, Balls, and Equipment

Golf has become a game that interests millions of people every year but no one really knows where or how the game originated. The first rules of golf were established in Scotland in 1744 but the game had been played the same way there for over a thousand years. There are similar games that appear all around the world starting with the roman game called paganica which involved hitting a small leather ball with a bent stick. Paganica is though to have come from the lands where Ireland, Scotland and England are located today.

There are a lot of games played with a small ball and a stick to whack it. Croquet, pool, and golf are all surprisingly similar, there is green in all sports and the balls are sunk into holes. Some speculate that it was bored Irish shepherds that reverted to hitting stones into rabbit burrows to pass the time which may be true but this sport has been seen depicted in ancient texts from China, Egypt, Mesopotamia and even Meso-America. What did golf evolve from and how did it travel the world so quickly in a time when world travel was considered impossible? It appears around the same time at all corners of the earth.

There was either a highly advanced golf playing civilization that could freely and actively travel whose technology was lost, or it is a simple enough game to have evolved anywhere. Any man with a stick is sure to hit some object out of his path and call it a game. Like the wheel, as soon as the first one was developed it was quickly being built everywhere, but modern day golf equipment has been developed with high tech designs and techonology.

While the first golf clubs may have been shepherds crooks, they certainly weren’t as good at sending that ball down the green as today’s clubs. They are wind tunnel tested, designed on supercomputers and tested by professionals. The same materials used in Indy cars are used in many clubs. Golf balls have evolved a great deal from the round rocks of yesteryear, Thousands of dimples on the surface allow them to float on the air better and can induce a favorable or detrimental curve to the shot.

Just having one club was considered a luxury in Ireland in the mid eighteenth century. Now golfers have multiple clubs for different purposes. Golf irons are the most versatile being able to hit the ball accurately for most mid range distances. A driver is used for the long haul while the golf putters are designed for the putting green. All those clubs brought rise to golf bags, caddies and eventually golf carts. Add some shoes, a case of beer, a clown suit and the golf set is complete. Don’t forget to visit the golf shop to brag about all those bogies, birdies, and albatrosses on the course and maybe pick up some golf gifts for the old lady. Even girls like golf, it is NOT an acronym for Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.

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