Google Map To Saint Andrews, Saint Andrews, Scotland In The UK.

Buy Your Best Golf Equipment Here.

The history as to the origin of golf is debated among many who play golf. Briefly it can be said that a golf-like game is recorded as taking place on February 26, 1297; in the Netherlands, in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. Some scholars argue that this game was also played in 17th-century Netherlands and that this predates the game that was played in Scotland. Then in April 2005, new evidence came to the debate concerning the origins of golf. Evidence unearthed by Prof. Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University suggested that a game similar to modern-day golf was played in China's Southern Tang Dynasty, about 500 years before golf was first mentioned in Scotland. The official word from a spokesman for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, one of the oldest Scotland golf organizations, said; "Stick and ball games have been around for many centuries, but golf as we know it today, played over 18 holes, clearly originated in Scotland." We notice that St. Andrews now calls their "Old Course", "The Home of Golf." Golf has been played on the Links at St Andrews since around 1400 AD. The game grew in popularity and by the 19th century it was part of the way of life for many local people; golf still plays a major part in the culture and economy of Saint Andrews today. Over its 600 year history of the Golf Links, the one simple track hacked through the bushes and heather has developed into six public golf courses, attracting hundreds of thousands of golfing pilgrims from around the globe. Its Castle Course, the seventh course at St. Andrews, is situated on the clifftops overlooking St Andrews to the east side of town. Golf became so popular in the middle ages, that the game was banned in 1457 by King James II of Scotland. He felt it was distracting the young men from their archery practice. This same ban was repeated by the succeeding monarchs until James IV gave up and in 1502 became a golfer himself. In 1797, due to "temporary impecuniosity," bankruptcy, the Saint Andrews Town Council lost total control of the Golf Links. This allowed rabbit farming to challenge the land use for golf. The twenty years of legal and physical battle between the golfers and the rabbit farmers concluded in 1821 when James Cheape of Strathtyrum, a local landowner and a golfer, bought the land and, said he, "saved the Links for golf." In any case, this is a nice place to visit.