preview

The Early History of Golf in the U.S. Essay

Decent Essays

The game of golf is one of the oldest of today’s modern sports. Its exact beginnings are not known; however, some historians trace golf back to the Stone Age while others claim it originated from the “idle antics of shepherd boys knocking small stones into holes in the ground with a crook while their flocks grazed nearby” (Peper 1). Researched back to the time of the Roman Empire, it is also believed the sports-oriented Romans played a forerunner of the game of golf called paganica. This sport involved the use of a bent stick and a ball stuffed with wool played in the open countryside.

Golf comes to the United Sates
The legendary beginnings of golf in the United States can be traced back to the mid-1600s. One of the first published …show more content…

Reid, born in Scotland, had immigrated to the United States as a youth bringing with him an interest in the game of golf. Golf was by then a well-established and popular sport in his native land. Just a year before, Bob Lockhart, a friend of Reid’s, was planning a business a trip to Scotland. At Reid’s urging request, Lockhart brought back with him a few golf clubs and balls. Reid laid out three golf holes in his cow pasture and on February 22, 1888, Reid and his neighbor John Upham gave an exhibition on the Scottish game. The curious neighbors, watching the sport, were keenly interested to the point where they wished to participate. Within a few months, the men formed a group known as the Men of St. Andrew’s. As their interest in the game grew, golf clubs and balls began arriving from Scotland. By the end of the summer, the three original holes in the cow pasture had become inadequate. The Men of St. Andrew’s made their first move to a thirty-acre meadow owned by the local butcher. In November of that same year, during a dinner party at Reid’s house, the St. Andrew’s Golf Club was formally organized. Reid became the President with John Upham as the Secretary. Over the years, St. Andrew’s was moved two more times eventually ending up at its present site in Mt. Hope at Hastings-on-Hudson where, despite claims

Get Access