GOLF

Jack Nicklaus blasting out of a sand trap during the second round of his record sixth win at the 1/4 game played by individual competitors, whose object is to drive a small, hard ball with one of a set of clubs toward and into a series of holes. The player who is able to hole the ball in the fewest strokes is the winner. The game of golf is played outdoors on a course that consists of 9 or 18 teeing areas and corresponding holes. Golf developed in Scotland, where it was played as early as the 15th century. James I of England (who was also James VI of Scotland) is believed to have introduced golf to Blackheath in London about 1608, but the oldest club with proof of origin is the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, now called the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. The game took a foothold in England with the birth of the Royal North Devon Club in 1864, and the first amateur championship in Great Britain was held in 1885 at Hoylake. The game was played in North America by the 17th century, but it did not develop as an organized sport there until 1888, when St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, N.Y., was established by John Reid and Robert Lockhart, both Scots. Golf balls were originally made of wood, but in the early 17th century the feather ball was introduced. It was a slow and expensive process to manufacture these balls, which consisted of boiled feathers compressed into a hole left in a stitched leather cover. The invention of the cheaper gutta-percha ball about 1848 helped to make the game more popular. Golf clubs were made of wood, but by the late 18th century iron heads, called cleeks, were introduced for driving, putting, and getting the ball out of rough terrain. With the emergence of harder rubber balls at the turn of the 20th century came advances in club making, including laminated club heads and seamless steel shafts. In 1938 the United States Golf Association (USGA) ruled that 14 was the maximum number of clubs a player was permitted to carry in a round. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scot., and the USGA are now the governing organizations of the sport. The major golf tournaments for individual men consist of the Open and the Amateur of the British Isles and the U.S. Open, Amateur, Professional Golfers' Association (PGA), and Masters. Major individual women's golf tournaments include the Ladies' British Open and British Ladies Amateur, the U.S. Women's Open and Amateur, and the Ladies' Professional Golf Association. The best-known team golf competitions are the Walker Cup (for amateurs); the Ryder Cup (professionals); the Curtis Cup (amateurs), contested between American and British women's teams; and the World Cup (amateurs) and the World Cup (professionals), which are played by teams from all over the world. There are two forms of play in golf: match and stroke (or medal) play. In match play two players generally compete against each other, and each hole is won by the player who holes the ball in the fewest strokes. In stroke play each player competes against every other player in the tournament, and the competitor who holes the round (or rounds) in the fewest strokes is the winner. game played by individual competitors, whose object is to drive a small, hard ball with one of a set of clubs toward and into a series of holes. The player who is able to hole the ball in the fewest strokes is the winner. The game is played outdoors on a course that consists of 9 or 18 teeing areas and corresponding holes. The game of golf originated in Scotland and has spread from obscure antiquity to worldwide popularity. Played in the beginning on seaside links with their crisp turf and natural hazards and afterward on downs, moorland, and parkland courses of various lengths and characteristics, it combines with open air and exercise an intrinsic fascination. Its players participate at every level, from recreational golf to popular televised professional tournaments. Despite its attractiveness golf is not a game for everyone; it requires a high degree of skill that is honed only with great patience and dedication, and it requires an investment in equipment and fees that persons of average means may not feel worthwhile. The novice is often discouraged by these factors. pocket-billiards game named for its similarity to the outdoor game played with special clubs and a small hard ball. In the billiards version, each player tries to play an assigned object ball into the six holes, or pockets, of the table, beginning with the left side pocket and moving in clockwise rotation around the table. The object balls are respotted after each hole is completed, and the player who completes the "course" in the lowest number of strokes is the winner. Each player begins with the cue ball on the centre spot and the object ball on the foot spot. The player's first shot of the game must rebound off the foot cushion before contacting the object ball. If the shot is missed, the player continues from wherever the cue ball comes to rest. On subsequent holes the object ball is replaced on the foot spot, but the cue ball is played from where the previous player left it. These shots need not be banked. Other rules are similar to those of pocket billiards (q.v.). Additional reading Geoffrey Cousins and Don Pottinger, An Atlas of Golf (1974); and Pat Ward-Thomas and Charles Price, The World Atlas of Golf (1976), review golf courses, the game, and important events in the game's history. Historical surveys include Robert H.K. Browning, A History of Golf (1955); Charles Price, The World of Golf: A Panorama of Six Centuries of the Game's History (1962), with chapters on pioneers, shotmakers, and masters; Geoffrey Cousins, Lords of the Links: The Story of Professional Golf (1977); and Herbert Warren Wind, The Story of American Golf: Its Champions and Its Championships, 4th ed. (1986). Championship and tournament results over the years, records, curiosities, brief biographies, and many other features are found in The Golfer's Handbook (annual). Donald Steel and Peter Ryde (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Golf (1975), is a highly regarded reference work. John Ross Goodner Play of the game Courses The game consists in playing the ball from a teeing ground into a hole by successive strokes in accordance with the rules. The stipulated round consists of 18 holes, and most golf courses have 18. Standard 18-hole courses measure from 6,500 to 7,000 yards (5,900 to 6,400 metres); individual holes are from 100 to 600 yards (90 to 550 metres). Some courses have only nine holes; these are played twice in a stipulated round. The clubs are designed for the various positions in which the ball may come to rest and for the various distances to the hole. The objective is to hole the ball in the fewest strokes. In the early 19th century there was no agreement on the number of holes on a golf course; localities differed widely in the matter. When the popularity of Leith, with its five holes, waned and St. Andrews became the hub, the round of 18 holes was established. Originally the St. Andrews holes filed straight out alongside the shore and were played in reverse for the return journey-11 holes each way. In 1764 the round was modified to 18 holes. The variety of courses gives golf an intrinsic charm. Equipment Golf balls Regulation balls have a maximum weight of 1.62 ounces (45.93 grams) and a minimum diameter of 1.68 inches (4.27 centimetres). In U.S. competition the velocity of the ball may not exceed 250 feet (75 metres) per second when measured under prescribed conditions on an apparatus maintained by the USGA, but there is no velocity specification for British play.