Most people think that golf was invented in Scotland, but there’s no proof that it was born there. The ancient Romans played a game with bent wooden sticks and a leather ball stuffed with feathers.
In the Middle Ages, the Dutch played a game called kolven on frozen rivers and canals, using a wooden club to hit a ball toward a stake set in the ice. Later, some Dutch people probably began to hit the ball toward a hole in the ground instead of a stake.
The first mention of golf in Scotland came in 1457, when King James IV outlawed the game. He was afraid that men might spend more time playing golf than practicing archery, and he wanted all Scotsmen to be skilled with the bow and arrow so that they would be good soldiers. But James later tried the game and became a golfer himself!
The 10,000 golf courses in America cover an area larger than the state of Rhode Island!
