Tournaments, Championships, Golf Courses, Clubs - The Sport of
Golf
Thanks to the star power of Tiger Woods, golf has become one of
the commercially successful sports worldwide. Now, golf is
enjoying and basking in its popularity with several major and
minor tournaments happening every year.
Major tourneys include the Masters, the US Open, the British
Open, and the PGA Championship. Those four are the majority of
the major tournaments making up what is known in the golf world
as the grand slam of golf for men. For women, the grand slam
tournaments are the LPGA Championship, the US Women's Open, the
du Maurier Classic and the Dinah Shore.
But what is golf really about? Besides the ruckus created by
swinging on the grass and looking out for a possible birdie,
much of the dynamics of the sport is a blur. So let's get to
know golf, it will entice you to buy some golf clubs the next
time you happen to pass by a sports store.
Golf is an outdoor sports where the player's objective is to
propel a small ball over a field or a golf course and shoot it
towards a hole at the end of each course. The key to the game is
to place the ball inside the hole using as few strokes as
possible. A golf course is often made up of 18 sections with
holes. Standard courses have about 6500 to 7000 yard length.
Each sections or holes may differ in length.
History
The game dates back to the 14th or 15th century in Scotland,
where it became really popular but it was not until the 18th
century that people started to get enthusiastic about it,
forming golf associations including the St. Andrews Society of
Golfers. The first golf club was created in 1603 by a Scotsman
named William Mayne, who was assigned to the court of James I to
make golf clubs for the Royal's enjoyment. The idea of a golf
club was later improved upon when Andrew Dickson and Henry Mill,
developed clubs made of carved wooden heads. The club face had
leather horn or bone. Years later, golf clubs made of iron were
introduced.
The creation of golf balls was credited to James Melville who
was commissioned by James I to make leather golf balls stuffed
with feathers. In 1848. Reverend Adam Paterson experimented with
gutta-percha, a substance in India that he softened with heat
and molded into a smooth hard ball. Noticing that though the
hard ball was good to play with, one must intentionally put
nicks and scratches on the surface for better play. This paved
the way for the new generation golf ball with little crevices on
it. Popularity of golf reached the United States and in Britain
in the 1920s.
How to start
A golf player starts the game with a tee towards the fairway, a
carefully tended strip of land with rough areas of long grass,
bushes and trees on the sides. To make the game more
challenging, golf courses often have artificial hazards like
sand-filled bunkers and water hazards where the ball can easily
get into. At the end of the fairway, the player will see the
putting green, a smooth area that surrounds the cup where the
hole is located. This is where players often do their putting,
being really close to the hole.
Golf strokes and clubs
There are two kinds of golf strokes, the drive and the approach
shot. The drive is done from the tee and is actually a long
shot. Different golf clubs are used for different shots
depending on the distance the player wants the golf ball to
reach. A standard set has 14 golf clubs in different types.
There are woods, irons and the wedge, which is often of two
kinds, the sand wedge and the pitching wedge.
Whatever your experience with this game, it is also a great
sport to be out enjoying nature.