Golf is a vivid sport. It is played on green grass with a white ball, which, if missed, produces colorful language. The basis of the game is the proposition that to do little is to do much. A.A. Milne noted its dichotomy when he said, “Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.” Ever changing in dynamic while being consistent in its goal of achievement through brevity, it remains a stalwart pastime for those who wish to seek continual improvement. Consider its fascinating origins.

Historian Steven J. H. van Hengel discovered old Dutch manuscripts describing a celebration in the town of Loenen aan de Vecht on December 26, 1297 to commemorate the anniversary of the retaking of Kronenburg Castle. Four holes of “colf”, the Dutch word for “Club” were played. Colf was played with a team of four men who would walk a course up to 3 miles long. Using a curved wooden club, they would hit balls at the doors of houses. Whoever got the lowest number of strokes won.

Thanks to robust trading, colf chipped its way across the channel to the British Isles. Instead of striking objects, the Scots putted them into rabbit holes on lush, emerald glens. The son of the monarch who brought us the readable Scriptures, was not a fan. "Fute-ball and Golfe be utterly cryit doune, and nocht usit!" "Football (soccer) and golf are forbidden" is a translation of this King James babble. He was concerned that amusements were distracting the youth from their archery lessons. James III repeated this edict, but in 1502 with the Treaty of Glasgow, James IV repealed it and purchased a set of irons. In 1506, he played on the dales of a town named after St Andrew, a former Jewish fisherman who, oddly enough, had he been alive, would not have been allowed to join him. The clubs got soddy while the bows got shoddy.

In 1513, they paid the price at the Battle of Flodden Field. Victory was not to be. They suffered the slings and arrows of the British bringing upon themselves outrageous fortune because they had not taken arms and thus faced a sea of troubles. With their king killed, and their pride denied, they asked, "What is it all fore?", and then returned to the links.

Golf spread through its royal endorsement. The English fell for the diversion through King Charles I and Mary Queen of Scots from France brought it to the Continent. The word "caddie" is French. As it grew in Europe, it became more egalitarian and more of a harbinger of all that is serene and ordered by British civilization. In 1829, a golf club opened in Calcutta. In 1835, Charles Darwin chipped the fairway in Chile. Whether South America’s love of golf is the result of intelligent design or evolution is the subject of much debate. After a round in 1839, the Tasmanian hamlet of Bothwell was hooked. In 1873, they teed off in Montrael. Cape Town addressed the ball in 1885. Japanese golf, "Gorufu", hit Tokyo in 1914.

Americans were introduced to the game when Oakhurst Links opened in Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1884. Within a few years there were hundreds of courses from Maine to California. Howard Taft inaugurated golf as a Presidential pursuit. Wilson, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, continued the game, and Clinton proved to be quite a swinger. Alan Shepherd hit a couple of golf balls on the moon in 1971. “Garden Golf” became fashionable during the Jazz Age as bumpers and rails made the game more exciting. The Great Depression forced many clubs to close, but Yankee ingenuity downsized the parks for city dwellers and added exotic challenges to become "Rinkiedink" courses, later called Putt-Putt or Mini Golf. Walt Disney created sand traps from swamps.

Ironically, the two sports that King James II fought to eliminate are now played by millions. Fittingly, Tiger Woods, himself an international amalgamation has become a symbol for the pursuit of excellence despite real or imagined obstacles. Ancestry and gender should no longer be considerations on this field nor on any other. Hopefully, this will be one of golf’s greatest legacies. Its philosophy of perfection through minimalism is also a worthy ideal. Taking an existing item and continually improving it so that it can be shared by almost anyone is a foundation of enterprise. If good health has us here millennia from now, perhaps it will be because we have had fewer strokes and birdied a future that is well above par.