Golf

History of Golf

Golf is a sport played with a bent club and a ball on a golf course. The player tries to hit the ball into each hole using as few strokes as possible. This sport is known to have originated from an ancient Roman game called Paganica. The game as it is known today was first played in Scotland in the 12th century, with shepherds thumping stones into rabbit holes. There are three main types of golf clubs, which include woods, irons and putters. A full pack consists of a driver, two fairway woods, a set of irons, a pitching wedge, a sand wedge, a putter and one more club of the player’s preference.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) is the governing body for golf all over the world apart from the United States and Mexico. In these two countries, the United States Golf Association (USGA) is the main authority. The Masters Tournament is one of the four major championships in professional golf, and it is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Other three major championships are the Open Championship, U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. The PGA Tour organizes the Players Championship, FedEx Cup events and the Presidents Cup. The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy, donated by Samuel Ryder, which is given to the winner of the Ryder Cup match-play tournament contested between the teams of Europe and the United States.

Previous Golf season(s)

Arnold Palmer along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player formed the golf’s “Big Three”. Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Greg Norman are some of the other prominent golf players. Tiger Woods, an American golfer, is one of the most successful golfers of all times, and he was rated the highest athlete in 2008. 2009 golf season saw some great matches and a few upsets. Stewart Cink walked home with the 2009 Open Championship after playing against Tom Watson. Lucas Glover won the 2009 U.S. Open, while Ángel Cabrera of Argentina won the Masters tournament in 2009. Yang Yong-eun battled against all odds to defeat Woods to win the 2009 PGA Championship. He became the first Asian to win a major.