Scotland, Home of Golf

The Scots are in no doubt that it was they who invented golf, or 'gowf' or 'goff' as it was spelled in 1457. In that year King James II of Scotland declared that golf should be "utterly cryit doune and nocht usit" because it was distracting his subjects from their archery practice. In Edinburgh, Mary, Queen of Scots, played Bruntsfield Links, making it today, perhaps, the oldest course in the world where the game is still played. In 1754, the first association of players, the Gentlemen