Online Golf is just the latest development in a long-running history of golf games. Ever since medieval times, people have enjoyed golf or a sport similar to it. The first occurrence of a golf game being mentioned in Europe was in 1297 in the Netherlands, and from that period onwards also in Scotland. The event was described as a game with a stick and a leather ball, which the players tried to hit into a target with the least strokes possible.
Prof. Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University, however, discovered that even 500 years before that, a game similar to golf as we know it today was played in China. Back then it was called “Chiuwan”. Their golf clubs were inlaid with gold and silver, which leads us to believe that playing golf was a privilege of the Chinese upper classes in these times. New evidence implies that the game was brought from China into Europe by Mongolian travellers.
Whether this theory is true remains to be proven, but most historians will agree that the modern-day golf game as we know it stems from Scotland. It is a long way from the golf-like game the ancient Chinese played to the variations we know today, including the latest addition Online Golf.
In the late 19th century, the UK golf sport experienced a boom, which seems to be directly linked to a number of factors. Scotland suddenly became fashionable as a holiday destination when railway tracks between England and Scotland were laid and improved around the 1860s, and Queen Victoria bought Balmoral, her very own holiday castle in Scotland.
Golf became more and more accessible and by 1880 there were 12 golf courses in England, the number of which had risen to 50 only seven years later.
All across the British Empire, Golf became an obsession to many Britons.
Nowadays, Golf is a sport played by many and often. Over the years, however, the sport has developed many faces. There was the introduction of mini-golf in the 1880s, and the latest invention is computer-based golf games.
If you are interested in finding out more about the history and development of the golf sport, you might want to visit The British Golf Museum in St. Andrews in Scotland. A good way to experience the latest version of golf, is trying out a free online golf session on World Golf Tour.