Pub. 6 2016 Issue 1

10 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY History of Golf W hetherMarkTwainactually said it or not, golf has been defined as a good walk spoiled. Those who play the game can sometimes identify with that statement. Nevertheless, people love the game of golf. It is a life-long game that can never be perfected. And you guessed it; it is made possible by mining. Every aspect of the game of golf, from course construction and maintenance to the equipment used, depends on hard- working miners doing their jobs. The earliest form of a game like golf was a Roman game called paganica, dating back to 100 B.C. Players hit a stuffed ball made of leather with a bent stick. Between 960 and 1279, the Chinese also had a game that resembled golf. Players used clubs to hit a ball. They called it chuíw án. Scotland invented what we now call golf in the 1400s. It was a tough game to play because it was played on rugged, infertile land that couldn’t be used for agriculture. Playing involved strong sea winds, sand dunes, and short grass eaten regularly by sheep and rabbits. In the early days, playing golf or soccer (which was, and is, called football) could get you into trouble because it meant players weren’t practicing archery, and archery was a matter of national defense. James II, King of Scotland, passed an act banning both sports in 1457. The act was reaffirmed in 1471 and 1491. By 1500, however, not only was the ban lifted, but King James IV of Scotland decided to try the game himself. Mary Queen of Scots is said to have played golf soon after Lord Darnley, her husband, was murdered in 1567. Mary’s only child, King James VI, became King James I of England in 1603 when Queen Elizabeth I died. He brought golf to England. The first golf balls weremade from leather, but in 1724 there’s a reference to a ball that had been stuffed with feathers. By 1848, golfers were introduced to the gutta percha ball. Gutta percha is the dried sap of a Sapodilla tree. Strips were softened in boiling water and molded by hand into a ball, then hardened in cold water. On May 14, 1754, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R&A) was founded. The original group of members wassmall and theydidn’t haveafixedhome, but it became the governing authority for golf. The worldwidemembership currently has more than 2,500 members. The Scots eventually brought golf to the American continent. The first golf club, at By Susan Morgan