Golf

Golf (gowf in Scots) is a sport in which individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and also is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. It is defined in the Rules of Golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."

Golf is most often said to have originated in Scotland (although see History below), and has been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. The oldest course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh. Golf, in essentially the form we know today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh Links since 1672, while earlier versions of the game had been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of Northern Europe for several centuries before that. Although often viewed as an upper class pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport across all sections of society

Anatomy of a golf course

• Golf is played on an area of land designated as the course. The course consists of a series of holes. A hole means both the hole in the ground into which the ball is played (also called the cup), as well as the total distance from the tee (a pre-determined area from where a ball is first hit) to the green (the low cut area surrounding the actual hole in the ground). Most golf courses consist of eighteen holes.

  The first stroke on each hole is done from the Tee (officially, teeing ground), where the player can use a tee (a small wooden or plastic peg), which makes the tee shot easier. Most courses offer a range of Tee boxes to play from, making the hole longer or shorter depending on which Tees the player starts at. Often, the different Tee boxes have names associated with degree of competence (e.g., Professional and Amateur Tees), or by sex and age (Men's, Ladies', Senior, etc.). In addition to a difference in distance, the different Tees may also eliminate or reduce the danger of some hazards for the "Forward" tees, such as water hazards.

  After teeing off, a player hits the ball towards the green again from the position at which it came to rest, either from the fairway or from the rough. Playing the ball from the fairway is an advantage because the fairway grass is kept very short and even, allowing the player to cleanly strike the ball, while playing from the rough is a disadvantage because the grass in the rough is generally much longer. Once on the green, the ball is putted (struck with a flat faced club which makes the ball roll along the ground) towards the hole until the ball comes to rest in the cup.

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