Golf

History of Golf
While many Scots firmly maintain that golf evolved from a family of stick-and-ball games widely practiced throughout the British Isles during the Middle Ages, considerable evidence suggests that the game derived from stick-and-ball games that were played in France and Germany.  Part of that evidence is the etymology of the word "golf". "Golf" derives from the Old Scots terms "golve" or "goff," which evolved from the medieval Dutch term "kolf." The medieval Dutch term "kolf" meant "club," and the Dutch were playing games at least by the 14th Century in which balls were struck by sticks that were curved at the bottom. The Dutch and Scots were trading partners, and the fact that the word "golf" evolved after being transported by the Dutch to the Scots lends credence to the idea that the game itself may have been adapted by the Scots from the earlier Dutch game.