Yes, The Times They Are A' Changin

     Thank you for that observation Bob Dylan.  I am showing my age here as to my choice of singers but times are changing in the world of golf.  We can just look at Ricky Fowler's high top golf shoes and see that.  Change is a part of golf over the years. It is still a bastion of centuries of tradition, but it also has changed a lot since the shepherds in Scotland batted around the rock in the dunes of the Scottish Coast.
     What was it like for those first gowfers? You had a long stick in your hand, most of the time it was your shepherd's staff.  Part of the fun was finding a rock that was round enough to roll when it had to.  I can assure you that rock didn't have "Titlist" painted on it with a number.  The course was a grassy patch where sheep would graze.  There were mounds all along that grassy path where the sheep would sit and get out of the cold wind that blows off The North Sea.  These mounds would become devoid of grass because the sheep would graze on them and sit on them, the grass wearing down to sand.  This was the origin of the sand bunker, and those first golfers would play around them. So much for the "powdered sugar" sand we have in many of the bunkers of today.
     Golf became so popular that it was banned in the 1400's I think because noblemen were playing so much golf that they were neglecting their military skills.  Golf had replaced archery which in the 1400's was very important when the Spanish or the French came to call.  They weren't calling on the Scots to play a friendly round of golf either. Needless to say, the ban on golf didn't last.
     When you play one of today's modern golf courses, think of what it used to be. That beautiful fairway and teeing grounds along with the perfectly manicured green have not always been that way in golf. In fact, greens on some courses were leveled ground that were oiled to make a putting surface.  There are still some courses that still have those oiled greens. You couldn't find a green that measured twelve on the stimp meter. The greens we play now are a far cry from the original greens.
      Yes, things have changed in the game of golf.  My next post will be about some of the huge changes in everything from equipment to how the game is played so watch for my next post.

Surf, sand and sea--those were golf's beginnings.