Thailand Golf Discount

 

Some historians believe that golf originated in The Netherlands (the Dutch word kolf means club), but golf as we know it today was first played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fith around the 15 century. Shepards would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club. The one vital ingredient that differentiated golf from other ancient stick ball games was the hole!

In the mid- 15 century, Scotland was preparing for an invasion from England, but the country’s enthusiastic pursuit of golf and soccer led to the neglect of their military duties (archery) and led King James II to ban both sports in 1457.

 

Early in the 16 century King James V, lifting the ban, took up the game of golf, and his granddaughter Mary, Queen of Scots, played the game while living in France, where she was raised. Young French military cadets attended to her on the course. The term cadet was later adopted in Scotland and England and became the word caddie or caddy. (*Caddies are an integral part of golf in Thailand, with virtually all courses employing them. Caddies in Thailand are mostly female. Very few courses in America employ caddies anymore with the advent of the electric golf cart.) In England the game was made popular by the attention given to it by James VI of Scotland, later James I of England and his son Charles I.

In the 18 century the first golf associations in Scotland were established. They included the Honorable Society of Edinburgh golfers (founded in 1744); followed by the St. Andrews Society of Golfers (1754) which in 1834 took its present title, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the site of this years British Open Championship - the oldest official major tournament competition.

The Royal Blackheath (1766), near London became the first recognized golf association in England. The first golf clubs established outside of the British Isles were in Calcutta, (1829) and Bombay, (1842) India. Golf arrived in the western hemisphere in Canada with the Royal Montreal (1873) Golf Club, and in America when the Saint Andrews Golf Club of Yonkers, New York (1888) was established.

Through the early 1900’s golf was played in America mostly by the rich and golf pros came from Britain and Scotland. In 1913 an American named Francis Quimet (a former caddy) outdueled two legendary British professionals to win the U.S. Open championship and golf became popular with the masses of ordinary citizens. The growth of golf reached new heights in both Great Britain and the United States by the 1920’s. Now aided by international television coverage and a progression of great players like Ben Hogan (50’s), Arnold Palmer (60’s), Jack Nicklaus (70’s), Tom Watson (80’s), Nick Faldo (90’s) and Tiger Woods (new millennium), golf is experiencing a global popularity explosion.

 

 

The golf ball has developed through of number of stages since the beginning. In the 15th century the original golf balls were made of wood. In the next century came the ‘‘feathery’’ ball: made from a leather casing stuffed with a tophatful of goose feathers; the making of which cost so much, only the rich Scottish Nobles could afford, while the ordinary Scot went on playing with wood.

In 1848 the Gutty ball; molded directly out of a lump of guttapercha rubber used as packing material for imports from Malaysia; transformed the game of golf. The advantages being, than it flew better after being scuffed up, could be used in the rain and could be hammered and reshaped when it became out of round.

The coming of the modern ball began around 1900 when an American golfer, Dr. Haskel, realized the possibilities of winding rubber thread tightly into a ball around a liquid center then putting a rubber cover over it. The ‘‘Haskell’’ ball was much more lively than the Gutty and possessed the resilience and soft feel of the Feathery. This golf ball combined with the addition of the dimple pattern built into its balata cover allowed it to go up more rapidly from impact with the clubhead and fly further with better control.

Out of the Haskel design has evolved the modern golf ball as we see on the market now. Today’s manufacturers’ have focused on improving the three key playing properties of the golf ball: durability, stability in flight, and, most of all, resilience.

This kind of resilience is evident in recent golf ball innovations, which combines the ability of the ball to ‘‘give’’ to the clubs impact by flattening out with the highest possible ‘‘liveliness’’ while springing forcefully back into shape again, giving the ball a high ‘‘coefficient of restitution’’. The two together have decisive effects on how long the ball will last, upon what it feels like to hit, and how far it will go. Nowadays, there has developed a strong school of thought that the ‘‘new’’ hi-tech golf balls are going too far for the good of the game. Already, famous old championship golf courses like St. Andrews in Scotland and Augusta National in America have felt it necessary to add to the length of their courses in an attempt to restore the original ‘‘playing characteristics’’, all because today’s super pros are hitting the ball so much further. All this makes for the argument: Is it time to limit by design, how far the golf ball should go!

 

 

The History of the Golf Clubs

Early Days

Golf as we know it today was first played in Scotland in the 15th century. Players originally carved their own clubs and balls from wood. As popularity of the game increased golfers soon turned to blacksmith’s to make their clubs. The earliest reference to a set of specifically handcrafted clubs is when King James IV of Scotland commissioned a bow-maker in Perth to build him a set in 1502. The set included Longnooses for driving, fairway clubs for medium range shots, Spoons for short range, Niblicks (similar to today’s wedges ) and a putting Cleek.

Clubheads were made of the toughest wood available such as beach, holly, pear and apple. Shafts were made from ash or hazel. The head was connected to the shaft using a splint and bound tightly with leather straps. The expensive costs of making the clubs, the fact that they were prone to breakage on the rough terrain of the course and the introduction ( 1618 ) of the Featherie golf ball ( goose feathers sewn inside of a leather poach ) to replace the wooden ball made the game only affordable to the rich.

Next Generation of Clubmaking

In 1826 Scottish clubmakers started importing hickory from America as the “ wood of choice “ in the making of shafts. In 1848 the rubber Gutta Percha golf ball rendered the use of Longnooses and Featherie golf balls obsolete and a new bulbous shaped wood head was designed  to counter the increased stress of contact with the new Gutty ball that went farther.

Famous Golf Professionals of the late 1800’s such as Old Tom Morris , Willie Park Sr. and Harry Vardon established workshops making clubs and balls that were exported around the world. Scotland became associated with clubmaking the same as Switzerland with watchmaking!

Alas their lucrative business of handcrafted clubmaking began to disappear with the advent of Drop Forging, a process in which iron heads with grooved scoring lines on the clubface that created more backspin and control of shotmaking could be mass produced in factories  and followed in 1900 with the introduction of persimmon  from America  that was being used to mass produce wooden clubheads in factories.

 

The Modern Club

The Introduction of steel shafts in 1925 was with out a doubt the biggest influence in golf club design! Now sets of golf clubs could be produced reliably with uniform matched Feel throughout.

To prevent golfers from using too many clubs and promote individual skill, the 14 club rule was introduced in 1939 and the modern convention of numbering woods and irons instead of naming them became the norm.

Since World War II , golf club design has been influenced by extensive research into synthetic and composite materials such as:
Investment cast iron clubheads in 1963 that produced “ more forgiveness in offcenter hits and are much cheaper to manufacture than the old forged iron. The Graphite shaft in 1973, so much lighter than steel and easier to swing faster for all golfers. The Metal wood in the 80’s fast replaced the persimmon wood because it is more durable, powerful and forgiving.

All leading to latest “ New Millennium “ clubs that are huge (460 CC) oversized titanium/ composite drivers with graphite/boron shafts and rubber/cord grips sporting exotic animal headcovers to keep them from getting scratched up after you spent your last two paychecks to buy one!

 

 

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