Some authorities trace golf back to a Roman game called paganica. The Romans, who occupied most of the island of Great Britain from the A.D. 40's to the early 400's, played paganica in the streets with a bent stick and a leather ball stuffed with feathers. Other historians trace golf to a Dutch game called het kolven, a French and Belgian game called chole, a French game called jeu de mail, and an English game called cambuca. But most believe golf probably developed into the game as we know it in Scotland.
 

French golfer

Mary ,Queen of Scotland

Golfers played with a leather-covered ball stuffed with feathers, called the feathery, until the gutty was introduced in 1848. The gutty was a solid ball made of a rubbery substance called gutta-percha. The gutty was later replaced by the rubber-cored ball invented in 1898 by U.S. golfer Coburn Haskell.

The popularity of golf spread from Scotland and England to parts of the British Commonwealth. The first golf club established outside Britain was the Royal Calcutta in India in 1829. The first North American golf club was the Royal Montreal, organized in 1873.

Golf may have been played in the United States as early as the 1700's. Historians disagree over which existing U.S. club was founded first. Among the oldest are the Dorset Field Club in Dorset, Vt.; the Foxburg Country Club in Foxburg, Pa.; and the St. Andrews Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. All claim founding dates in the 1880's.