Golf Holes

The actual golf hole.

Don’t you wonder how THAT came about??  I mean, there are gazillions of games that hit balls with mallets.  Hockey.  Croquet.  Polo, for Pete’s Sake!  But, I think there’s no other game that hits balls into holes in the ground!!

Most people (or most people who think about this stuff) believe that our modern golf game originated with Scottish shepherds, who were knocking stones into rabbit holes on the site of what is now the Old Course at St. Andrews.
 

 
Man, I hope those guys were mindful of the rabbits - not to bonk them on the head when they were trying to come out of their homes!!   And another thing:   I live in Evanston, where we are OVER-RUN with rabbits.  Why have I never seen a rabbit hole??

 

And what about the term, “rabbit hole”??  (Meaning a difficult situation).  This expression comes to us from Alice in Wonderland, on account of Alice GOT to Wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole.  Man, are the rabbit holes more robust in the United Kingdom, or what??

The first reference to a hole - an actual hole that was part of a created golf course - is from the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.  In 1625 some Aberdeen local talks about some military exercises “betwixt the first hole and the Queen’s (sic) hole.”

The holes were standardized by the St. Andrews course.  And the size (4.25 inches in diameter) was decided on because some people at Musselburgh had just invented, in 1829, the hole-cutter!!!  And that was the size that first hole-cutter made the holes!!   That actual first hole cutter, by the way,  is actually on display in the clubhouse at Royal Musselburgh.  Wow!! 

You know, I was teaching a class last Saturday, and I went to the bathroom there.  On the inside of the stall door, there was a sign that said, “Absolutely NOTHING other than toilet paper in these toilets!”  MAN!!  I thought, so, I CAN’T pee after all??  I mean, seriously!!  If I had had post-it notes in my purse, I would’ve asked that question on the post-it note and stuck it to the sign!!

It really bugs me when people write signs that are unclear or misleading.  Unless it’s amusing.  Like, the bathrooms at the Metra Station in the Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago.  Man, those signs are hilarious!!  On the inside of the stall doors there are signs saying, “Beware of stolen purses!”  WOW!!!  ‘Cause, what do the stolen purses do??  Come and mug us???

But, those are no match for the sign that Aaron saw this week.  He was in Colorado, playing a couple minigolf courses near Rocky Mountain National Park.  They were driving on a mountain road, where there was mountain on the right hand side of the road, and a sheer drop into the abyss on the left side of the road.  And during that scary stretch, there was a sign that said, “no left turn”.  I think he laughed and laughed at that!!

OK, enough about signs.  Back to golf holes.   The only other thing I want to cover today is:  why are there 18 holes??   And once again, the answer is St. Andrews.

From 1872, the British Open golf championship was held annually in rotation at Prestwick, St Andrews and Musselburgh.  The contest was always over 36 holes and it was, therefore, three rounds when it was held at Prestwick (which at that time had 12 holes), two rounds when at St Andrews (18 holes) and four rounds at Musselburgh (9 holes).

Then, in 1882, Prestwick expanded its course to 18 holes.   Then in 1891, when the Honourable Company built Muirfield, they created 18 holes there.  Since they sponsored the Open, the championship moved with them from Musselburgh to Muirfield. With the three foremost clubs in the world using 18 holes, the norm for a golf round was set.

St. Andrews was given control of the Rules of Golf in the UK in 1897.   But the Rules of Golf didn’t stipulate an 18-hole round until 1950.

Coming next:  More Congo River Adventure Golf!!