The first game of golf for which records survive was played at Bruntsfield Links,
in Edinburgh, Scotland, in A.D. 1456, recorded in the archives of the Edinburgh
Burgess Golfing Society, now The Royal Burgess Golfing Society. The word golf was first mentioned
in writing in 1457 on a Scottish statute on forbidden games as gouf, possibly
derived from the Scots word goulf (variously spelled) meaning 'to strike or cuff'.
This word may, in turn, be derived the Dutch word kolf, meaning 'bat,' or 'club,'
and the Dutch sport of the same name. But there is an even earlier reference to the
game of golf and it is believed to have happened in 1452 when King James
II banned the game because it kept his subjects from their archery practice
