The following is a partial timeline of the history of golf.
1851–1860
1851
The Prestwick Golf Club is founded.
1856
Pau Golf Club is founded, the first in continental Europe.
A rule change is enacted that, in match play, the ball must be played as it lies or the hole be conceded. It is the last recorded toughening of the rules structure.
1857
The Golfer's Manual, by "A Keen Hand" (H. B. Farnie), is published. It is the first book on golf instruction.
The Prestwick Club institutes the first Championship Meeting, a foursomes competition at St Andrews attended by eleven golf clubs. George Glennie and J.C. Stewart win for Blackheath.
1858
The Royal Curragh Golf Club is founded at Kildare, the oldest golf club in Ireland.
The format of the Championship Meeting is changed to individual match play and is won by Robert Chambers of Bruntsfield.
Allan Robertson becomes the first golfer to break 80 at the Old Course, recording a 79.
The King James VI Golf Club is founded in Perth, Scotland.
1859
The first Amateur Championship is won by George Condie of Perth.
Death of Allan Robertson, the first great professional golfer.
1860–1870
1860
The Prestwick Club institutes a Professional Championship played at Prestwick; the first Championship Belt is won by Willie Park, Snr.
1861
The Professionals Championship is opened to amateurs, and The Open Championship is born. The first competition is won by Old Tom Morris.
1864
The North Devon Golf Club is founded at Westward Ho!
1865
The London Scottish Golf Club is founded on Wimbledon Common.
1867
The Ladies' Golf Club at St. Andrews is founded, the first golf club for women.
1868
Young Tom Morris, age 17, wins the first of four successive Open Championships. His streak would include an 11-stroke victory in 1869 and a 12-stroke victory in 1870 (in a 36-hole format). His 149 in the 1870 Open over 36 holes is a stroke average that would not be equalled until the invention of the rubber-cored ball.
1869
The Liverpool Golf Club is founded at Hoylake, later Royal Liverpool.
1870–1880
1870
Young Tom Morris wins his third consecutive Open Championship, thus winning permanent possession of the Belt.
The Royal Adelaide Golf Club is founded, the first golf club in Australia.
1871
The Forfar Golf Club is formed, Tom Morris Snr lays out the course.
The Otago Golf Club is formed, the first club in New Zealand.
1872
The Open Championship is reinstituted when Prestwick, St. Andrews and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers offer a new trophy, with the Open Championship to be hosted in rotation by the three clubs.
Young Tom Morris wins his fourth consecutive Open Championship.
1873
The Christchurch Golf Club is formed, the second club in New Zealand.
The Royal Montreal Golf Club is formed, the oldest surviving golf club in Canada and North America.
The Open Championship is held for the first time at the Old Course.
1874
The Royal Quebec Golf Club is formed in Quebec City, and remains the second oldest surviving golf club in Canada and North America.
1875
The Oxford and Cambridge University Golf Clubs are founded.
Young Tom Morris dies at age 24. He did not emotionally recover from the death of both his wife and their daughter in childbirth earlier that year.
1876
The Toronto Golf Club is established, the third oldest golf club in Canada and North America.
Originally located on the Fernhill property in Toronto, the Club moved to its current location on the banks of the Etobicoke River in 1911.
1877
Jamie Anderson wins the first of three consecutive Open Championships.
1878
The first University Match is played on the London Scottish Golf Club course at Wimbledon, won by Oxford.
1880–1890
1881
Royal Belfast is founded.
The use of moulds is instituted to dimple the gutta-percha ball. Golfers had long noticed that the guttie worked in the air much better after it had been hit several times and scuffed up.
1882
Great Yarmouth Golf Club is founded by Dr. Thomas Browne R.N, who moved to the area to work at the Royal Naval Hospital
1883
Bob Ferguson of Musselburgh, losing The Open in extra holes, comes one victory shy of equalling Young Tom Morris' record of four consecutive titles. Ferguson ends up later in life penniless, working out of the Musselburgh caddy-shack.
1884
The Edgewood Club of Tivoli is founded in Tivoli, New York with two golf holes. The course was incrementally expanded to nine holes by 1916. This club is the oldest existing U.S. golf club with continuous golf in the same location.Club Property Development Notes
1885
The Amateur Championship is first played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake.
The London Metal Exchange Golf Association (LMEGA) is formed.
The Royal Cape Golf Club is founded at Wynberg, South Africa, the first club in Africa.
1886
John Hamilton Gillespie lays out a two-hole golf course in Sarasota, Florida.
A.J. Balfour is appointed Chief Secretary (Cabinet Minister) for Ireland; his rise to political and social prominence has an incalculable effect on the popularity of golf, as he is an indefatigable player and catalyzes great interest in the game through his writing and public speaking. Alexander H. Findlay, later to become the Father of American Golf, was the first in the world to score a 72 in competition for 18 holes at the Mercantile Golf Club in Montrose, Scotland.
1887
The Art of Golf by Sir Walter Simpson is published.
The Quogue Field Club was founded in Quogue, New York. The original course had 18 holes, but after the Hurricane of 1938 the club lost 3 holes to the bay and had to reduce the course to 9 holes from that point forward.
1887
The Foxburg Country Club is founded in Foxburg, Pennsylvania.
1887
Essex County Country Club in West Orange, NJ was incorporated in May 1887, a Constitution was adopted in January 1888 which established the Club
1888
Kebo Valley Golf Club opens in Maine
The Town & Country Club is founded in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Saint Andrew's Golf Club, consisting of a three-hole course, is founded in Yonkers, New York.
The Karachi Golf Club is founded (Karachi, Sindh, India)
The Royal Malta Golf Club is founded (became Royal in 1903)
1890–1900
1890
John Ball, an English amateur, becomes the first non-Scotsman and first amateur to win The Open Championship.
The concept of playing a match under handicap against the number of shots a hypothetical golfer playing perfect golf at every hole was conceived by Hugh Rotherham, a member at Coventry Golf Club. Rotherham called this a "Ground Score." This idea was suggested to Dr. Thomas Browne, honorary secretary of the Great Yarmouth Club, and it was introduced on a match play basis at the club. During one such competition, one golfer was playing incredibly well and was hailed a Bogey Man to Dr Browne. The phrase 'a bogey' was invented and the ground score became known as a 'bogey. henceforth.' At the time, "Hush, here comes the Bogey man" was a popular music hall song of the day. With the invention of the rubber-cored ball, golfers are able to reach the greens in fewer strokes, and so bogey has come to represent one over the par score for the hole.
Berkhamsted Golf Club (Founded 1890)
1891
The Golfing Union of Ireland is founded on 12 October 1891 and is the oldest Golfing Union in the world.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is founded on Long Island.
The Royal Golf Club of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria is founded; it is the oldest Club in Spain.
The Cannes Golf Club is founded in Cannes by Grand Duke Michael of Russia. The first golf club in the French Rivera. It is here that Michael taught Prince Albert to play golf.
1892
The Oakhurst Golf Club is founded at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It hosted the Oakhurst Challenge, the oldest known golf tournament in the U.S. The Oakhurst Challenge Medal is recognized as the oldest known prize for golf in the U.S. The first hole at The Homestead survives from this course and is the oldest surviving golf hole in America.
Glen Arven Country Club golf course established in Thomasville, Georgia USA; the oldest course still in use in Georgia.
Gate money is charged for the first time, at a match between Douglas Rollard and Jack White at Cambridge. The practice of paying for matches through private betting, rather than gate receipts and sponsorships, survives well into the 20th Century as a "Calcutta," but increasingly gate receipts are the source of legitimate prize purses.
The Amateur Golf Championship of India and the East is instituted, the first international championship event.
1893
The Ladies' Golf Union of Great Britain and Ireland is founded and the first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship won by Lady Margaret Scott at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.
The Irish Ladies' Golf Union is founded and is the oldest Ladies Golf Union in the world.
The Chicago Golf Club opens the United States' first 18-hole golf course on the site of the present-day Downers Grove Golf Course. The Chicago Golf Club moved to its current location in 1895.
Victoria Golf Club is formed and remains the oldest course west of the Mississippi on its original site.
1894
The Open is played on an English course for the first time and is won for the first time by an Englishman, J.H. Taylor. Taylor, along with Harry Vardon and James Braid (together known as the Great Triumvirate) would dominate the Open Championship for the next two decades.
The United States Golf Association is founded as the Amateur Golf Association of the United States. Charter members are the Chicago Golf Club, The Country Club, Newport Country Club, St. Andrew's Golf Club, and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.
The Richmond County Country Club was founded on Staten Island, NY. It is the only private golf course in NYC.
1894 The Otsego Golf Club, Springfield Center, New York, officially opened with 12 holes. Founded by Henry L. Wardwell and Leslie Pell-Clarke, the Otsego Golf Club has operated continuously since 1894 and is a nine-hole course today.
Tacoma Golf Club is founded, the first golf club on the US Pacific Coast.
1895
1895 - Istanbul Golf Club "IGK" formerly known as Constantinople Golf Club is founded - the first golf club in Turkey
The U.S. Amateur is instituted, with Charles B. Macdonald winning the inaugural event. The first U.S. Open is held the following day, with Horace Rawlins winning.
May 1, 1895 - Brooklawn Country Club in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is founded as a nine-hole course. The club operates in the same location today, although the location is now part of Fairfield, Connecticut. The course is now 18 holes, redesigned by A.W. Tillinghast in 1929.
July 6, 1895 - Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course opens - the first public golf course in America.
The pool cue is banned as a putter by the USGA.
The U.S. Women's Amateur is instituted. Mrs. Charles S. Brown (née Lucy N. Barnes) is the first winner.
Cherokee Golf Course in Louisville, Kentucky, was laid out in Cherokee Park and played. Play picked up considerably by 1897 and in 1900 The Committee on Cherokee Park to make the links "safe" to the public was sanctioned. A caretaker for the Cherokee Park Greens was hired for $25 per month. Cherokee Park is part of the Olmsted Park system. Mr Olmsted did not want golf in this park, but the public created, played and the course was ultimately sanctioned and is played today. Cherokee GC is one of the oldest municipal and public golf courses in America.
1896
Harry Vardon wins his first British Open.
Wee Burn Country Club is founded in Darien, Connecticut. A difficult links-style course that pays homage to the home nation of the game—Scotland. "Wee Burn" means "small river" in traditional Scottish dialect.
1897
The first NCAA Championship is held. Louis Bayard, Jr. is the winner.
Golf, America's first golfing magazine, is published for the first time.
1898
The term "birdie" is coined at Atlantic C.C. from "a bird of a hole."