Our 250th Birthday and 375 Years of Golf
From
The Editor
Bill Cromwell, Editor-in-Chief TEE TIMES GOLF GUIDE™ Magazine
Our 250th Birthday and 375 Years of Golf
This month, we celebrate our nation’ s 250th birthday, 1776 to 2026. The Declaration of Independence congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4, 1776, the Declaration was adopted. It wasn’ t until August 2nd that delegates began signing the final copy, and John Hancock, the President of the Congress, signed with his bold signature. Nevertheless, we celebrate our Independence on July 4th.
But if you paid attention in kindergarten and grammar school, you already know all that. However, did you know that golf has been around in America since before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776? Yep, the earliest known depiction of a golf-like game was recorded in the good ole’ USA in 1650, when Dutch settlers played a game called“ Kolf” near present-day Albany, NY. Dutch settlers played Kolf with golf-like clubs and a leather ball, hitting it to reach a target several hundred yards away. The player who reached the target with the fewest shots was declared the winner.
However, it was the Scots who played the game known as“ golf.” It had one distinction that separated the sport from Kolf, which the Dutch settlers played— the hole, and there were 18 of them. The game of golf traces its origins back to 15th-century Scotland. The Dutch game of Kolf dates to the 13th century.
Golf continued to become popular in America throughout the 1700 and 1800s among the affluent. Apparently, a shipment of golf equipment to Charleston, SC, in 1739, aided in the establishment of the private South Carolina Golf Club in 1787. An advertisement for golf clubs and balls appeared in the Royal Gazette of New York City in 1779. The first recorded public golf course in America was established in 1884 at Oakhurst Links in West Virginia.
In 1894, the United States Golf Association was formed to serve as an ambassador for the game in the United States, which by 1910 was host to 267 golf clubs. Soon after, major U. S. tournaments such as the U. S. Open( 1895) and the PGA Championship( 1916) were established, cementing the passion for golf in America.
Which brings us to the 46th U. S. Senior Open Championship, contested at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, OH, from July 2nd through 5th. Scioto Country Club is an old-school Donald J. Ross course founded in 1916, playing 6,975 yards from the Black tees( tips), Par 71, Rating 74.2, and Slope 142. Scioto hosted the 1926 National Open, which Bobby Jones won. The tournament was later named the U. S. Open. Throughout its 110-year history, it has hosted the U. S. Senior Open Championship in 1986, 2016, and now in 2026. In 2016, Gene Sauers won after sinking his par putt on the last hole, beating“ The Mechanic,” Miguel Angel Jimenez, by one shot. Jimenez will once again join the 2026 field. He finished-9 for 3rd place at the 2025 U. S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor( East Course) in Colorado. I’ ll be watching the entertaining“ Mechanic” play in the 2026 U. S. Senior Open Championship.
Like our nation, which celebrates its 250th birthday, American golf also has a fascinating history. What a more opportune month to celebrate the sport of golf by playing often, while simultaneously expressing profound reverence for the fact that we are no longer wielding the clubs used by the Dutch in 1650!
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