Golf is a sport in which a player, using many types of clubs including woods, irons, and putters, hits a ball into each hole on a golf course in the lowest possible number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not use a standardized playing area; rather, the game is played on golf “courses”, each one of which has a unique design and typically consists of either 9 or 18 holes. Golf is defines in the Rules of Golf as “playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the rules”
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 Modern game of golf spread from Scotland to England and has now become a worldwide game, with golf courses in the majority of affluent countries.