Golf Rules
Golf Stone and Plaques,
History of Golf,
Leith Links Edinburgh where the Rules of Golf were First Written
The beginning of golf to rules was when John Rattray wrote the 13 rules in a book and signed them. Not discovered until 1937 when a member of the Company of Gentlemen Golfers at Edinburgh, on looking through old minutes of previous club meetings found rules written at the back of a book. The book contained now to be known as the original rules of golf signed by John Rattray the club captain at that time 7th March 1744.
Leith Links
The Original Rules of Golf
Articles & Laws in Playing of Golf
​1
You must tee your Ball, within a Club’s length of the Hole.
2
Your tee must be upon the Ground.
3
You are not to change the Ball which you Strike off the tee.
4
You are not to remove, Stones, Banes or any Break Club, for the sake of playing your Ball, Except upon the fair Green and that only within a Club’s length of your Ball.
5
If your Ball comes amang Watter or any wattery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball and bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.
6
If your Balls be found anywhere touching one another, you are to lift the first Ball, till you play the last.
7
At Holling, you are to play your Ball honestly for the Hole, and not to play upon your Adversary a Ball, not lying in your way to the Hole.
8
If you should lose your Ball, by its being taken up, or any other way you are to go back to the Spot, where you struck last and drop another Ball, and allow your adversary a Stroke for the misfortune.
9
Na man at Holling his Ball, is to be allowed to
mark his way to the Hole with his Club or anything else.
10
If a Ball be stopped by any person, Horse, Dog, or anything else,
the Ball so stopped must be played where it lyes.
11
If you draw your Club, in order to Strike and proceed so far on the Stroke as to be bringing down your Club; If then, your Club shall break, in any way, it is to be Accounted a Stroke.
12
He whose Ball lies farthest from the Hole is obliged to play first.
13
Neither Trench, Ditch or Dyke, made for the preservation of the Links,
nor the Scholars Hole or the Soldiers Lines, Shall be accounted a Hazard;
But the Ball is to be taken out teed and played with any Iron Club.
The First Golf Competition to Written Rules
The first competition was played over five holes at Leith Links:
The first hole was Sawmill (Braehead) 414 yards (379 m), North Mid Hole 461 yards (422 m), East Hole 426 yards (390 m),
South Mid Hole 495 yards (453 m) and the last hole Thorntree Hole 435 yards (398 m)
Leith Links
John Rattray Surgeon Sportsman & Jacobite
John Rattray's Statue stands next to three stones with bronze plaques. The inscriptions on the plaques read;
​John Rattray (1707-1771) signed the original rules of golf drawn up in March 1744. Eleven golfers competed in this first “open’’ golf tournament played over Leith Links on 2nd April that year. Edinburgh Town Council enacted regulations dated 7th March, demanded written rules and commissioned 1 Silver Club as the prize. Rattray won and the Gentlemen Golfers 13 Rules Articles & Laws in Playing of Golf
still form the basis of today’s global game.
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
On 7th March 1744 The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers
(then called The Gentlemen Golfers) officially came into being here at Leith Links,
when the City of Edinburgh presented the golfer with a silver club for annual competition.
On the 7th March 1994, the actual 250th anniversary of the club, was celebrated by the planning of a white hawthorn tree
near the finish of the 5th (Thorntree) hole, by The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, The Right Honourable Norman Irons and the
Captain of The Honourable Company, Mr Douglas Foulis. On Friday, 18th March 1994, in celebration a 6-a-side two-ball foursome challenge match was played here by the High Constables of the Port of Leith versus The Honourable Company.
The matches were started off by the Lord Provost, the players were dressed as i the 18th century.
They played with wooden clubs of the time and with 'feathery' golf balls filled with goose feathers.
Three holes were played, the 1st (sawmill), the 2nd (North Mid Hole), and the 5th (Thorntree).
The Honourable Company won two matches to one.
The Honourable Company moved to Musselburgh Old Course in 183 and then to Muirfield in 1891.
​Leith Links
Home to The Rules of Golf
Inscription on the Home of Golf plaque; Historical home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
The game was played over a five hole course, each hole being over 400 yards long. In 1744 the first official rules were drawn up for a tournament on Leith Links and these rules, 13 in all, formed the basis for the modern game of golf.
Leith Links
In 1768, the Hon Company built a clubhouse called 'the Golf House',
​​Before the Golf House at the south-west corner of the links of Leith was built,
the Clubs players met in a tavern called Luckie Clephan's,
which they used along with the Thistle Golf Club,(founded in 1815).
This clubhouse was sold in 1833 to pay debts. (Leith Academy School was built on the site).
Willie Dunn and Allan Robertson
In 1864 Willie Dunn Professional Golfer moved back to Leith He lived and worked from Primrose Cottage Lochend
where his ball and club making business was based.
Willie Dunn Played a Challenge match against Allan Robertson to see who the best golfer was.
They played 20 rounds of golf over a 10 day period with Allan Robertson the victor.
7 and 8 Vanburgh Place Leith Links​
The now Georgian houses overlooking Leith Links, is recognized as one of the earliest homes of organized golf
This is where the John Rattray drafted the first official rules of the game of golf in 1744.
8 Vanburgh Place served as the final clubhouse for the historic Leith Thistle Golf Club into the 1900's
Golf Trivia
​​Banning Of Golf
King James II of Scotland banned the game in the Scottish Act of Parliament of 1457
The first documented reference to today's game. Golf was also banned by James III in 1471. James IV in 1491.
The Golf Hole
The size of a golf hole has remained the same size since 1893. Robert Gay made the first hole in 1829.
Lofted Clubs
The niblicks (wedge) and Mashie (7 iron) were the first iron headed golf clubs circa 1750.
Traditional sets of irons were invented by Archibald Barrie and were in use circa 1900.
Golf Bag
Golf bags were thought of by Tom Morris Jnr when playing a round of golf against an archer.
He thought the quill that carried the arrows could be adapted to carry golf clubs. However, when telling his father
Tom Morris Snr the idea he said "it never catch on".
Caddie
The first named caddie was Andrew Dickson in 1681 when in a competition with the then Duke of York later (James VII)
Golf Ball
During the reign of James VI (1566 – 1625) the business of club making had become one of some importance.
On 4 April 1603 William Mayne, Burgess of Edinburgh is appointed maker of bows, arrows, spears and clubs to the King. Golf balls were originally stuffed with feathers and golf clubs were made from wood with a brass head which was perfectly smooth.
Bunkers.
Definition of Bunker in Golf "small, deep sand pit in links land" First mentioned in 1812, but thought to have been on courses when quarrying at Bruntsfield links was a plight of the golfers.
First Putter
The Putting Cleek was made circa 1785 by Simon Cossar a golf club maker in Leith.
The putter was made with an iron head attached to a wooden shaft.
The Claret Jug
First played for at St Andrews Old Course in 1872.
The winner was Tom Kidd a Caddie from
St Andrews Old Course.