Golf is a great game that has been played for many years by many people in all kinds of crazy settings, so, here we’ve accumulated some pretty cool facts you may not know about this seriously impressive sport.

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  Golf as we know it today was invented in Scotland around 500 years ago.

• Despite the fact that golf was invented by the Scots it was banned in the country 3 times in between 1457 and 1491.  This is because the Scottish government believed that it interfered with their military training, which was crucially important for their ongoing war with the English.

• Golf is only one of two sports to ever have been played on the surface of the moon.  On the 6th of February 1971, Alan Shepard a member of Apollo 14 swung one-handed and hit a ball with a 6 iron in space!  The only other sport to have been played on the surface of the moon is Javelin.

• Until the middle of the 19th century golf balls were generally made of boiled feathers that were then stuffed into a leather pouch and sewn up into a ball shape.  Before this, during the 16th century they tended to be made of wood.

• In the modern-day, despite what you may think, not all golf balls are made with the same number of dimples.  Generally, a golf ball can have anywhere between 330 and 500 dimples on its surface depending on which company produced it.  The best balls, with the most ideal designs, tend to have between 380 and 432 dimples. Very specific, but that’s what golf is all about, right?

• Japanese golfers actually carry hole-in-one insurance just on the off-chance that they actually score a hole-in-one as it is the custom for whoever has scored to throw a party, including gifts for all of the guests, as a means of sharing their good golfing luck.  I’m not sure if it’s actually good luck when you have to throw an expensive party, but insurance definitely seems to be a good idea.

• In America a whopping $600 million is spent on golf balls each year.

• When playing an 18 hole game travelling around the course in a cart will mean the average golfer will burn off around 1,300 calories, but if they decide to walk the four mile course they will burn off about 2,000 calories.  That is pretty much a female’s entire daily calorie intake.  Who knew a sport so relaxing could be so wonderful for you?

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  The most famous left-handed golfer of all time, Phil Mickelson is not actually left-handed at all.  He is in fact right-handed, but growing up playing with his father’s clubs and mimicking his father’s swing led him to easily and comfortably adopt a left-handed swing and become a four-time major champion.

• President Woodrow Wilson is not the only president who seemed to have a passion for the Scottish sport, though he is one of the few people throughout history to be known to have played the sport as dedicated.  Even going out in the snow to play the game, using black balls instead of white.

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  Samuel L. Jackson is just about the coolest man who ever lived, and boy, does he love golf.  He even signs a contract for every movie he agrees to work on which allows him to play golf twice a week as part of the agreement.  Not bad.

Now that you know all there is to know about the wonderful game of golf; take a swing at stayevents.co.uk to discover some wonderful places to play it.

Abi is an aspiring writer with a keen interest in sports and technology. She is currently blogging about golf for www.stayevents.co.uk.

Photo Credits: Wikipedia

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