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January 28, 2012

Golfing Pointers For Beginners

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 6:17 pm

Golf is a hands-on game. You will not learn how to play well by studying a video or playing a Nintendo game. You can watch all the pro golf games on TV you like, but can you remember how Tiger Woods did it when the ball is in front of you and the club is in your hands?

People earn millions out of golf videos, golfing tutorials and golf games, but not many people have ever got anything from them. You will learn a lot more by spending an hour with the club golfing pro.

If you truly would like a video to watch at home, why not create your own whilst you are spending an hour with the golfing pro? Take a kid with you to film your lesson on a camcorder.

The first suggestion for novices is to keep your eyes on the ball. This might sound self-evident, but if you watch beginners taking a shot, you will often see that they look away too early. This can result in a sliced stroke or even a miss. If you have your eyes on the ball, you will not lose it either.

While putting, stand squarely over the ball. The ball ought to be midway between your feet and your head should be directly above the ball. This also permits you to get a decent line of sight to the hole. The stroke should be smooth, with a graceful follow through.

Keeping the ball on the fairway is a problem for most new golfers. It appears all to easy to slice the ball into the rough. This has to do with your stance. A sliced ball is one that has been hit on its side, like putting side on a snooker ball to make it spin in that direction.

If you put side on a golf ball, it will spin in that direction and veer off in that direction as well. The answer to this problem, is to always hit the ball squarely will the centre of the blade of the club, unless you want it to curve in mid flight. That is for advanced players though. Novices should concentrate on learning how to hit the ball in a straight line.

Hooking the ball is a different difficulty altogether although the affect is similar – that is that the ball goes off to the side. Hooking the ball has to do with swing and posture. It is usually the result of not driving the ball straight ahead of you, but slinging it to the opposite side of your dominant arm. That is, right-handed golfers will hook the ball to the left.

To right this, practice hitting the ball merely a couple of yards into an upright bucket or a dog’s basket. Each day you ought to move the basket back a few feet until you can confidently chip almost each ball into the basket. Then go for power and endeavour to hit the ball from the tee onto the green.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Golfing Tips for Beginners. Click a link if you are interested in the Golf Swing Secrets.

December 16, 2011

Tuning Your Bicycle

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 11:35 pm

All bikes require a service at some time whether you use it regularly or not. If you do not use it, it probably needs more attention than if you do, but if you do use your bicycle a lot some aspects will require attention as well. In this article we will discuss some bicycle tune up tips that should put you ahead of the competition.

The first thing to check is the chain. If the chain is not correct, it will not transfer all your leg power to the wheels – it will be inefficient and you will have to work harder. Not only that, but if the chain is not correct, it can wear down the teeth on the cogs and they are far dearer to replace than the chain.

So, test the tension of the chain by moving it up and down from its normal place. It ought to move about a centimeter (less than half an inch) up and down from regular. If it is over this, slacken the wheel nuts off and tap the wheel back to increase the chain tension. If the wheel will not go back far enough, you require a new chain. Chains do stretch over time.

Next, assess the bearings in the pedal mechanism. Do this with the chain off to reduce ambient noise. Turn the pedal arms and wiggle each one from side to side. Listen and feel for friction. The arms ought to not move from side to side at all, although the pedals may.

If the bearings are simply dry, shame on you, oil them, but if you have let it go too long and some bearings are damaged, replace them.

Take the wheels off and holding each one in turn by its spindle, spin them. Listen to the bearings in the hubs. Do they sound OK? Oil or replace the bearings. With the wheels in position, put the front wheel between your legs and hold it tight between your knees. Rock the handlebars from left to right and back again a few times. Is there any play? If so, tighten the locking nut, oil the bearings or replace them.

Examine your brake handles and cables. Replace anything that is cracked, broken or showing signs of rust. Check your brake pads. If they are worn out of shape, replace them and fit new ones so that they will wear more evenly.

If the pads are misshapen then they were not fitted in the correct manner so your brakes were not working well for a while which means that you were lucky that you did not need them in an emergency situation.

After the brake pads have been installed in the right manner, recheck the tension of the cables operating them. Tighten or slacken them as necessary.

If you are still growing, check the height of the saddle and raise it if necessary. If you have stopped growing upwards, check that the saddle nut is tight enough to keep the saddle in position even if you hit a pothole.

Last but not least, make sure that your lights and reflector are working.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is now concerned with London Olympic dates. Click a link to find out more 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

September 10, 2011

Outdoor Survival Methods for You

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — Jeremiah Jacobs @ 5:56 pm

You may be likely to spend lots of time taking camping and backpacking trips if you are a person who likes to be in the outdoors. This is a good thing, nevertheless, you will certainly need to create a particular set of outdoor survival tips to ensure that you can have a safe time if you are in the wild.

Firstly, you need to ensure that you always let another person know where you are going, how long you’re planning to be gone, and whatever they must do if they do not hear from you. When people fail to tell anyone where they’re going, this is often a sometimes fatal mistake. You might be struggling to get to somewhere where you can get help if you get injured. Getting help could possibly be easier if someone knows your location.

One other good tip to remember is to also have a compass and to learn the optimal way to work with one. Along those same lines, it is recommended to bring a guide with you and discover the various landmarks. Both of these things will encourage you to always have a concept of where you are, and this way, you’ll not get lost. In the event that you have to find your way back to civilization, you’ll be able to.

Next, it is always a good idea to be aware of the area where you are going. You should undoubtedly understand the potential dangers and hazards. What sort of animals will be out there? What is the weather gonna be like? Are storms a possibility? Is this distinct season a well known time for storms? You want to ensure you thoroughly plan out your backpacking or camping trips and make clever decisions.

If things get really hard, there are several things that you need to know in order to stay safe and survive. To start with, you need to avoid stagnant water. If you are trying to find drinking water, try to find water that is moving. Treating water with iodine or boiling the water is always wise if you can. Should you get in really dire straits, urine may be drank only once or twice before it really becomes toxic. Unless you are able to identify the plant and know that it is safe, you need to avoid eating plants. It will be safe to eat meat from the majority of mammals.

If you are thinking about outdoor survival skills, these are a few helpful things to know. However, once you know exactly where you are going as well as what you will be doing and plan out your hiking or camping trip totally beforehand, you unquestionably should not have to turn to these things.

Learning outdoor survival tips is a good thing to do in the event you ever discover youself to be in that type of circumstance. Outdoor survival skills are a fantastic skill to possess.

September 4, 2011

Racing Your Radio Controlled Car

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 6:11 pm

Racing is the most exciting part of owning a radio controlled car for most RC car enthusiasts. There are millions of RC car racing enthusiasts, so it is normal that a number of different types of racing have developed, but the two main variances are on-road and off-road racing.

Whichever aspect of RC car racing interests you the most, there are several things that everyone has to do to prepare for a race. The remainder of this piece will discuss some aspects of racing your radio controlled car.

We will assume that you already have the best model car that you can afford, so the first thing to do when preparing for a race is choose the tyres to match the conditions, exactly as they would in a full-size car race.

The tyres employed for on and off road racing are different and the tyres used for a dry or a wet road are not the same too, so you will need at least two sets of tyres and you will have to practice changing them quickly at pit stops.

Most serious on-road RC car racing is done with models of real cars like Lamborghinis, Porches, Ferraris and Aston Martins leading the fashion. Others like to use Formula One style cars. Off-road scrambling is normally done with trucks, heavier models that can acquire a better grip on the terrain.

So, the faster, lighter cars are built for speed and need a smoother surface to run on. The surfaces used vary from a length of regular concrete or tarmac road that has been closed off for the day to a purpose built racing circuit of concrete or tarmac. Off-road vehicles are raced or scrambled anywhere, the rougher the better.

These conditions also have an effect on the scale to a certain extent. Racing RC cars tend to be the smaller 1/10 th scale, whereas off-road trucks tend to be built to the slightly larger 1/8 th scale, because they require the weight for increased traction.

However, contemporary developments have seen the increase in popularity of monster 1/5 th scale tucks and cars with real miniature gasoline engines in them.

Standard two-wheel drive is sufficient for racing, although some racers do prefer four-wheel disk. However, four-wheel drive is more or less indispensable for all terrain racing. It is also better in wet and icy conditions, exactly like the real thing.

Fuel is an important consideration. Most speed racing cars run on nitro. It burns very fast and produces high acceleration, but you have to stop and refill frequently in a long race. Some racers prefer petrol, especially in the larger, off-road trucks.

Petrol is not so ‘violent’ as nitro and it goes further. This means fewer pit stops. It also causes less wear and tear on the engine. Petrol engines do not break down as often as nitro engines. The parts are sturdier as well.

Maintenance is a large aspect of RC car racing, but it is more vital the smaller your car is and nitro engines need the most maintenance of all. This is not a problem for most enthusiasts, in fact, they like taking their car apart and rebuilding it, but you may not. Maintenance is a factor to keep in mind whilst choosing an RC racing car.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with gas remote control cars. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars

August 10, 2011

RC Car Kits – Building Your Own Vehicle

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:00 pm

Radio controlled cars or trucks are the only cars that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. In most countries, people are not allowed to drive until they are 17 and in some countries, women of any age are not allowed to drive, but everyone can drive an RC car and race them and what is more, plenty of individuals can even construct their own.

RC cars appeal to individuals of all ages and although it was a hobby dominated by men and boys until ten years ago, there are now numerous women and girls becoming involved in RC cars and racing them too.

There are three basic combinations of RC cars to consider:

Ready-to-Run (RTR) RC Cars and Kits: RTR cars are really the entry point for those wishing to take up RC cars. RTR cars are already assembled. Kits on the other hand require assembly, although you get all the components in the kit.

These cars or trucks can be replicas of real vehicles or be fantasy cars. RTR are invariably powered by batteries, which puts several restrictions on them in the way of power, speed and distance to run. An annoying feature is that the power gradually wanes and occasionally you have to bring back your car yourself.

They are fairly cheap though and easy to maintain. A beginner will learn much from assembling a kit RC car or truck and they can be modified or improved on in many ways.

On Road or Off Road: on road RC cars are built for speed. These are the racing vehicles and can achieve remarkable speeds. They can use any of the power sources, but most of them use nitro.

Off road RC vehicles will be less fast but with lots of torque, they will be able to deal with rough ground and steep inclines. These are endurance vehicles that need their drivers to use different skills to racing drivers.

Electric, nitro or petrol: your choice of fuel will determine a lot about your car. Electric cars are normally RTR and nitro are usually racers, but petrol -powered cars are on the increase, although petrol powered cars are usually larger in scale. The massive 1:5 scale cars and trucks are invariably run with petrol powered engines – scale models of the engines that run full-sized cars.

Electric cars are quite quiet, but the other two types are noisy, which provides realism to a race. Once you have made your three choices, I hope that you have opted for self-assembly. If you have, the tools that you will need are quite basic: screwdrivers, spanners, Stanley knife, tin cutters, graphite powder, oil and soap (to get tight-fitting parts to go on).

My advice would be to begin by taking an RC car magazine for a few months before purchasing the kit in order to get acquainted with the jargon and some of the techniques. You should also join a club and go to a couple of race meetings. Other enthusiasts will be happy to resolve any queries you might have.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with remote controlled trucks. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars

August 1, 2011

History of Cricket

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:09 pm

It may come as a revelation to those who have not learned the history of cricket, but it is now thought that Cricket actually originated in Saxon or Norman times as a kid’s game played by children living in the region called the Weald of Kent in what is today Kent and Sussex in South East England . It was not adopted as an adult sport until the beginning of the 17th century.

The first documented reference to the game in the history of cricket is to be discovered in the records of a 1598 court case concerning a disagreement over a school’s ownership of a plot of land. A 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played ‘creckett’ on the site fifty years earlier.

The school was the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and Mr Derrick’s report proves beyond acceptable doubt that the game was being played in Surrey around 1550.

The first reference to it being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday instead of going to church. This was in the same year that a dictionary defined cricket as a boys’ game and this implies that adult participation was a recent development.

With all the recent press coverage of the pressure of gambling upon the outcome of cricket matches, it is astonishing that historically, gambling played a very substantial part in the development of the game in England. Cricket had definitely become a major gambling sport by the end of the 17th century.

There is a newspaper report of a “great match” played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for the lofty stakes of 50 guineas a side. 50 guineas would be the equivalent of GBP5,000 to GBP 6,000 in today?s terms.

The present day system of County teams came about as a result of well-off gamblers forming their own teams in order to fortify their bets and began to employ local experts from village cricket as the first professionals. It is believed that the first ?County? game took place in 1697 between Sussex and another county.

Cricket was introduced to North America via the British colonies in the 17th century, and in the 18th century it spread to other parts of the British dominated world. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by the British East India Company in the first half of the century.

The first colonists took it to Australia soon after 1788 followed by New Zealand and South Africa in the first years of the 19th century.

It might come as a surprise to lots of people that the very first International cricket match took place between the United States and Canada in 1844 (Canada won by 23 runs) and the very first overseas tour was by a party of leading English professionals who toured North America in 1857.

The first English tour of Australia was in 1862, with the first Australian tour of England being by a team of Australian Aborigine players in 1868.

In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the very first Test matches. The next year, the Australians toured England for the first time and were a spectacular success.

No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed. At The Oval in 1882, there was played what was to become the most famous match of all time which gave birth to The Ashes.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on lots of subjects, but is currently involved with the London 2012 Olympics mascot. Click a link if you are interested in the 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

July 16, 2011

The Surprising History of Rugby

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 7:50 am

Today, each schoolboy knows the story of William Webb Ellis, the Rugby School pupil “who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it”. The presentation trophy for the Rugby World Cup is known as the Webb Ellis trophy in his honour, and his “achievement” is commemorated by a plaque at the school

There is only one problem with this story. It simply is not a fact. It was not until four years after the death of Webb Ellis in 1876 that the story first saw the light of day and its source is thought to come from a local antiquarian and previous Rugbeian Matthew Bloxam.

He was not a contemporary of Webb Ellis and claims that the story was told to him by an anonymous source some 53 years after the incident is alleged to have taken place.

In 1823, when the event is alleged to have happened, the rules of rugby had yet to be written and any alterations, such as the legality of carrying or running with the ball, were often agreed on an ad hoc basis a short time before the start of a game.

There were thus no formal rules for football during the period William Webb Ellis was at the school (1816-25). It was not until 1845, some 200 years after football was first played at Rugby School, that three pupils published the first written rules of the game.

For many years it had been the boys, and not the masters who had laid down the rules which were frequently modified by each new generation of students.

Guy’s Hospital Football Club, formed in London in 1843, by old boys from Rugby School, has strong claims to be the oldest football club in the world. It definitely predates by 14 years the creation of Sheffield FC, believed to be the oldest club playing association football.

In 1871, after a number of problematic disputes with the Football Association, 21 clubs met in London to create an association of those clubs ‘who play the rugby-type game’.

As a result the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was formed. The first International rugby match was played on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland. The English team wore white shirts ornamented with a red rose and the Scots brown shirts with a thistle. (Scotland won the game).

The worries and conflicts regarding amateurism and professionalism had long proved a thorny topic. The representatives of Yorkshire and Lancashire are accredited with bringing in rules concerning amateurism in 1879.

These rules were finally formalized by the RFU in 1886. It is widely believed that the northern clubs were in favour of the professional game whereas these northern bodies were robust proponents of amateurism,

However, disagreement arose over the controversy regarding ‘broken time’, the topic of whether players should receive compensation for taking time off work to play.

The northern clubs had a large number of working class players who had either to miss games due to working commitments, or give up their wages in order to play rugby. By 1892, this subject of broken time payments was a problem not just for northern clubs such as Bradford and Leeds but also for clubs in the south.

It became an anxiety of the RFU: these broken time repayments would become a quick path to professionalism.

On 29 August 1895, 20 clubs from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire met at the George Hotel, Huddersfield and decided to resign from the RFU and create the Northern Rugby Football Union, which from 1922 became the Rugby Football League.

The quarrel about payment was one which at the time was also affecting soccer and cricket. Each game had to work out a compromise; rugby’s position was the most radical. Amateurism was strictly enforced, and anyone accepting payment for playing rugby league was disqualified.

However, on 26 August 1995 the International Rugby Board declared rugby union an “open” game and thereby removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game.

It did this because of a committee conclusion that to do so was the only manner to end the hypocrisy of sham amateurism and to maintain control of rugby union. The wheel had turned full circle.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on lots of topics, but is at present concerned with the London 2012 Olympics mascot. Click a link if you are interested in the 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

July 9, 2011

Olympic Games- the Premier Sports Event in the World

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:14 pm

The Olympic Games are a sporting occasion played every two years at international level. A number of competitions are arranged where thousands of athletes from around the globe take part. The history of this fantastic sporting competition dates back to the 5th Century AD.

The Olympic Movement classified the Olympic Games into the Winter Olympic Games, the Summer Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games during the 20th and 21st Century.

The Paralympic Games are arranged for after the Olympic Games and these are for disabled athletes. The Youth Olympic Games are for teenagers and were first held in 2010. The Olympic Charter defines the organization of the International Olympic Committee i.e. the governing body of the Olympic Games.

The Olympic flag carries five interlocking circles of red, blue, yellow, green and black and was introduced in 1920. The Olympic motto means ?Swifter, Higher, and Stronger?.

Some of the sports events held in the Summer Olympics are baseball, badminton, basketball, cycling, boxing, diving, soccer, sailing, rowing, hockey, water polo, wrestling, swimming, weightlifting, tennis etc.

Games played during the Winter Olympics are skiing, ice hockey, skating, ski jumping, curling, free style skiing, cross country skiing, down hill skiing,

A gold medal is presented to each first winner and silver and bronze medals are presented to the second and third winners respectively. Victory Diplomas are the certificates which are given to some top winners of each sport. The Olympic Flame is lit according to a custom associated with these games.

A new flame is lit for each Olympics in the Ancient Olympic Stadium in Olympia, Greece. This flame is taken to the host country where the games are to be held.

The flame is carried around the whole host country by individuals walking, running, scuba diving, riding, and using other types of transport. Actually, several torches are carried around the country where the games are held.

The sizeable Olympic torch is lit by the last runner carrying the torch. This substantial torch keeps burning throughout the games. The flame is put out at the end of the games during the closing ceremony. A new torch is designed for every Olympics.

Just about all the nations of the world are represented at these games. National and international media coverage provides a opportunity to unknown athletes to be well-known. The host city and country gets an opportunity to showcase their country to the world.

The host country organizes and funds the whole event. Over 13,000 athletes compete in the Summer and Winter Olympics in more than 400 activities.

Many challenges are faced when organizing this mega event. Some of the chief challenges are terrorism, bribery of officials, boycotts and doping. The host city is normally chosen seven years ahead of the Olympic Games.

The United States has had the opportunity to host four Summer and four Winter Olympics. No other nation has hosted as many Olympic games.

The next Summer Olympics are scheduled to be held in London in 2012. Women are being particularly promoted to take part in these games. Female athletes will be able to take part in all the men?s sports in the coming Olympics for the first time. Women?s boxing has also been introduced thereby ending gender discrimination.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 Venues. Click a link to find out more 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

July 7, 2011

What Of Formula One?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 11:01 am

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World is the highest class of single seater auto racing authorized by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

The “formula” in the designation refers to a set of rules with which all participants’ cars must comply. It is almost certainly the most widely watched televised spectator sport in the world after football.

Formula One can be seen live or tape delayed in almost every country and territory across the world and attracts one of the largest global TV audiences. The 2008 season attracted a global audience of 600 million people per race.

It is a massive television event; the cumulative TV audience was calculated to be 54 billion for the 2001 season, broadcast to two hundred countries.

This is a long way indeed from its early beginnings. The very first Formula One World Championship Motor race took place at Silverstone in the United Kingdom in 1950 . In those initial days, teams who no longer contend on the modern F1 circuit dominated proceedings with the very first World Championship being won by Italian Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo.

His team mate, the legendary Juan Fangio, won the title almost continuously until 1957 and, in fact, his record of five World Championship wins held until 2003 when Michael Schumacher won his sixth title.

It was during this timespan that almost certainly the greatest driver never to win the World Championship was contending – the U.K.?s Stirling Moss.

One team that did contend in those early years was Ferrari, or Scuderia Ferrari to give the team its full title, whose prancing horse logo is followed by the red shirted fans or ?tifosi? across the world. In fact, over the last couple of years the sport has been dominated by Ferrari who until recently has been one of the few teams to manufacture the complete car, engine and all.

However the U.K. team of Maclaren, using engines from Mercedes Benz, have proved extremely successful. A different very successful team during the 2010 season proved to be Red Bull racing using engines provided by Renault.

It is remarkable to note that in the cases of both Maclaren and Red Bull, they have proved much more successful than the teams fielded by their engine suppliers, Mercedes and Renault. This probably goes a long way to sustaining the argument that it is the aerodynamic properties of the car that win races.

After several years in which we have seen the number of teams has stayed quite static or even declined, 2010 saw a renaissance in the number of cars on the grid with new entries from Lotus, Virgin Racing, and Hispania Racing bringing the number of starters to 24.

The calendar of races is also in a constant state of flux with Korea joining for the 2010 season and India being added in 2011 as Formula 1 becomes more and more a world- wide spectacle as it moves away from its time-honoured European heartland.

But wherever the teams race and whatever the number of cars on the beginning grid it will continue to set the pulses racing as those 5 red lights go out!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now involved with London Olympic dates. Click a link to find out more 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

July 6, 2011

The History of Golf

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:33 pm

A lot of discussion has taken place concerning the history of golf, long traditionally believed to have began in the region surrounding the Firth of Forth in Scotland. A golfing-like game is recorded as taking place on 26 February 1297, in the Netherlands, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball.

However, contemporary research into the history of golf has discovered references to a game very comparable to modern day golfing being played in China during the period of the Southern Tang dynasty, at least 500 years before golf was first documented in Scotland.

It has been asserted that the game was first exported to Europe and later Scotland by Mongolian travellers in the later Middle Ages.

In Scotland the first recorded documentary proof for golf was in an act of the Scottish parliament in 1457 which banned the playing of ?gowf? and football lest they detract from the crucial military exercise of archery practice. In a subsequent ban of 1491 golfing was described as ‘an unprofitable sport’!. Something which Tiger Woods is probably oblivious of!

There are reports in the accounts of a Scottish lawyer, Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, that he played golf at Musselburgh Links on 2 March 1672, and this has been accepted as proving that The Old Links, Musselburgh, is the oldest golf course in the world. Mary, Queen of Scots is supposed to have played there in 1567.

The Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers set down the oldest existing rules of golfing in 1744. Their “Articles and Laws in Playing at Golf, known as the Leith Rules, after the course at which they played support the club’s claim to be the world?s first golfing club, though an almanac published about a century later is the first record of a rival claim that The Royal Burgess Golf Society had been set up in 1735.

The directions in the Leith Rules formed the basis for all subsequent codes, for instance needing that “Your Tee must be upon the ground” and “You are not to change the Ball which you strike off the Tee”

When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603 the spread of golfing to become a world wide sport commenced. He and his courtiers played golf at Blackheath, London, from which the Royal Blackheath Golf Club traces its beginning.

The spread of golf world wide was started by Scottish soldiers, expatriates and emigrants who took the sport to British colonies and elsewhere.

The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (1829) and the club at Pau (1856) in south western France are notable reminders of these trips and are the oldest golf clubs outside of the British Isles and the oldest in continental Europe respectively.

Evidence of early golfing in the United States includes an advertisement published in the Royal Gazette of New York City in 1779 for golf discotheques and balls, and the notice of the annual general meeting for a golfing club in Savannah published in the Georgia Gazette in 1796.

However, as in England, it was not until the late 19th century that golfing started to become firmly established. There are several competing claims to be the oldest club, but what is not contested is that in 1894 delegates from the Newport Country Club, Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, Yonkers, New York, The Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club met in New York City to kind what was to become the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on lots of subjects, but is at present involved with the London 2012 Olympics mascot. Click a link if you are interested in the 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

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