The history of golf is the focus of a unique exhibition at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, with the earliest known rules of the game featuring alongside many of the game's rarest artefacts.
A Swing Through Time exhibition was launched to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Open Golf Championship at St Andrews, and showcases some of the most iconic items in the history of the game. Over 200 items are on display, including letters, diaries, photographs, account books, portraits, trophies, written club records and early golf clubs and golf balls.
The exhibition features items from as far back as the 15th century, highlighting the significant changes that altered the course of the game and the influences which guided its destiny, turning it into the game we know and love today.
Amongst the many golfing gems are the earliest known written rules drawn up in 1744 by the world's oldest golf club, The Company of Gentlemen Golfers, as well as the club's first ever minute book and the silver golf club donated by Edinburgh Town Council as a prize for its competition at the world-famous Leith Links.
The National Library of Scotland's Olive Geddes, curator of A Swing Through Time, said: "It is fantastic to be able to bring together, for the first time, some of the most important items relating to the formation and development of the game in Scotland. The origins of golf are a matter of mystery and controversy and only by piecing together the evidence of early documents can we gain a true insight into the earliest ages of the sport.
"The exhibition tells the story of golf over 500 years from its roots as a frivolous pastime, frowned upon by the authorities as dangerous and a nuisance, banned by both Parliament and the Kirk, through to its growing acceptance among the nobility and its popularity among the wider population."
A Swing Through Time exhibition is open to the public until Sunday, 14 November, at the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Entry is free. For further information log onto www.nls.uk
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The SGU Team
