HOW GOLF GOT ITS NAME--MAYBE

I heard the most delightful story. It was a story about how Golf got its name. Apparently the letters G.O.L.F. were an acronym for the words that appeared on a sign, possibly even at St. Andrew’s. The sign read Gentlemen Only, Ladies forbidden. The story conjured up all sorts of images, men sipping whiskey in wood-paneled libraries, fragrant fumes from cigars and pipes bluing the air while women at home adjusted corsets and petticoats, waiting breathless for the men to return and escort them to debutante balls.

But alas, a little bit of Internet research has taken my delightful story from me. It was just an old husbands tale, according to the British Museum of Golf.

Golf, according to them, was originally a 16th century Dutch game called Kolf because of the hook shaped stick, which was more like a narrow plank with a copper hook on the end. The ball was made from rubber (a little larger than the wooden polo ball), from some of the first rubber plantations in Indonesia. When William III of the house of Orange, was king in England it went with him, to Scotland and England, and became golf in the English language

If this version is to be believed, then we must accept that like most modern words, the word "golf" derives from older languages and dialects. In this case, the languages in question are medieval Dutch and old Scots. The medieval Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve" meant "club." It is believed that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into "golve," "gowl" or "gouf."

It is a bit of a problem, seeking the truth. People who care about the truth ask us to abandon these untrue versions and tell the truth to those who gave us the wrong story in the first place, so that all may be made accurate as time goes on. But I really do hate to give up that delightful story. The act of writing things down has made us so literal, reduced our choices, stifled our imagination. Think of the old tales. Tale, for example, How Coyote Got His Power. According to that tale, Coyote wanted to be called Grizzly Bear but was persuaded to keep his name through a kind of bargaining process that gave him the power to change himself in order to deceive others. If I did a little research, I would be able to find the true origin of the word Coyote. I could tell you that story, and then I would lose the historical thread of native storytelling that attributed to the coyote the sneaky personality we all believe him to have.

In a way, each of these stories about how golf got its name are historical representations. One is factual according to linguistic and historical research. The other is metaphor, depicting a true and factual history of gender segregation. I like both of them. I don’t think I will choose one over the other.