There goes Scottish pride. The monster of Loch Ness is on holiday, Sean Connery slowly retires from publicly fighting for Scottish independency, and Scotty, the trusted mechanic from Star Trek is no more. But there is worse news for the Scottish ego.
Professor Ling Hongling, from the Lanzhou University in China just proved convincingly that Golf is a… Chinese invention. In a historic book “Dongxuan Records”, written during the Song dynasty, the sport-as-we-know-it is clearly described. The game named “chuiwan” consisted in hitting a tiny ball towards small holes in the ground. Sounds familiar, isn’t it? 🙂
It gets better: ten different clubs were used, made from the nicest pieces of hardwood, and encrusted with a multitude of lucky-charms and jewels. The set included a shaobang (wood) and a cuanbang (driver).
Mongol traders then brought the game up north-west, where it was first picked up by the Scottish. Goodness, Chinese started playing golf around AD 900…. A thick half-a-century before any High- or Lowlander teed of. This makes St Andrews’ venerated Old Course look like a puppy! 🙂
