and Johannesburg, South Africa.
#More to explore
Metal
Golf
Golf is an outdoor sport played with
clubs and a small ball. It is played on a
large, grassy area called a course. Golfers
hit the ball into a series of holes on the
course. The goal is to finish playing the
course with as few hits, or strokes, as
possible.
Playing Area and Equipment
A standard golf course has 18 holes. The
playing area for each hole varies in
length from about 100 to 600 yards (90
to 550 meters). Play begins at a spot
called the teeing area. It is a flat, rectangular
patch of short grass. In front of the
During the 1890s some people in Alaska
looked for bits of gold in panfuls of river
gravel. This was called panning for gold.
124 Golf BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
teeing area is a mowed strip called the
fairway. The fairway is the longest section
of each hole. The fairway extends to
an area of closely mowed grass called the
green. Each green has a hole, called the
cup, that measures about 4 inches (10
centimeters) across.
Many golf holes have features that make
play more difficult. These include
obstacles called hazards. One type of
hazard is a sand-filled pit called a bunker,
or sand trap. Holes may also have
water hazards, such as streams or ponds.
An area called the rough runs along both
sides of the fairway. The rough is made
up of long grass, bushes, and trees.
Golfers use a variety of clubs to hit the
ball. Each club has a small hitting area at
the end of a shaft. Golfers may choose a
different club for each swing at the ball.
They choose a club based on how far
they want to hit the ball.
A golf ball is small and hard. It is made
mostly of rubber. It is usually white.
Playing the Game
Golfers start playing in the teeing area.
From there, they hit the ball toward the
hole. They try to keep the ball on the
fairway and the green. They try to avoid
hitting the ball into bunkers, water hazards,
or the rough. When the ball
reaches the green, a golfer uses a club
called a putter for the final hits toward
the cup. Every time the ball is hit, one
stroke is counted.
U.S. golfer Michelle Wie putts
during a tournament in 2005.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Golf 125
The most common type of golf competition
is called stroke (or medal) play. In
stroke play, the player with the lowest
total number of strokes is the winner.
Individual golfers have another way of
judging how well they are doing. They
measure their play against a standard
score known as par. Par is the number of
strokes an expert player would need to
complete a hole.
History
Historians believe that early forms of
golf were played in the Netherlands first
and then in Scotland. The modern game
developed in Scotland. The first golf
courses were fields of grass that sheep
had clipped short while grazing. The
world’s oldest golf organization was
formed in Scotland in 1744. It created
the earliest-known rules of the game.
Golf balls were originally made of wood.
Wood was replaced in the 1600s by
boiled feathers stuffed in a leather cover.
In the 1800s people started making balls
with gutta-percha, a leathery material
that comes from certain trees. Balls
made of hard rubber appeared in the
1900s.
Golf started to gain some world attention
in the second half of the 1800s. At
that time British golfers were generally
considered to be the best in the world.
John Henry Taylor, Harry Vardon, and
James Braid were famous British golfers
of the period. In the 1920s golfers from
the United States began to excel. Bobby
Jones,Walter Hagen, and Gene Sarazen
were outstanding U.S. golfers from that
time. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and
TigerWoods were later stars. Great
women golfers included Patty Berg,
MickeyWright, and Annika Sorenstam.
#More to explore
Woods, Tiger
Goodall, Jane
The British scientist Jane Goodall is
known for her research on chimpanzees.
She studied the animals for many years
in the East African country of Tanzania.
Her discoveries changed the way chimpanzees
are studied and understood.
Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934,
in London, England. At a young age she
became interested in animals. By age 11
she dreamed of living among Africa’s
wildlife.
To earn money to travel to Africa,
Goodall left school at age 18 and began
working. At age 23 she arrived by boat
in Kenya. She soon became an assistant
to Louis Leakey, a famous scientist.
A water hazard surrounds a green at the
Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta,
Georgia, in the United States.
126 Goodall, Jane BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
In 1960 Goodall set up camp on the
shores of Tanzania’s Lake Tanganyika.
She studied chimpanzees close-up in
their natural setting. It took months for
Goodall to gain the chimps’ trust, but
her patience paid off.
Through her observations, Goodall
changed many ideas about chimpanzees.
She saw a chimpanzee make a tool,
which it used to get food. Scientists had
believed only humans were toolmakers.
She also found that chimpanzees eat
both meat and plants. Finally, Goodall
observed that each chimpanzee had a
distinct personality and emotions.
Goodall stayed in Tanzania until 1975.
She wrote several books about her work.
