G O L F....

[Klay23]

Heard that the name of golf was started like this: is it true?

 

G. Guys

O. Only

L. Ladies

F. Forbidden.....

 

I do thinks it kind of funny, no disrespect meant to any ladies here. I can understand a guy wanting guy time, as I love being out there without the wife. And I love my wife, she's aapwesome, but it's kinda like guy time I guess.... Just curious if this was actually true?

[TexasAg]

No.

[Klay23]

[quote name='TexasAg' timestamp='1342803470' post='5316250']
No.
[/quote]

Not true? No one else ever heard this?

[WildDog06]

[url="http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp"]http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp[/url]

[TexasAg]

[url="http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp"]http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp[/url]

[quote][color="#2D8F26"][size=1][b]Origins:[/b][/size][/color][color=#000000] The specious "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" origin of the word "golf" has gained credence in recent years through its being made part of innumerable Internet-circulated "Did you lists. Though the length of those lists varies from one manifestation to the next (some have six entries; others have close to fifty), the truth value of this entry never changes: it's false. [/color]

[color=#000000]We've said it before, but it bears saying again: only a few common words truly have acronymic pedigrees, and those harken from the and later. Though terms that have been part of the English language for centuries may well have fascinating backstories (and many do), they won't have begun their linguistic lives as acronyms, words formed by combining the initial letter(s) of a compound term or phrase. [/color]

[color=#000000]Golf is an old word, one that first appeared in our written language in 1425. One theory says the word [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] derives from the Dutch word [/color][i]kolf[/i][color=#000000], a generic term for a stick, club, or mallet used in a number of games similar to tennis, croquet, and hockey. However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, claiming the Dutch word [/color][i]kolf[/i][color=#000000] as the origin of [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] is problematic for a variety of reasons:[/color][list]
[*]None of the Dutch games has been convincingly identified with golf.
[/list]
[list]
[*]It is not certain that the word [i]kolf[/i] was ever used to denote the name of a game rather than the name of an implement.
[/list]
[list]
[*]Scottish lacks any forms of the word [i]golf[/i] beginning with a 'c' or a 'k.'
[/list]
[list]
[*]The Scottish game of golf is mentioned much earlier than any of the supposedly similar Dutch sports.
[/list]
[color=#000000]Another theory ascribes [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] to the Scottish [/color][i]goulf[/i][color=#000000] (also [/color][i]gowf[/i][color=#000000]), a verb meaning "to strike or cuff." This theory would at least place the origin of the word with the people who invented the game. As for "striking or cuffing," an integral part of the game is, after all, hitting the ball. [/color]

[color=#000000](In those older Scottish writings, [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] is variously spelled [/color][i]gouff[/i][color=#000000], [/color][i]goiff[/i][color=#000000], [/color][i]goffe[/i][color=#000000], [/color][i]goff[/i][color=#000000], [/color][i]gowff[/i][color=#000000], and [/color][i]golph[/i][color=#000000]. Our modern determination to have only one correct spelling for each word would have struck our ancestors as hilariously pedantic and priggish. The norm for them was any number of spellings for common terms, provided those written representations validly reflected the pronunciation of [/color]
[color=#000000]the word. When viewed from that angle, those odd-looking spellings begin to appear far less mysterious.) [/color]

[color=#000000]Games similar to golf have been around since Roman times, but golf as we now know it dates approximately to 1552, when the famed course was constructed. Earlier Scottish versions were also referred to as "golf" even though the game so designated was very much different than its later version. [/color]

[color=#000000](Bridge has a similar history. The card game we now know by that name dates only to the 1920s, yet games called "bridge" in which trump suits were named and outcomes determined by the number of tricks taken were around by 1860. As bridge historian Jack Olsen explains it, "Whist led to bridge-whist, which led to auction bridge, which led to contract bridge, which led to murder, divorce, suicide, mayhem, and other social evils." We can't help but find that a charmingly succinct yet apt history of the development of the game, even if it leaves off mention of "trump," the fifteenth century game that preceded whist.) [/color]

[color=#000000]As for [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] and this wholly unfounded "gentlemen only; ladies forbidden" word origin, its appeal is attributable to a societal shift in the nature of who now plays the game. Women these days take as many trips around the links as do their male counterparts, and golf has grown to be a pastime enjoyed by both sexes. It's thus somewhat pleasing to imagine that this now egalitarian game was at its inception intended strictly for one gender; that indeed its very name declared it off limits to the fair sex (presumably keeping them from becoming "the fairway sex" as well). Women enjoy this notion because they take satisfaction from the image of having stormed and overcome a defended male bastion, whereas men like the specious word origin because it "confirms" that it's really their game, even if the ladies now run rampant through it. [/color]

[color=#000000]Were it up to us to promote one false word origin over another, we'd argue for [/color][i]golf[/i][color=#000000] being [/color][i]flog[/i][color=#000000] backwards. Less sexist, and far more accurate a representation, we think. [/color]

[color=#000000]Barbara "veteran of the golf war" Mikkelson [/color]


[color="#2D8F26"][size=1][b]Last updated:[/b][/size][/color][color=#000000] 10 October 2006 [/color][/quote]

[WildDog06]

[quote name='TexasAg' timestamp='1342803749' post='5316288']
[url="http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp"]http://www.snopes.co...ronyms/golf.asp[/url]

[/quote]

Jinx!

[JWells]

It's funny I took a sociology class in College that actually brought this up, but did not say it was false

[butch33611]

Does ford stand for :

F,ound
O,n
R,oad
D,ead

Probably not, I think Like the golf thing they are made up by someone a long time ago and you hear it so often it starts to take on its own reality. Although the guy who made up the one about golf knew what he was talking about.

[FLOGMR]

No wonder my friend's Fiat is so unreliable
F -Fix
I -It
A -Again
T -Tony

Who knew there was so much hidden information out there??

[SurfinTurf]

R
O
R
S

Hell if I know

[Klay23]

[quote name='butch33611' timestamp='1342814452' post='5317602']
Does ford stand for :

F,ound
O,n
R,oad
D,ead

Probably not, I think Like the golf thing they are made up by someone a long time ago and you hear it so often it starts to take on its own reality. Although the guy who made up the one about golf knew what he was talking about.
[/quote]

Hahahahahahaha, damn fords

[southpaw72]

[quote name='Klay23' timestamp='1342834073' post='5319218']
[quote name='butch33611' timestamp='1342814452' post='5317602']
Does ford stand for :

F,ound
O,n
R,oad
D,ead

Probably not, I think Like the golf thing they are made up by someone a long time ago and you hear it so often it starts to take on its own reality. Although the guy who made up the one about golf knew what he was talking about.
[/quote]

Hahahahahahaha, damn fords
[/quote]I though it was
F irst
O n
R ace
D ay.

[Love2Slice]

I drive a Bronco
Ford stands for fix or repair daily.

[Anchor44]

I like Guys Only Ladies Forbidden much better.

[mac94]

[quote name='JWells' timestamp='1342805867' post='5316510']
It's funny I took a sociology class in College that actually brought this up, but did not say it was false
[/quote]

College sociology classes are full of garbage and falsehoods.

[Klay23]

I took sociology and psychology as well, BUT abnormal psychology was very interesting. Based on lots of diseases, illnesses of the mind, etc... Kinda crazy, lots of crazy things going on in people's heads....

[hebron1427]

[quote name='southpaw72' timestamp='1342834337' post='5319236']
[quote name='Klay23' timestamp='1342834073' post='5319218']
[quote name='butch33611' timestamp='1342814452' post='5317602']
Does ford stand for :

F,ound
O,n
R,oad
D,ead

Probably not, I think Like the golf thing they are made up by someone a long time ago and you hear it so often it starts to take on its own reality. Although the guy who made up the one about golf knew what he was talking about.
[/quote]

Hahahahahahaha, damn fords
[/quote]I though it was
F irst
O n
R ace
D ay.
[/quote]

both wrong

F ix
O r
R epair
D aily

[Jsc 2136]

Klay23

 

its john from the Greenville area. Actually I am in Salem sc