Chapter 2
Why Golf?

Learning Objective: To understand the history of golf in order to be prepared to work with buyers who are interested in golf course properties.  To learn when and why developers began to incorporate golf into the planning of communities.

Golf is a strange game; it enchants and aggravates, it flatters and disappoints, it rears up the player to believe in his efficiency and then lets him down with a clash. It is a kind of kaleidoscope interrupted at intervals by nightmares. It no sooner elevates it’s devote than it dispirits him.  That is the secret of its seductiveness, and at the back of it all is an illimitable vista of hope. - Harry Vardon, the only six-time winner of the British Open and considered the all-time best English golfer ever.