Golf is believed to have started 600 years ago but we can, with some degree of confidence, claim that the game as we know it today had it's formal beginning when the first set of rules were drawn up in 1744 by "The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith" (now known as "The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers"), These rules were drawn up for play in specific competitions and for play at Muirfield. The document was entitled;

"The Articles and Laws in Playing at Golf."

There were only thirteen rules and many of them, slightly modified, are still applicable today and can be easily traced from some of the existing 34 Rules of Golf.

It was not until 1899 (five years after the USGA was organized) that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews was designated as the custodians of the Rules of Golf by the many golf clubs in the UK. The first set of rules published by the R&A after becoming custodians was in the September of 1899.

The first reference to Equipment Rules was in 1909:

RULES OF GOLF

AS APPROVED BY THE ROYAL AND ANCIENT GOLF CLUB

OF ST. ANDREWS,

September 1908,to come into force 1 January 1909

In an addendum after Local rules and before Etiquette

"The Rules of Golf Committee intimates that it will not sanction any substantial departure from the traditional and accepted form and make of golf clubs, which in its opinion, consist of a plain shaft and a head which does not contain any mechanical contrivance, such as springs."

Subsequently the equipment rules have undergone many changes and additions with three major objectives in the minds of those who have developed the rules. These are:

• Sameness; (to make sure that all competitors are using similar equipment and that no-one has an advantage over another)
• Tradition; (to prevent radical change and maintain some of the traditions of the game) and
• Challenge (to make sure that skill rather than equipment is responsible for improved performance)

In general the rules were designed to lend some order to the game. For golfers to adhere to these voluntarily, they must make sense. The strength of the governing bodies depends on the support of the governed who in turn instinctively understand the need for rules and will abide by them accordingly.