Like the majority modern words, the word golf derives from older languages and dialects. In this case the languages in question are old Scots and medieval Dutch. The medieval Dutch word kolve or kolf meant club. It is thought that word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into golve, gowl or gouf. The word golf had emerged by the 16th Century. The Scots were playing this game in its extremely basic form. They get a club, swing it at a ball, move ball from starting point to finishing hole in as few strokes as possible
The Scots made a remarkable improvement to all the games that came before. They dug a hole in the golf ground and made getting the ball into that hole, the object of the game. Like we said that for golf as we know it, we absolutely have the Scots to thank.