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What is the origin of the word "golf?"

Nic Maennling, Carleton Place CANADA

• My father and I had a furious debate on this subject at Christmas, with him proposing the 'Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden' argument. I pointed out that since golf is an originally Dutch game first popularised in Gaelic-speaking Scotland, then either the Ancient Dutch word gouf, or Scots word gowff, which both mean stick, is more likely than an acronym in a language in which the sport is not native. I further pointed out that golf had been known as golf for more than two hundred years in Scotland before it was first recorded as being played in England, and that the way in which ladies were discouraged from playing the sport is relatively recent, only becoming common in Victorian times.

  Dara O'Reilly, London

• The "gentleman" definition quoted above may sum the sport up in some parts of the world, but it is not an original meaning. The word was in use from at least the 16th Century; it is used, for example, in King James IV's of Scotland official accounts for 1502 ('Item: the xxi Sept - to the bowar of Sanct Johnestoun, for golf clubs, xiiii s'). Records exist of games with similar characteristics going by phonetically similar names in the late medieval and early modern periods, including 'gowf' in Scotland, 'goff' in England, 'kolven' in the Netherlands, and 'chole' in France.

  Martin, Winchester UK