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:: PGA Tour 2009 - TPC Summerlin ::
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Day 1
Date: 17-10-2009
Time : from 22:00 until 01:00
The Portugal Masters is a European Tour men's professional golf tournament which was played for the first time on 18-21 October 2007. The prize fund was €3 million, making it the richest golf tournament in the country, and comfortably in the top half of European Tour events. It is jointly staged by The European Tour and the Portuguese Tourist Board (ITP) under an initial three year agreement. The host course is the Arnold Palmer designed Victoria Clube de Golfe in Vilamoura.
A golf-like game is recorded as taking place on 26 February 1297, in the Netherlands, in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball. The winner was whoever hit the ball the most number of times into a target several hundreds of meters away. Some scholars argue that this game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using golf clubs was also played in 17th-century Netherlands and that this predates the game in Scotland. There are also other reports of earlier accounts of a golf-like game from continental Europe.
In April 2005, new evidence re-invigorated the debate concerning the origins of golf.[3] Recent evidence unearthed by Prof. Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University suggests that a game similar to modern-day golf was played in China since Southern Tang Dynasty, 500 years before golf was first mentioned in Scotland.
Dōngxuān Records (Chinese: 東軒錄) from the Song Dynasty (960–1279) describes a game called chuíwán (捶丸) and also includes drawings of the game. It was played with 10 clubs including a cuanbang, pubang, and shaobang, which are comparabl e to a driver, two-wood, and three-wood. Clubs were inlaid with jade and gold, suggesti ng golf was for the wealthy. Chinese archive includes references to a Southern Tang official who asked his daughter to dig holes as a target. Ling suggested golf was exported to Europe and then Scotland by Mongolian travellers in the late Middle Ages.
A spokesman for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, one of the oldest Scotland golf organization, said "Stick and ball games have been around for many centuries, but golf as we know it today, played over 18 holes, clearly originated in Scotland."
However, the modern game of golf we understand today is generally considered to be a Scottish invention, as the game was mentioned in two 15th-centur y A cts of the Scottish Parliament, prohibiting the playing of the game of gowf because it was taking time from archery practice necessary for national defense. (Some scholars, however, suggest that this refers to another game which is much akin to shinty or hurling, or to modern field hockey rather than golf as we know it.) The word golf may be a Scots alteration of Dutch "kolf" meaning "stick, "club" and "bat" (see: Kolven). All these earlier games may more accurately viewed as ancestors of the modern game we understand as golf.
The modern game of golf originated and developed in Scotland: the first permanent golf course originated in Scotland, as well as membership in the first golf club s. The very first written rules originated there, as did the establishment of the 18-hole course. The first formalized tournament structures developed and competitions were held between various Scottish cities. Before long, the modern game of golf had spread from Scotland to England and from there to the rest of the world. The oldest playing golf course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh Racecourse. Evidence has shown that golf was played on Musselburgh Links in 1672, although Mary, Queen of Scots reputedly played there in 1567.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Every round of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A round typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by the course layout. On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two consecutive nine-hole rounds. Playing a hole on a golf course is initiated by putting a ball into play by striking it with a club on the teeing area (also called the "tee box" or simply "the tee.") When this initial stroke (or "shot") is required to be a long one due to the length of the hole, it is usual (but not required) for a golfer to suspend (or "tee") the ball on a tee prior to striking it. A "tee" in this last sense is a small peg which can be used to elevate the ball slightly above the ground up to a few centimeters high. This elevation is at the discretion of the golfer. Tee pegs are commonly made of wood but may be constructed of any material; the ball may even be "tee'd" on a mound of grass or dirt (at one time a small pile of sand placed by the golfer was routinely used and sand was provided at teeing areas for golfers' use).
When the initial shot on a hole is a long-distance shot intended to move the ball a great distance down the fairway, this shot is commonly called a "drive." Shorter holes generally are initiated with "shorter" clubs. Once the ball comes to rest, the golfer strikes it again as many times as necessary using shots that are variously known as a lay-up, an approach, a "pitch", or a chip, until the ball reaches the green, where he or she then putts the ball into the hole (commonly called "sinking the putt"). The goal of getting the ball into the hole ("holing" the ball) in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by obstacles such as areas of long grass called rough (usually found alongside fairways) which both impedes advancement and makes it harder to advance the golf ball, bunkers ("sand traps"), and water hazards. In most forms of gameplay, each player plays his or her ball until it is holed.
Players can walk or drive in motorized carts over the course. Play can be done either singly or in groups and sometimes accompanied by caddies, who carryand manage the players' equipment and who are allowed by the rules to give advice on the play of the course.A caddies' advice can only be given to the player or players for whom the caddy is working, and not to competing players.
The history of golf is preserved and represented at several golf museums around the world, notably the BRITISH GOLF MUSEUM in the town of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, which is the home of the Royal And Ancient Golf Club Of St Andrews, and the United States Golf Association Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History, located alongside the United States Golf Association headquarters in Far Hills, New Jersey.
The in St. Augustine, Florida also presents a history of the sport, as does the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in Oakville, Ontario.
