Golf historians have one great unsettled debate: did golf really start in Scotland? The case for Scotland is strong — the earliest undisputed records, the continuous unbroken tradition, the landscape that shaped the game. But it is not the only case.

The Dutch played a game called ‘kolf’ (which means ‘club’) from at least the 14th century. The Chinese played a game called ‘chuiwan’ (which means ‘hit ball’) as early as the 10th century. Both games involved hitting a ball with a stick toward a target.

Most historians today believe golf as we know it — played on specific holes with specific goals, organized into a round — developed distinctly in Scotland, even if similar games existed elsewhere. The Scottish game had the continuous development, the rules, and the traditions that evolved into modern golf.

This debate teaches us something important about history: origins are often messy. Human beings develop similar ideas independently. Determining ‘who was first’ requires deciding what we mean by ‘the same thing.’