American golf history begins with a specific date and place: 1888, Yonkers, New York. Six Scottish immigrants — led by a man named John Reid — set up a three-hole course in a cow pasture and formed the St. Andrew’s Golf Club of Yonkers (naming it after the famous Scottish original).

From six men in a cow pasture, American golf grew with extraordinary speed. By 1894 there were enough golf clubs to form a national governing body — the United States Golf Association (USGA), founded that year to standardize rules and administer national championships.

The first US Amateur Championship and the first US Open were both held in 1895. The game that had arrived barely seven years earlier was already organized, competitive, and growing rapidly.

The USGA has governed American golf ever since — setting equipment standards, maintaining the rules, running national championships, and working with courses on environmental and access programs. Few organizations in American sport have been as continuously significant.