How A Hobbit Invented Golf

How A Hobbit Invented Golf

The origins of golf are unclear, with many places claiming ownership, including Scotland (naturally), France, China and Holland.

For my part, I prefer the version of how golf was invented offered by J.R.R. Tolkien.

From JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit:

“Excitable little fellow,” said Gandalf, as they sat down again. “Gets funny queer fits, but he is one of the best, one of the best—as fierce as a dragon in a pinch.”

If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realize that this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took’s great-granduncle Bull-roarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) that he could ride a horse. He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their King Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and sent down a rabbit hole and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.

I have always suspected that Hobbits are actually Scots …