The format of the Championship Meeting is changed to individual match play and is won by Robert Chambers of Bruntsfield.
1878 The first University Match is played on the London Scottish Golf Club course at Wimbledon, won by Oxford.
Golfers had long noticed that the guttie worked in the air much better after it had been hit several times and scuffed up.
1882 Great Yarmouth Golf Club is founded by Dr. Thomas Browne R.N, who moved to the area to work at the Royal Naval Hospital 1883 Bob Ferguson of Musselburgh, losing The Open in extra holes, comes one victory shy of equalling Young Tom Morris' record of four consecutive titles.
Balfour is appointed Chief Secretary (Cabinet Minister) for Ireland; his rise to political and social prominence has an incalculable effect on the popularity of golf, as he is an indefatigable player and catalyzes great interest in the game through his writing and public speaking.
The Saint Andrew's Golf Club, consisting of a three-hole course, is founded in Yonkers, New York.
With the invention of the rubber-cored ball, golfers are able to reach the greens in fewer strokes, and so bogey has come to represent one over the par score for the hole.
Gate money is charged for the first time, at a match between Douglas Rollard and Jack White at Cambridge.
Victoria Golf Club is formed and remains the oldest course west of the Mississippi on its original site.
Taylor, along with Harry Vardon and James Braid (together known as the Great Triumvirate) would dominate the Open Championship for the next two decades.
Founded by Henry L. Wardwell and Leslie Pell-Clarke, the Otsego Golf Club has operated continuously since 1894 and is a nine-hole course today.
Play picked up considerably by 1897 and in 1900 The Committee on Cherokee Park to make the links "safe" to the public was sanctioned.
1899 The Western Open is first played at The Glen View Club in Golf, Illinois, the first tournament in what would evolve into the PGA Tour.
Walter Travis publishes his first book, Practical Golf, a tome that received a rave review in The New York Times.
Robert Maxwell won the 1903 British Amateur Championship, held at Muirfield, by the score of 7&5 over Horace Hutchinson.
1910 The R & A bans the center-shafted putter while the USGA keeps it legal - marking the beginning of a 42-year period with two official versions of The Rules of Golf.
1913 Francis Ouimet, age 20, becomes the first amateur to win the U.S. Open, defeating favorites Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a play-off.
1923 The West and East courses at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York open for play, designed by A.W.
Seminole Golf Club opens in Palm Beach, Florida, from a design by Donald Ross.
Jones, perhaps satisfied that he has achieved all he can in the game, retires from competition aged 28 to practice law full-time (and to found a new club that would become known as Augusta National).
Wallace R. Farrington and guidance of longtime local politicians Eddie Tam and then chairman Sam Kalama, a plan for constructing Waiehu Municipal Golf Course was born.
The lighter, larger "balloon ball" is universally despised and eventually the USGA raises the weight back to 1.62 ounces.
Sarazen wins both the British and U.S. Open titles in 1932, becoming only the second man (after Bobby Jones) to achieve the feat.
Augusta National Golf Club, designed by Alister MacKenzie with advice from Bobby Jones, opens for play.
Henry Cotton wins his first British Open, at Royal St. George's, and shoots a 65 in his second round, a feat that was commemorated by the "Dunlop 65" golf ball.
Harry Cooper finishes second at both the Masters and the U.S. Open, where he breaks the all-time tournament record only for Tony Manero to better it.
1939 Byron Nelson wins the U.S. Open at Philadelphia Country Club after a 3-man playoff against Craig Wood and Denny Shute.
Sam Snead manages to complete an entire four-day tournament playing one ball, but the professional circuit is severely curtailed.
1944 The PGA expands its tour to 22 events despite the absence of many of its star players due to military service.
In Japan, the Shimofusa Country Club (also known as the Musashino Country Club), once the premier golf course in the Tokyo area, is appropriated by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and converted into a fighter airfield as part of efforts to combat allied air raids.