Timeline

1400s - Golf is being played on the Links in St. Andrews, Scotland.

1744 - Known as the Thirteen Articles, the first known written Rules of Golf were compiled by the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1786 - The South Carolina Golf Club was formed by Scottish émigrés and regularly met in a park known as Harleston Green in Charleston, South Carolina.

1845 - On March 3, Florida became the twenty-seventh state in the United States.

1886 - John Hamilton Gillespie lays out a two-hole golf course in Sarasota.

1894 - The United States Golf Association (USGA) is formed.

1895 - The St. Augustine Golf Club officially opens its golf course with three holes located on the grounds of the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument then known as Fort Marion.

1897 - Florida’s first two resort courses open, the West Course at the Belleair Country Club and the Ocean Course at the Breakers in Palm Beach.

1901 - Harper's Official Golf Guide lists 13 golf courses in Florida, at Belleair, DeLand, Jacksonville, Kissimmee, Magnolia Springs, Ocala, Orlando, Ormond, Palm Beach, St. Augustine (2), Tampa Bay, and Winter Park.

1915 - The newly formed Florida State Golf Association conducts the First Annual Florida Amateur Golf Championship at the Tampa Automobile & Golf Club, now known as Rocky Point Golf Course in Tampa.

1917 - On April 2, the Miami Herald publishes a list identifying 50 golf courses in Florida. That same month, the United States enters World War I, declaring war against Germany.

1919 - On June 28, World War I officially ends with the Treaty of Versailles.

1925 - Miss Bessie Fenn is selected as head golf professional at the Palm Beach Golf Club, now known as The Breakers Ocean Course.

1925 - A group of Black American professional golfers organize the United Golf Association which hosts a series of professional golf tournaments for blacks during the era of racial segregation.

1926-  Walter Hagen defeats Bobby Jones 12 and 11 in a privately sponsored 72-hole match in Florida in what becomes known as the “Match of the Century.”

1927 - The first Florida Women’s State Golf Association Championship is played on the Mount Plymouth Country Club golf course near Orlando in March.

1929 - The Seminole Golf Club, one of Donald Ross’s greatest golf course designs, opens in Juno Beach.

1930 - Bobby Jones wins the Grand Slam (all four major golf tournaments in a calendar year).

1932 - Gene Sarazen wins the U.S. and British Opens using the newly designed sand wedge he created in New Port Richey.

1938 - On January 1 , the USGA limits the number of golf clubs a player may carry during a game to 14.

1938 - Babe Zaharias becomes the first woman to enter a men’s Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) tournament, the Los Angeles Open.

1941 - On December 8, the United States declares war on Japan and enters World War II.

1945 - On September 2, World War II ends with the official Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1949 - The Bayfront Mini Golf Course opens in downtown St. Augustine.

1950 - The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is founded.

1950 - Babe Zaharias and her husband George move to Tampa and purchase the Forest Hills Golf and Country Club.

1952 - The USGA and its European counterpart establish a joint set of rules which finally removed the “stymie.”

1956 - The PGA of America moves its national headquarters from Chicago to Dunedin, Florida.

1961 - The PGA of America removes its Caucasians only clause, opening the door for all players to participate in professional golf tournaments.

1961 - Charlie Sifford becomes the first Black American player to earn a PGA Tour card.

1979 - The Professional Golf Association Tour (PGA TOUR) relocates its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

1986 - Black American golfer Adrian Stills of Pensacola turns professional and goes on to win 30 mini-tour events and earning his card at the PGA Tour Qualifying School.

1989 - The LPGA relocates its national headquarters from Houston, Texas to Daytona Beach, Florida.

1995 - On January 17, the Golf Channel is launched in Orlando, Florida from the first fully digital production facility in the United States.

1996 - The PGA opens its golf resort destination, The PGA Village, in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

1998 - On May 19, the World Golf Hall of Fame opens in its new location in St. Augustine, Florida.

2004 - Charlie Sifford becomes the first black player inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine.

2014 - On September 17, the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources launches the Florida Historic Golf Trail at the Winter Park Country Club in conjunction with the club’s centennial anniversary.