It took 400 years for women to be able to play golf.
Mary, Queen of Scots is credited with being the first lady to play golf in the 1500s. When the Queen of Scots was photographed playing golf just days after her husband’s death, it sparked the first golf-related scandal.
Golf eventually became a sport for nobility and businesses of the time. Women were barred from participating in the sport during these times since they had no place in business. Women’s golf was only legally recognized in Musselburgh, Scotland, on New Year’s Day 1811.
The sport of golf is said to have originated in Scotland. It all started at St. Andrew’s in “The Royal and Ancient.” While it may appear that women have only recently entered the sport, the game’s beginnings in Scotland were centered around a well-known female player– Mary Queen of Scots! The course was commissioned by the queen when she discovered a similar game while on a vacation to France. Mary Stuart’s nickname for her on-course assistants, who were formally known as “cadets,” was “caddie.” In the mid-1500s, the athletic queen helped popularize the sport.
Unfortunately, it took over 400 years for the rest of the world to realize what Mary Queen of Scots had known all along: that women belonged on the golf course with men. Since its inception in 1952, the LPGA has produced legends like as Babe Didrickson-Zaharias, Nancy Lopez, Karrie Webb, and Annika Sorenstam.
