Believe it or not, people have been playing golf since the 15th century! Even during ancient Golf History, there have been records of several variations of the game. The game we know today however, originated in Scotland; where the first permanent 18 whole golf course was built, the rules of the game were written and where the first golf club memberships were created. Also, competitions between Scottish cities were among the first to implement an official golf tournament structure. From here, golf continued to become more popular as a fashionable sport and spread to England and the rest of the world.

Today, Golf is one of the most popular sports, especially in the USA. It accounts for more than $62 billion worth of goods and services in the year 2000, and the numbers are still growing! The Golf Research Group presents some of the following golf statistics:

• Nearly 56 million people play golf worldwide.

• The National Golf Foundation reports that women make up 22.3 percent of the 29 million or so golfers in the United States.

• There are an estimated 32,000 golf courses worldwide.

• The most expensive golf course is worth $250million and is located in the mountains of Japan.

• The cheapest is worth $15,000 and is a 9hole course located in London.

• There are over 32,000 golf courses worldwide.

• 59% of them are in North America.

• North America has the largest export of golf goods ($610 million).

• China is the second largest ($590 million).

• Japan is the world's largest importer of golf goods ($328 million).

If you're a golf fan, you may also find it useful to know about some of the top ranking golf courses both located within the United States and Internationally. The Golf Digest Magazine recently released a list of America's Top 100 golf courses. The Top 10 include:

Although the golf was initially founded by Scottish then English golfers, since 1900s, the United States has now produced the greatest quantity of leading professionals in the industry. Some of these well known Golf Stars include Tiger Woods (who has presented himself as the greatest golfer in history), Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Bobby Jones.

Despite such highlights in the recent golf era; according to the National Golf Foundation, the numbers of people who play golf at least 25 times or per year, fell from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6 million in 2005. Similarly, the NGF also reported that the number of people, who played golf at all, fell from 30 to 26 million over the same period. Nonetheless, golf still has an important role in the business world and overall economy of the United States.

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