Marram grass is the reason the ground under a links exists at all, and the rough beside the fairway is a living habitat. Here is how the grass builds the dunes, who lives among them, and why they need protecting.

In 1867 a putting club for women was founded at St Andrews, and its undulating green was nicknamed the Himalayas. Here is what we can say about it with confidence, and what we would rather leave alone.

Before the wooden peg, golfers built their tees from wet sand. Here is what the patent records and the early rule books say about who replaced it, and why the change took so long.

Links land is not designed ground. It is sand, wind, grass and grazing animals, left alone for a very long time, and it turned out to be exactly what early golf needed.

The first gutta-percha golf balls flew badly until they had been hit and scarred. That small discovery led from hand-hammered nicks to bramble bumps and the dimple, and it changed how a ball flies.

Before the shot comes the hold. We trace the golf grip from leather-wrapped hickory to the overlapping grip Harry Vardon made famous, and what is fact and what is folklore.

Before there were bags, there were caddies with a fistful of clubs under one arm. Here is how the golf bag came to be, and why the slim Sunday bag still has a following.

Before mowers with engines, the greens of the old links were kept by sheep, rabbits, scythes and patient men. Here is what we can say about how, and about the greenkeepers whose names survive.

Golf was a walking game long before it had a rulebook, and the long walk beside a partner is still what many players love most about it. Here is the history behind that walk, and the myths we left out.

Long before anyone timed a round, golfers were expected to hold their tongues, keep still and let the other player have the course to himself. This is the real history of golf etiquette and pace of play, myths named as myths.