Why 1900 instead of 1850 or 1875. Did guys like Macdonald, Ross or the Foulis brothers live in poverty in the old country. Why them and not someone like old Tom Morris in the prime of his life.
Actually, according to numerous golf historians,the game officially began in the U.S. in 1888 when St. Andrews Golf Club was founded in Yonkers, NY. Other historians (better informed ones) point out that a golf club had been chartered in Charleston, SC more than 100 years earlier. The South Carolina Golf Club was chartered in Charleston in 1786 with Rev. Dr. Henry Purcell, the rector at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, as president and merchants Edward Penman and James Gairdner as vice-president and treasurer.