Being Homo Sapiens, we all of us have an instinct to seize a stout stick and give an inanimate movable object a jolly good clout….  There is an element of menace in such an act, perhaps a practice run for the real thing of enforcing our will on defenseless rivals.  Yet as we became more sophisticated, we might have settled for a less lethal contest of strength, taking out our anger and fear on a more suitable sphere than an opponent’s head, indulging in what we now call ‘sport’.

Peter Thomson

Forward

Golf Through The Ages

Michael Flannery and Richard Leech (2004)