* 1857 - "The Golfer's Manual", by "A Keen Hand" (H.B. Farnie), is published. It is the first book on golf instruction.
* 1861 - The Professionals Championship is opened to amateurs, and the British Open is born. The first competition is won by Old Tom Morris.
* 1867 - The Ladies' Golf Club at St. Andrews is founded, the first golf club for women.
* 1873 - The British Open is held for the first time at the Old Course.
* 1880 - The use of moulds is instituted to dimple the gutta-percha ball. Golfers had long noticed that the guttie worked in the air much better after it had been hit several times and scuffed up.
* 1890 - Bogey is invented by Hugh Rotherham, as the score of the hypothetical golfer playing perfect golf at every hole. Rotherham calls this a "Ground Score," but Dr. Thomas Brown, honorary Secretary of the Great Yarmouth Club, christens this hypothetical man a "Bogey Man," after a popular song of the day, and christens his score a "Bogey." With the invention of the rubber-cored ball golfers are able to reach the greens in fewer strokes, and so bogey has come to represent one over the par score for the hole.
* 1891 - Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is founded.
* 1894 - The United States Golf Association is founded as the Amateur Golf Association of the United States. Charter members are the Chicago Golf Club, The Country Club, Newport Golf Club, St. Andrews Golf Club, and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.
* 1895 - The United States Open is instituted. Willie Anderson is the first winner.
Chicago Golf Club opens the United States' first 18-hole golf course.
The U.S. Women's Amateur is instituted. Mrs. Charles S. Brown is the first winner.
* 1897 - "Golf", America's first golfing magazine, is published for the first time.
* 1898 - The Haskell ball is designed and patented by Coburn Haskell. It is the first rubber-cored ball.
The term "birdie" is coined at Atlantic C.C. from "a bird of a hole."
* 1899 - The Western Open is first played at Glenview G.C., the first tournament in what would evolve into the PGA TOUR.
* 1900 - Harry Vardon wins the U.S. Open, the first golfer to win both the British and U.S. Opens.
* 1901 - The first course at the Carolina Hotel (later the Pinehurst Resort & CC) in Pinehurst, N.C., is completed by Donald Ross. Ross will go on to design 600 courses in his storied career as a golf course architect.
* 1902 - The first grooved-faced irons are invented.
* 1905 - The first dimple-pattern for golf balls is patented by William Taylor in England.
"The Complete Golfer" by Harry Vardon is published. It promotes and demonstrates the Vardon or overlapping grip.
* 1910 - Steel shafts are patented by Arthur F. Knight.
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* 1913 - Francis Ouimet, age 20, becomes the first amateur to win the U.S. Open, defeating favorites Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a play-off.
* 1916 - The PGA of America is founded by 82 charter members and the PGA Championship is inaugurated. James Barnes is the first champion.
* 1919 - Pebble Beach Golf Links opens as the Del Monte G.L. in Pebble Beach, California.
* 1922 - The Walker Cup Matches are instituted. Two direct descendants of Walker Cup founder George Herbert Walker would become President of the United States—his grandson George H. W. Bush, the 41st President, and his great-grandson George W. Bush, the 43rd President.
* 1927 - The inaugural Ryder Cup Matches are played between Britain and the United States.
* 1930 - Bobby Jones completes the original Grand Slam, winning the U.S. and British Amateurs and the U.S. and British Opens in the same year. Since Jones is an amateur, however, the financial windfall belongs to professional Bobby Cruickshank, who bets on Jones to complete the Slam, at 120-1 odds, and pockets $60,000.
* 1932 - Gene Sarazen introduces the sand-wedge.
* 1933 - Augusta National Golf Club, designed by Alister Mackenzie with advice from Bobby Jones, opens for play.
* 1934 - The first Masters is played. Horton Smith is the first champion. In this inaugural event, the present-day back and front nines were reversed.
* 1935 - Pinehurst #2 is completed by Donald Ross, generally described as his masterpiece.
Gene Sarazen double-eagles the par-5 15th hole to catch the leaders at the Masters. His "Shot Heard Round the World" propels him to victory, and due to the coverage of his feat, propels both the game of golf and Augusta National to new heights of popularity.
* 1938 - The 14-club rule is instituted by the USGA.
* 1944 - The PGA expands the TOUR to 22 events despite the absence of many of its star players due to military service.
* 1945 - Byron Nelson wins 18 tournaments in a calendar year to set an all-time PGA TOUR record-including a record 11 in a row and a record 19 consecutive rounds under 70. His total prize earnings during his 11-win streak, $30,000, is less than last place money for the PGA TOUR Championship by 1992.
* 1946 - The U.S. Women's Open is instituted. Patty Berg is the first winner.
* 1947 - Mildred "Babe" Zaharias becomes the first American to win the British Women's Open, at Gullane.
Golf is televised for the first time, in a local St. Louis telecast of the U.S. Open.
"Golf World" magazine is founded.
* 1950 - The LPGA is founded, replacing the ailing Women's Professional Golf Association.
Ben Hogan, only weeks after returning to the PGA TOUR following a near-fatal auto accident, wins the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills.
* 1951 - "Golf Digest" is founded, with Bill Davis as editor.
* 1953 - Ben Hogan wins the first three legs of the modern Grand Slam (The Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open), but does not compete in the final leg, the PGA Championship.
* 1954 - Architect Robert Trent Jones, upon receiving complaints that he has made the par-3 fourth hole at Baltusrol too hard for the upcoming U.S. Open, plays the hole to see for himself and records a hole-in-one.
The U.S. Open is nationally televised for the first time.
Babe Zaharias returns to the LPGA Tour following cancer surgery and wins the U.S. Women's Open.
* 1957 - Ben Hogan's Five Lessons is published.
* 1959 - "Golf Magazine" is founded, with Charles Price as the first editor.
* 1960 - Arnold Palmer comes back from six shots down in the final round to win the US Open. With his victory, he completes the first two legs of the modern Grand Slam after winning The Masters in April, the first to do so since Ben Hogan in 1953. He finishes second to Kel Nagle in the British Open to end his bid. Palmer's entry in the British Open is credited with reviving world-wide interest in the championship. Palmer went on to win the British Open in both 1961 and 1962.
Lifting, cleaning, and repairing ballmarks is allowed on the putting green for the first time.
* 1962 - Jack Nicklaus wins his first professional tournament, the U.S. Open, the last player to win the U.S. Open as his first pro victory.
* 1963 - Arnold Palmer becomes the first professional to earn over $100,000 in official prize money in one calendar year.
Mickey Wright wins a record 13 events on the LPGA Tour in one year.
* 1965 - Sam Snead wins the Greater Greensboro Open, his 81st TOUR victory, a record (the total was later revised to 82). His victory is the eighth in the Greensboro event, also a record. Finally, he wins at the age of 52, also a PGA TOUR record.
Jack Nicklaus sets a tournament record of 271 in winning The Masters.
PGA TOUR Qualifying School is inaugurated at PGA National, with 17 golfers of the 49 applicants winning their playing cards.
* 1967 - Charlie Sifford, by winning the Greater Hartford Open, becomes the first African-American to win a PGA TOUR event.
* 1968 - Arnold Palmer passes the $1 million mark in career PGA earnings.
Roberto DeVicenzo ties Bob Goalby after regulation play in The Masters, but signs an incorrect scorecard and loses the event.
* 1971 - Alan Shepard hits a six-iron at "Fra Mauro Country Club" on the moon.
* 1972 - Spalding introduces the first two-piece ball, the Top-Flite.
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* 1973 - Johnny Miller fires a record 63 in the final round to win the US Open at Oakmont.
The graphite shaft is invented.
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* 1974 - Jack Nicklaus' "Golf My Way" is published.
Muirfield Village Golf Club opens from a Desmond Muirhead/Jack Nicklaus design.
The Tournament Players Championship is inaugurated.
* 1975 - Lee Elder becomes the first black golfer to play in The Masters.
* 1977 - Al Geiberger shoots 59 at Colonial CC in the second round of the Memphis Classic, to set a new PGA TOUR 18-hole record.
The "sudden-death" playoff is used for the first time in a major championship, when Lanny Wadkins defeats Gene Littler for the PGA Championship played at Pebble Beach.
* 1978 - The Legends of Golf is inaugurated at Onion Creek C.C. in Austin, Texas. Its popularity leads to the formation of the Senior PGA TOUR two years later.
* 1979 - Taylor Made introduces the first metal woods.
* 1980 - Tom Watson is the first golfer to earn $500,000 in prize money in a single season.
The Senior PGA TOUR is born, with four official events.
* 1981 - The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass opens, with its controversial island green 17th hole, and immediately becomes the permanent host of the Tournament Players Championship. The TPC at Sawgrass becomes the prototype for a dozen "stadium" TPC courses around the United States, built specifically to host PGA TOUR co-sponsored events and affording better viewing for spectators.
* 1983 - The PGA TOUR introduces the all-exempt Tour, with the top 125 players exempt from qualifying tournaments.
* 1986 - Bob Tway sinks a miracle bunker shot to beat a stunned Greg Norman in the PGA Championship. Norman had held the lead on Sunday morning in each of the four major championships of 1986, but was able to win only in the British Open. Only Bobby Jones had previously held the Sunday morning lead in each Grand Slam event. Tway's stroke inaugurated a celebrated series of miracle shots holed by various golfers to defeat Norman.
* 1987 - The Nabisco Championships (later the TOUR Championship) debuts as a season-ending event for the top 30 money winners. The first winner is Tom Watson, breaking a three year victory drought.
Curtis Strange wins the season-ending Nabisco Championships at Pebble Beach, and his $360,000 paycheck lifts his official 1988 TOUR earnings to $1,147,644, and thus he becomes the first player to win over $1,000,000 in a single season.
* 1990 - The initial Solheim Cup is played at Lake Nona G.C., Orlando, commencing a biennial USA vs. Europe competition for women, a recognition of the growing strength of women's golf on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Ben Hogan Tour is launched as a minor league for the PGA TOUR, following the increased success of mini-tours such as the U.S. Golf Tour in 1989.
* 1991 - John Daly wins the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick when, as ninth alternate, a slot in the tournament opens up for him on the night before the Championship began. The golfer who withdrew and gave Daly his place, Nick Price, wins the PGA Championship in 1992 at Bellerive.
Oversized metal woods are introduced, with Callaway Golf's Big Bertha quickly establishing itself as the dominant brand, the Big Bertha driver becomes one of the biggest-selling clubs of all time.
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Harvey Penick's Little Red Book becomes the all-time best selling golf book.
* 1993 - An ownership group led by Joe Gibbs and Arnold Palmer announce plans for The Golf Channel, a 24-hour, 365-day cable service.
* 1994 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest man ever to win the U.S. Amateur, at age 18.
* 1996 - Tiger Woods became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. This was the sixth consecutive year in which he won a USGA championship, one short of Bobby Jones' record of seven. In September, he turned professional. In the last five regular tournaments of the year on the PGA TOUR, his finishes were 5-3-1-3-1, placing him among the tour's top 30 money-winners for the year and thereby qualifying him for the season-ending TOUR Championship. Woods was named the PGA TOUR's Rookie of the Year.
