"This Buried Lie Could Change Golf History"
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Swedish archaelogists unearthed an 1000-year-old iron piece and because of its location, along with a mysterious nearby hole, have determined that golf may have started there long before it began in Scotland.
I know, you're thinking either (A) it's a slow news day or (B) the standards for archaelogical evidence aren't what they used to be, but there is a video with lots of Swedish people talking...and subtitles. Humor them.
What made me sit up and take notice of this, seemingly, innocent video was the museum curator, Anders Wikström, answering the question what he thought this hunk of iron was. He said it was a golf club.
Wikström, who doesn't play golf, became interested on the golf aspect because the site where the iron piece was found had been was so meticulously cleaned of the debris usually found at archeological digs. Linking the cleaned surface, the remnants of a hole in the center, and clearly showing on the piece of iron where a shaft had been attached, Wikström, though not positive, now has a hypothesis that the site might have been the remnants of a Viking golf course. He said further study needs to be made, especially with other museums and excavations around Sweden.
What this find may mean, is the Vikings were playing a game with a ball, a club and a hole about two centuries before the Scots called the game golf.
