Mondo Knows Facts
Golf has 18 holes because of St Andrews
The Old Course settled on 18 holes in the 18th century
Golf has been played over the links at St Andrews in Scotland since at least the 15th century. The course originally had 22 holes, and in 1764 it was reduced to 18. Other clubs followed its example, and 18 became the standard round.
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Tags: golf, scotland, history
Golf has 18 holes because of St Andrews: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The Old Course settled on 18 holes in the 18th century. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.