Golf
late Middle English (originally Scots): perhaps related to Dutch kolf ‘club, bat’, used as a term in several Dutch games; golf, however, is recorded before these games.
wiktionary
The word is first known in English from the 15th century from Scots. Although the etymology is uncertain, the most likely origin is that it comes from the Middle Dutch colve, colf(“club”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kulbô(“club”), related to German Kolben(“piston, rod”), Swedish kolv(“piston, rod”), Old English clopp(“rock; cliff”).
etymonline
golf (n.)
mid-15c., Scottish gouf, usually taken as an alteration of Middle Dutch colf, colve "stick, club, bat," from Proto-Germanic *kulth- (source also of Old Norse kolfr "clapper of a bell," German Kolben "mace, club, butt-end of a gun"). The game is from 14c., the word is first mentioned (along with fut-bol) in a 1457 Scottish statute on forbidden games (a later ordinance decrees, "That in na place of the realme thair be vsit fut-ballis, golf, or vther sic unprofitabill sportis" [Acts James IV, 1491, c.53]). Despite what you read on the internet, "golf" is not an acronym (this story seems to date back no earlier than 1997). Golf ball attested from 1540s; the motorized golf-cart from 1951. Golf widow is from 1890.
Oh! who a golfer's bride would be,
Fast mated with a laddie
Who every day goes out to tee
And with him takes the caddie.
["The Golf Widow's Lament," in Golf magazine, Oct. 31, 1890]
golf (v.)
c. 1800, from golf (n.). Related: Golfed; golfing.
