Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.

The most funniest ever explanation that I come across. Actually I stumbled on to this in wikipedia when I was reading something else.

Ii is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area.

Golf is said to have originated in the Netherlands but has been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. Golf, in essentially the form we know today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh Links (today the world's oldest golf course) since 1672, while earlier versions of the game had been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of Northern Europe for several centuries before that.

Although often viewed as an upper class pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport across all sections of society.

In novels, I read about a person's handicap while playing golf.
A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's ability to play golf over 18 holes.