Broken Balls and ‘Wattery Filth’: Golf’s Original Rules Show a Rougher Game

Golfers at Edinburgh, circa 1750. Getty ImagesThe bodies that run the game of golf announced a plan Monday to simplify and modernize the rules beginning in 2019. For example, penalty drops can be taken from a lower height, and caddies will no longer be able to line up their players when putting.

But simplification and modernization don’t automatically go hand in hand. Want more straightforward rules? Go in the other direction, back in time, to 1744, the year of the first known written rules of golf, drawn up by golfers in Edinburgh who played on the Leith Links.

The 13 rules, rendered here mostly in their original form, are mostly simple, though sometimes a bit weird. They also reveal that…