THE first Dutchmen who sailed to give birth to America exactly 400 years ago also brought with them the sport of golf. It wasn’t called golf back then, but maliespel, and it was played on a maliebaan. The stick that hit the ball was called a kolf. Hence overseas soon golf.
In 1625, painter Adriaan van de Venne went to the maliebaan in The Hague, which today still carries that name, to record how the brand new stadholder prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange-Nassau would hit it. He did hit it just fine.
The prince was in no hurry. Holland was the world’s strongest country. While in the meantime, 4000 miles away, his subjects were laying the foundations of the future strongest country in the world.
