Despite the probability of a continental origin of golf, King James IV, who had prohibited the hockeylike game of golf earlier (in 1491), nevertheless became the primary authenticated player of real golf. That royalty were the leaders of this new sporting fashion is to be expected. The route of transmission to Scotland was possible to possess been Flemish traders and craftsmen who had found employment at the Scottish court.

The lord high treasurers accounts for the years 1502, 1503, and 1506 include payments for the kings golf clubbis and ballis and alternative equipment during stays at Perth, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. In addition, the entry for the year 1506 specifies the number of three French crowns lost by the king in a golfing bet (looking on the result of games was widespread within the Middle Ages).

The Stuarts conjointly gave the sport its first woman golfer Mary, Queen of Scots, who was charged with enjoying in the fields beside Seton only some days once the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. The up to date account of the queens misconduct also makes it clear that at the time a golf club was still referred to as a golf in Scotland. The fact that in Scotland golf counted royalty among its followers and the fact that the first pictorial representations of the sport are to be found in books of hours owned by members of the continental high aristocracy counsel that from the center of the fifteenth century there are 2 games to tell apart: one was kolve/kolf, a variety of hockey that was widespread with townspeople and also the peasantry, and the other was golf, the preserve of the upper crust of society. But, there is no proof of the existence of the latter in Scotland much before the 16th century.