Honing in on golf’s arrival to colonial America

As it turns out, golf arrived in America even sooner than long thought -- four years sooner, in fact.

A researcher at the National Archives of Scotland has uncovered a document verifying golf clubs, and, therefore, the sport, landed on the shores of what is now Charleston, S.C., in 1739. The June 28, 1739, document, according to The Post-Courier, mentions a shipment of clubs for Charleston businessman William Wallace (not the guy from "Braveheart") for 1 pound, 18 schillings, or about $350 today.

Previously, it had been thought golf landed in the U.S. in 1743, with the discovery of a similar document detailing a shipment of 432 balls and 96 clubs to Charleston businessman David Deas.

However, there's a 47-year gap between the arrival of the first golf equipment in the colonies and the establishment of the South Carolina Golf Club in 1786. Of course, by then, the United States had declared and won its independence from Great Britain.