CHINA: Along with giving the world gunpowder, pasta, the fork, the compass, umbrellas, possibly the first case of syphilis, and maybe travelling to America before Columbus, did the Chinese also invent golf?
There is some convincing evidence in a new exhibition in Beijing of paintings from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), which show Chinese noblemen on the green hundreds of years before St Andrews.
The Scots believe they invented the game in the 15th century, and the first written rules of modern golf were set down in 1754 at St Andrews, which still lays claim to being the "home of golf".
But Chinese historians now argue their ancestors were teeing off back in 945 and say Mongolian travellers took chuiwan - chui means to hit, and wan is a ball - to Europe.
The rules of the sport were laid down in a 1282 book called Wan Jing or Manual of Ball Games.
It's the latest bold claim for Chinese innovation following theories it was a Muslim eunuch, Admiral Zheng He, who first pitched up on the shores of the New World.
Innovation is a sensitive topic in China as much of the current economic boom is based on making products developed abroad and the government wants to foster the development of original ideas.
An ancient scroll called The Autumn Banquet, dating from 1368, shows officials playing chuiwan and the tapestry is frighteningly accurate - wealthy men in eccentric clothing using clubs trying to put a small ball down a hole. Even Emperor Huizong is said to have played.
The scene could be straight out of the K Club or Ballybunion on any day in Ireland - as one man putts, another watches slightly balefully, while a third seems to be consulting the rules. There are also pictures of women playing the game.
In the ancient Chinese version, players used 10 clubs, including a cuanbang - very similar to a modern-day driver - and they were decorated with jade, had gold edges and ornate shafts.
The man behind much of the current debate is Prof Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University.
"When golf was introduced into China, most people naturally assumed that golf was a foreign game.
In fact, this is contrary to the historical facts. Golf, as we know it today, clearly originated in China," he said.
He cites a passage in a book called the Dongxuan Records, which contains references to chuiwan, where a magistrate in the 10th century instructed his daughter to "dig goals in the ground so I might drive the ball into them with a purposely crafted stick". Golf is undergoing quite a revival in China these days.
