An Approach to the History of Golf: Business, Symbolic Capital, and Technologies of the Self

The connection between golf, businesspeople, and notions of class is common-place in the mass media, but a topic not yet explored in the social sciences. This article seeks to historically and sociologically trace back the association between business and golf by looking at the history of this sport in three nations: Scotland, England, and the United States. I explore the creation of rules of etiquette, the introduction of the handicap, and the socioeconomic composition of golf clubs throughout the nineteenth and early-20th century. In theoretical terms, the article advances Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic capital and Michel Foucault’s idea of technologies of the self.