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The game of
colf was played in the Netherlandish-speaking part of the Low Countries, the
present Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium. The oldest reference dates from
the 13th century when Jacob van Maerlant, a Flemish author, writes
'mit ener coluen' (with a colf) in his transcription of the 'Livre de Merlin'.
The players used curved wooden clubs and spherical wooden balls in the streets,
churchyards and open fields in or around the towns. In a later period,
lead-headed clubs replaced the wooden ones.
The early rules of the game are unknown. It was probably a one-target team game.
The team that reached the target (a tree, a stake, or perhaps a hole) in the fewest strokes was the winner. When more and more accidents occurred in the towns, such as hitting passers-by and breaking the windows of churches and houses, the councils banned the game from the towns and moved it to the unprepared open fields. During the Little Ice Age in the 16th and 17th centuries, colvers enjoyed playing on the ice surface of the canals, ponds, lakes and rivers. Playing on the ice required different equipment, like Scottish cleeks and leather balls. The crowded 'ice fields' changed the colf game from a distance-oriented into a target-oriented game.
By the end of the 17th century, interest in the colf game had declined significantly and finally disappeared. For a while, the French 'jeu de mail' took its place, to be replaced once more by the indoor game of 'kolf', a mix of the ancient colf game and the mail game. Today, indoor kolf is still played in the provinces of North Holland and Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Publications on colf/kolf
Publication |
Author |
Published (in) |
The Little Ice Age in the Low Countries  |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2025 November - Revised chapter from 'Games for Kings & Commoners Part Three', Geert & Sara Nijs (2015) |
|
Longest
drive on the ice in the middle of the 17th century |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2025 August |
Colf players on dry land |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2025 April |
| Extraits of Bengt Ferrner's diary of his journey through the Netherlands in 1759 |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2025 March |
| Quest for the origin of a beautiful illumination |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2025 January |
Unique sculpture at Christie's |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 December |
| Some reflections about the Reformation and the game of colf |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2024 May |
| Interpretations of the colf game in museums |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2023 December |
Colf near Windsor Castle |
Sara Kieboom-Nijs |
2021 October |
| ‘Schotse kliek’, een bijzondere vondst in de Leidse bodem  |
Do Smit |
2018 February (summary report in October 2017)
https://static.golfgeschiedenis.nl |
| The Schotse Kliek: report on the Holy Grail of Dutch Colf/Golf Collecting |
Iain Forrester |
2017 December - Through The Green (magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
Paintings in words |
Geert Nijs |
2016 April |
Playing Colf in the Arctic |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2016 March - Through The Green (magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
Nautical Archaeology - Part Two |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 September - Through The Green (magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
Nautical Archaeology Part One |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 June - Through The Green (magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
The first international golf/colf match? |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 April |
Early Colf in America |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 March - The GCS Bulletin (magazine of the Golf Collectors Society) |
Earliest paintings of colf players |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2015 February |
A present with a long history |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2014 March - Golfika no. 13 (magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
| The Golf Book of Hours (Golf Illustrated & Outdoot America) Max Behr, 1915 |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2012 Spring - Golfika no. 9 (magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
750 Jaar 'Mit ener coluen' |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2011 Voormalig Webmuseum van de Koninklijke Nederlandsche Kolfbond |
750 Years 'Mit ener coluen' |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2011 April - Golfika no. 7 (magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
From Colf to Kolf |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2010 December - Golfika no. 6 (magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
From Colf to Kolf |
Geert & Sara Nijs |
2010 October Presentation at the AGM of the European Association of Golf Historians & Collectors at Zandvoort, The Netherlands |
| 1297, Loenen aan de Vecht: Fact or fairy tale? | Geert & Sara Nijs | 2009 September - Golfika no. 4 (magazine of the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors) |
Steven JH van Hengel |
Rick van den Boom |
2007 December - Through The Green (magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society) |
| Een Kleine Golfgeschiedenis | Ab Bloemendaal | 1999 September Golf & Country Club Hooge Graven, Ommen |
| Colf at Beverwijck, Albany, New York State Material Culture in seventeenth-century Dutch Colonial Manuscripts |
Charles T. Gehring |
1987 January New World Dutch Studies: 1986 Symposium Proceedings |
