Golf in America got its start in 1786 in Charleston with the formation of the South Carolina Golf Club, whose members reportedly played on a bustling rectangle of land that stretched between what we know as Charleston and Beaufain streets and bounded by Rutledge and Barre streets. The area, called Harleston Green, seemed to disappear from historical records as a golf course around 1800. But that makes sense: Around that time, homes started being built in the area. Interesting tidbit: Some 432 golf balls and 96 clubs arrived in Charleston from England in 1743 as the first known shipment of golf equipment into the colonies.