John Reid was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1840 He is widely accepted as the true father of American golf. He established the first US golf club in Yonkers, New York in 1888.
Robert Lockhart, founder of Dunfermline Golf Club, sent Reid a set of clubs to Yonkers. After that, he was able to establish the historic game in the United States.  Dunfermline High Street.
Dunfermline is a Royal Burgh within the 'Kingdom of Fife'. It was the capital of Scotland in ancient times and is the home of a majestic abbey where King Robert the Bruce is buried. With the exception of Westminster Abbey in London, there are more monarchs buried within the grounds of Dunfermline Abbey than anywhere else in the UK.
Ancient kings are known to have played golf in Dunfermline throughout the centuries. King Charles 1st was born in the Royal Palace of Dunfermline in 1600. He was beheaded for high treason in 1649.
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Dunfermline men, Lockhart and Reid, are pictured here on the front steps of the clubhouse in New York.
 Andrew Carnegie playing golf.
Andrew Carnegie, also a member of Saint Andrew's Golf Club in Yonkers NY, was born in Dunfermline in 1835. Despite his humble beginnings as the son of a weaver, he became one of the wealthiest men in the world and is regarded by Scots as a national hero.
He made his fortune in the American steel industry and later became a great philanthropist. Carnegie's house in Dunfermline still exists today and is now a museum to his legacy. There is also a 'Carnegie Hall' in Dunfermline, albeit much smaller than its New York equivalent. 
King James VI of Scotland, father of Charles 1st, also played golf in the ancient city. He was responsible for uniting Scotland with England, thus making him King James the 1st of England. In his reign, the colonization of the Americas began.
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Buffies Brae on the east side of 'The Golf Drum'.
The artist, Ian Stewart Moir, lives on a street named 'Buffies Brae' in Dunfermline. In doing his research, he discovered that the hill, upon which the street is built, is part of an ancient course known as the 'Golf Drum'. This is the most likely site where successive kings played a rudimentary version of the game. In fact, gutta percha balls were discovered by archaeologists in the ravine opposite his house. This ravine, and associated history, was the inspiration for the painting and its title,
'Reid, Lockhart and the Game of Kings'
'Reid, Lockhart and the Game of Kings'