IT is, in the parlance of the sport, a gimme - golf belongs to Scotland.

And next year, the whole world will be put in the picture. As part of its programme for 2014, the National Galleries of Scotland are to hold a major exhibition on Scotland's "national sport" in a major event that will tie in with the staging of the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

The show, fittingly titled The Art of Golf, will feature 60 exhibits in a celebration of the visual history of the game in Scotland, going right back to its roots.

Recent years have seen claims that golf could have its origins in Ming Dynasty China or medieval Netherlands, but such heresies will be ruled strictly out of bounds next year.

Gowf, to give it its ancient - though not necessarily royal - Caledonian name, owes its global popularity to Scotland and the Scots. Its rules were developed here, and we can boast its finest and most challenging courses.

It can seen as an elitist sport elsewhere in the world, but in Scotland golf is played across the social spectrum. More than any other sport, it can truly be called the people's game. Next year's events in Edinburgh and Perthshire will be anything but par for the course.