Golf Insider

'The Art of Golf' is on display through Feb. 17 in St. Petersburg. Credit: The Museum of Fine Arts

Golf has long been a popular sport for artists, given the vastly different canvases that are the world's golf courses and the many enduring personalities who have played the game.

Finally, that art is getting its due.

“The Art of Golf” is the first major museum exhibition in the United States devoted to the game, and it’s on display now through Feb. 17 at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

The exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the National Galleries of Scotland and spans four centuries of golf with some 90 works by artists, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrick Avercamp, Sir Henry Raeburn, Childe Hassam, George Bellows, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and acclaimed photographer Harold Edgerton.

The centerpiece is Charles Lees’ “The Golfers”, an 1847 painting that measures seven feet wide and depicts a foursome match at the Old Course at St. Andrews. The painting had never traveled to the United States until the exhibition opened in Atlanta last year.

Famous names to golf fans are represented, too, with photos and paintings of Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

For more information on the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg including times and admission fees, click here.