Forget indicators such as unemployment levels and interest rates; there's no simpler way to chart Japan's economic well-being than by tracing the ebb and flow of the popularity of golf.

Though it might have been custom-made for Japan -- offering as it does the chance for city folk to get out into manicured "nature" and challenge themselves as individuals within a group setting -- a primitive ancestor of golf is thought to have evolved far away in ancient Rome, where a game called paganica used a bent stick to drive a soft, feather-stuffed ball at a target.

In more recent times, a close relative of the modern game, called "golfe," began to be played in the 18th century in Scotland, and it was there that the first formal club, the Company of Gentlemen Golfers (now the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers), was founded in Edinburgh in 1744. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, established 10 years later at St. Andrews, even further north in Scotland, soon became the sport's official ruling body -- a role it now shares with the United States Golf Association.