Golf Vocab

  • Approach – a shot hit towards the green (usually the shot to get it on the green) or the hole
  • Break – the amount of curve the ball has on it from grain, wind or slope of the green
  • Bunker – aka sand trap – a dug out area (usually full of sand) that’s used as a hazard on the course
  • Caddie – the person who helps the golfer, carrying their clubs, reading greens and giving advice
  • Carry – the distance the ball travels in the air
  • Chip and run – a shot where the ball spends more time on the ground than the air – usually very close to the hole but off the green
  • Choke (‘choke down’) – when the golfer moves his grip down the shaft of the club
    • Besides meaning a bad shot due to nerves
  • Closed clubface vs Open
    • Closed: means the clubface is angled to the left either by the toe of the club being closer to the ball than the heel in approach or when the clubface turns to the left during the swing making the shot go left of the intended target
    • Open: means the clubface is angled to the right by the heel of the club being closer to the ball than the toe in approach
  • Closed stance vs open
    • Closed: stance where the back foot is pulled away from the target line
    • Open: stance where lead foot is pulled back farther than the target line than the back foot
  • Divot –the turf that gets displaced because of a golf shot
  • Dogleg – when the fairway bends. (usually used ‘dogleg left’ which means the fairway turns left)
  • Draw – a shot that goes right to left in the air for right-handed golfers (opposite of slice)
  • Driving range – the practice area where you just hit balls into an open area and don’t go retrieve the ball
    • #GFHint: If your man says he’s going to hit a bucket of balls, he is going here

  • Fade – a shot that moves left to right in the air
  • Fairway – the nice short cut grass where players want to keep their ball before the green
  • FedEx Cup – a season long competition for the best golfer on the PGA Tour that year. Points are gained by winning or placing in the Top 80 in tournaments, obviously on a decreasing scale. The more prestigious the tournament, the more FedEx Cup points.
  • Flop shot – a shot played with a wedge that involves wrist motion designed to hit the ball a short distance but with a lot of height
  • Follow through – part of the swing after hitting the ball
  • Grand slam – similar to tennis. When a player wins all 4 majors in the same year
    • A Career Grand Slam is accomplished by winning all 4 of the majors at some point in a golfer’s career
      • There are only 5 golfers ever to get a career grand slam: Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen
        • Current PGA Tour players only missing 1: Rory McIlroy (Masters), Phil Mickelson (US Open), Jordan Spieth (PGA)
    • Only one golfer has managed the Grand Slam (which is technically all 4 major wins in 1 calendar year): Bobby Jones
  • Grain – the direction that the grass, specifically on the greens, grows (especially relevant on Bermuda grass)
  • Hook – a shot that goes right to left sharply for right-handed players (more dramatic than the draw)
  • Invitational – a tournament that you have to be invited to play at on the PGA Tour – usually smaller fields and potentially no cut
  • Irons – clubs with an iron clubhead that are used for shots under ~200 yards
    • They have a number 1-9 with 1 being used for the farthest shot and 9 being the shortest
  • Kick – the bounce after the ball lands
  • Lag – a shot that you are trying to hit close but not necessarily make
  • Lie – the position of the ball when it comes to rest
    • You will hear commentators say “How’s the lie Dottie?” meaning how low or high is the ball in the rough, etc.
  • Line – the path of the ball
  • Links – a type of golf course that is built on land reclaimed from the ocean
    • Andrew’s in Scotland is the most famous. All links courses are golf courses but not all golf courses are links courses. Usually a player is either good at these or not.
  • Loft – the degree of angle on the clubface
    • Most: sand wedge
    • Least: putter
  • Major – 4 golf tournaments that make up a grand slam
    • Masters – always at Augusta National (GA)
    • PGA Championship
    • US Open
    • Open Championship – always held somewhere in the UK
  • MC – ‘Missed Cut’ – if you see this next to a professional golfer’s name for a tournament, it means he was out of the top 65 (and ties) for that tournament and he did not play the final 2 rounds. Cuts happen after the 2nd round (usually on Friday nights).
  • Mulligan – hitting a 2nd ball without penalty (not a thing in the PGA – just your bf’s game of golf)
  • OWGR – Official World Golf Ranking
    • This is the official list the players use to determine the world ranking
    • Don’t ask me to calculate it for you, it is very very complicated, taking into account a divisor, rolling off tournaments, etc
  • Pitch and run – shot around the green where the ball is in the air for a short distance before rolling towards the hole
  • Playoffs – the last 3 tournaments of the season (usually in August)
    • Northern Trust, BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship
  • Provisional – this is basically a legal PGA Tour mulligan. You can hit another shot from the same spot and use that ball after you clearly state that you are taking a provisional. But if you do use that new shot, it’ll cost you a penalty stroke. If you find your original ball, you can use your original ball with no penalty.
    • If your original ball went out of bounds, you must use your provisional ball and take the penalty.
  • Putt – the type of golf swing used on the green to get the ball to roll into the hole
  • Putter – the club used on the green when a player just wants to roll the ball into the hole
  • Rough – the deep grass not in the fairway deigned to make the shot harder
  • Scramble – to recover from trouble
  • Setup/ square up to the ball – when the golfer addresses the ball and gets ready to shoot (not a practice swing)
  • Shank – when a shot goes far to the right from hitting the ball on the hosel (the curved part of the club where the clubface meets the shaft) – embarrassing!
  • Short game – chip and putting part of a player’s game
  • Slice – a shot that goes left to right but more so than a fade

  • Stroke play – the most common way of playing golf where the person who has the lowest score at the end of the round or tournament wins
    • How the PGA Tour plays
  • Tee box – the area of green that the player hits his initial shot from on a hole. Its usually indicated by tee markers. A player has to set up their ball behind those markers
  • Waggle – the motion to keep a player relaxed at the address of the ball
  • Whiff – a miss of the ball
  • Wood – the clubs that have longer shafts and large round heads that hit the ball longest
    • Driver – 1 Wood – the lowest loft but farthest distance of all the clubs
  • Yips – a condition where the player loses control of his hands or club

Scores

  • Par – the ‘normal’ number of shots it takes to get the ball in the hole
    • Essentially this score counts as a 0 – not good or bad
  • Birdie – a score that counts as -1 (one under par)
    • This can be a 2, 3, or 4 typically
    • Shown as a circle around the number on the scorecard
  • Eagle – a score that counts as -2 (two under par)
    • Unless its on a par 3 in which case it would be called an Ace or Hole-in-one
    • Shown as a filled in/colored in circle on the scorecard
  • Double Eagle (Albatross) – a score that counts as -3 (three under par)
  • Condor – a score that counts as -4 (4 under)
    • It is so rare that there have only been 4 ever
    • This score is mostly for trivia knowledge.
  • Bogey – a score that counts as +1 (one over par)
    • Shown as a square around the number on the scorecard
  • Double bogey – a score that counts as +2 (two over par)
    • Shown as a filled in square around the number on the scorecard
  • You can do much worse than Double Bogey just add Triple, Quadruple, etc in front of Bogey.

Other golf terms to know when your bf plays golf

  • Best ball – similar to a scramble but everyone plays their own ball the entire round but the lowest score for each hole is used per team
  • Calcutta – when your man auctions on players/teams he think will win a tournament. If he’s the highest bidder than he owns the player/team and if they win, he wins.
    • This actually isn’t specific to golf – it can also work for other sports or games, for example poker and during charity events.
  • Nassau – 3 bets are placed: one the front nine, back nine and total score. Usually played in match play style but can also be stroke play
  • Scramble – a way of playing golf in teams where all team members tee off then pick the ball in the best position and everyone from the team plays from the spot
  • Wolf – The players take turns teeing off; the first golfer to tee off is the Wolf. After each tee off, the Wolf must decide if he wants to partner with the golfer that just shot. He can make it a 2v2 (winner gets 1 point) or a 1v3 competition (winner gets 2 points) for the hole. You can also call Lone Wolf before anyone tees off which means you automatically create a 1v3 game but earn 3x more money because you called your shot.
    • There are some more complicated rules but that’s the gist.

Now that you’ve read this list, it should be easier to understand the Rules of the Game page!

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