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A
- Ace: A hole in one whether it be on a par 3,
4 or 5.
- Action: To impart backspin onto the ball.
- Address: When a player lines up to hit the
ball and begins the pre-swing routine, adjusting one's stance
and position relative to the ball. If the ball moves once a
player has addressed the ball, there is a one-stroke penalty.
- Aim: Generally, the direction in which your
target lies and the direction you intend for your ball to go.
- Aimline: When lining up for a putt, the direction
of the invisible straight line running from the ball directly
to the pin, which you must then adjust according to the amount
of break which you have determined the green to have, based
on your read of the green.
- Airmail the green: When a player overpowers
a shot aimed at the putting green, and the ball flight carries
it completely over the green.
- Albatross: a hole played three strokes under
par. They are statistically more difficult to get on a par 5
than it is to get a hole in one on a par 4.
- Alignment: The position of a player's body
relative to the target line of the ball.
- All Square: in match play, a match is all square
(tied) when both players or teams have won the same number of
holes. It is abbreviated "AS" on the scorecard.
- Ambrose: A system of team play whereby each
player takes a shot, and the ball is next played from the best
position. All players then take a shot from this position, and
so on.
- Angle of Attack: Also referred to as "Angle
of Approach". The angle at which the club head strikes the ball.
This affects the trajectory the ball will travel and spin.
- Approach Shot: A shot intended to land the
ball on the green.
- Apron: The grass surface on the perimeter of
the green that separates it from the fairway.
- Attend (the Flagstick): When a player holds
and removes the flagstick for another player.
B Top
- Back nine: Holes 10 through 18 on a golf course.
- Backspin: Striking the ball with a sloped clubface,
a wedge for instance, with a downward motion that catches the
rim of the ball along the ridges within the clubface, causing
the ball to spin backward as is its lifted into the air. Backspin
causes a ball to travel less far in the air, and to stop more
quickly once it strikes the ground. Also called bite or action.
- Ball: A small sphere used in playing golf,
which is intended to be struck by a club and soar in the general
direction of the green for a particular hole, if one is playing
on a regulation golf course. The important thing is to be able
to identify your ball and distinguish it from the balls used
by other players. Normally this is done by noting the brand
and number of a ball, though some players will often add personalized
markings to further differentiate their own sphere of choice.
- Ball-marker: any small object used to indicate
where a player's ball is on the green. Coins are common ball-markers.
- Banana-ball: an extreme slice.
- Bare Lie: When your ball is almost completely
visible and free from interference from the grass or other surface.
Also often the case when practicing at home with mats and practice
tees, as the ball is always slightly elevated and free.
- Barkie: achieving a score of par or better
on a hole after the ball hits a tree on the same hole.
- Baseball grip: grip style with all ten fingers
on the club. Also known as the "Ten-Finger Grip".
- Best ball: game for two teams of two players,
in which each player plays all of their shots, and the low score
on each side counts as the team's score for the hole.
- BIGGA: The British & International Golf
Greenkeepers Association is the professional association dealing
with all matters of golf management from a greenkeeper's viewpoint.
- Birdie: a hole played one stroke under par.
- Bite: heavy backspin applied to a ball that
causes it to stop quickly instead of rolling when it lands.
- Blade: term used to describe the type of iron
made by forging the metal rather than from a cast mold. Also,
describes a shot struck "thinly" with an iron in the middle
of the golf ball.
- Blind: A shot that does not allow the golfer
to see where the ball will land, such as onto an elevated green
from below.
- Block: a shot played severely to the right;
as opposed to slices, which curve from left to right, a blocked
shot goes directly right. Similar to the "push".
- Bogey: a hole played one stroke over par.
- Bounce: technically, the measure of the angle
from the front edge of a club's sole to the point that rests
on the ground when addressing the ball. Clubs (usually wedges)
with a higher bounce angle will resist digging into the turf.
- Break: the amount of lateral slope one must
account for on a putt. In the United Kingdom, it is known as
"borrow".
- Bump and run: a low-trajectory shot that is
intended to get the ball rolling along the fairway and up onto
the green. Similar to a chip shot, but played from a greater
distance.
- Bunker Fairway: Hazard of bare earth or sand
usually in a recessed depression. Grass and wooden walls or
banks are not part of the hazard.
C Top
- Caddie: A person paid to carry a player's clubs
and offer advice or suffer abuse. Players are responsible for
the actions of their caddies.
- Carry: How far the ball travels through the
air. Contrasted with "run."
- Cart: 1) The four-wheeled electrical vehicle
for use in transporting players from hole to hole. 2) A hand-pulled
cart for carrying a bag of clubs, also now available in powered
versions controlled by remote.
- Casual water: Any temporary standing water
visible after a player has taken his stance. Snow and ice can
also be taken as casual water, as well as water that overflows
the banks of existing water hazards.
- Chip: a short shot (typically played from very
close to and around the green), that is intended to travel through
the air over a very short distance and roll the remainder of
the way to the hole.
- Chunk: a swing that results in the clubhead
hitting the ground several inches before the ball, resulting
in a large "chunk" of ground being taken as a divot. Also called
a "fat" shot, or "chili-dipping".
- Clone: An umbrella term for generic brand golf
clubs.
- Closed Face: Caused when the clubface does
not strike the ball in a neutral plane of impact, but instead
strikes it at an angle, sending the ball toward the player's
front foot, to the left for right-handed players.
- Closed Stance: When a player's front foot is
closer to the ball, used to draw the ball or to prevent a slice.
- Club: a tool for the player to hit the ball.
14 clubs are allow by the rules.
- Clubface: The angled surface of the club head
that is used to strike the golf ball. The center of the clubface
is known as the "sweet spot." Players should strive to hit the
ball with the center of the clubface to maximize distance and
accuracy.
- Clubhouse: This is where play begins and ends.
The clubhouse is also your source for information about local
rules, the conditions of the course, upcoming events and other
essential information for the avid golfer. Normally, you can
also purchase balls, clubs, clothes, and other golfing equipment
at the clubhouse.
- Come-backer: a putt required after the previous
putt went past the hole.
- Compression: The measurement for expressing
the hardness of a golf ball, normally 90 compression. Harder
balls (100 compression) can be used in windy conditions.
- Condor: a four-under par shot, a hole-in-one
on a par 5 . This has occurred on a hole with a heavy dogleg,
hard ground, and no trees. Might also be called "a triple eagle".
- Cross-handed: putting (and, occasionally, full-swing)
grip in which the hands are placed in positions opposite that
of the conventional grip. For right-handed golfers, a cross-handed
grip would place the left hand below the right. Also known as
the "left-hand low" grip, it has been known to help players
combat the "yips".
- Cut or the cut: after the first two rounds
of a tournament, a select number of players will have earned
the right to play over the weekend for a chance to win the championship
on Sunday, by having a score at or lower than this number. The
cut is calculated as (??) the mean average? median average?
of all scores. As an example, if 5 players in a tournament score
respectively 148, 144, 142, 140, and 146, then 142 would be
the cut, and those scoring higher will watch as those who scored
lower play on through the weekend.
- Cut Shot: same as a fade, a cut curves from
left to right, but is generally higher in trajectory and more
controlled than a standard fade. The "high cut" is a staple
among PGA Tour players.
D Top
- Dance Floor: slang term for the green.
- Dead: TV-broadcaster slang for a shot in which
there is no favorable outcome possible. Variations include "Get
the body bags!" A favorite of Gary McCord.
- Divot: the chunk of grass (either fairway or
rough) displaced when an iron or wedge shot is played. Or, the
indentation on the green caused by the ball on an approach shot
(also called a pitch mark).
- Dormie: in match play, a player is dormie when
leading a match by as many holes as there are left (i.e. 4 up
with 4 holes to play). The player who is down must win every
hole to save the match and force its continuation past the last
regular hole (if a winner must be determined) or halve the match
(in a team competition such as the Ryder Cup).
- Double Bogey: a hole played two strokes over
par.
- Double Cross: a shot whereby a player intends
for a slice and hits a hook, or conversely, intends to play
a draw and hits a slice. So called because the player has aimed
left (in the case of a slice) and compounds this with hitting
a hook, which moves left as well.
- Double Eagle (or Albatross): a hole played
three strokes under par.
- Dogballs scoring an 'eight' on any single golf
hole. The origin of the term is in reference to what the number
'eight' looks like on its side.
- Draw: a shot that, for a right-handed golfer,
curves slightly to the left; often played intentionally by skilled
golfers. An overdone draw usually becomes a hook.
- Drive: a tee shot of great length, usually
done with a driver(a type of golf club)
- Duck Hook: see snap hook.
E Top
- Eagle: a hole played in two strokes under par.
- Explosion: a bunker shot that sends the ball,
and accompanying sand, (hopefully) onto the green. Also known
as a "blast".
F Top
- Fairway: the short grass between the tee and
the green. Also, "fairway percentage" is a statistic kept on
players in the PGA TOUR. A player is awarded a fairway if, after
a tee shot, the ball comes to rest touching a fairway.
- Fat shot: a poor shot in which the club is
slowed by catching too much grass or soil, resulting in a short
and slow ball flight.
- Fade: a shot that, for a right-handed golfer,
curves slightly to the right; often played intentionally by
skilled golfers. An overdone fade usually becomes a slice.
- Flier: a type of lie where the ball is in the
rough and grass is likely to become trapped between the ball
and the clubface at the moment of impact. Flier lies often result
in "flier shots", which have little or no spin (due to the blades
of grass blocking the grooves on the clubface) and travel much
farther than intended.
- Flop shot: a short shot, played with an open
stance and an open clubface, designed to travel very high in
the air and land softly on the green. The flop shot is useful
when players do not have "much green to work with", but should
only be attempted on the best of lies. Phil Mickelson is a master
of the flop shot.
- Fore: "Fore!" is shouted as a warning when
it appears possible a ball may hit other players or spectators.
- Fourballs:In fourballs teams of 2 players compete
against each other. There are four balls in play at any time,
one for each player, with the player with the lowest score among
the four competitors winning the hole for his team. This shouldn’t
be confused with the term ‘fourball’, which is often used to
describe a casual or social game with 4 players. Fourballs are
the opening matches played on the Friday and Saturday of the
Ryder Cup.
- Foursomes:In foursomes teams of 2 players compete
against each other. Players alternate hitting the same ball.
The first player tees off, the second player hits the second
shot, the first player hits the third shot, and so on until
the ball is holed. Players alternate hitting tee shots so that
the same player doesn't hit every drive; therefore, one member
of each team will always tee-off on the odd holes and the other
will tee off on the even holes. Only one ball is used by each
pairing in foursomes. If Player A teed off on the first hole
and Player B holed the final putt, Player B would still tee
off at the second, even though this means in effect 2 consecutive
shots (over 2 holes) by Player B. The team with the lowest score
wins the hole. Foursomes can be played as stroke play or match
play. As match play, foursomes are the matches played on the
Friday and Saturday afternoon of the Ryder Cup, with 4 ‘foursome’
matches being played on each day.
- Front nine: Holes 1 through 9 on a golf course.
G Top
- Gimme: is a shot that the other players agree
can count automatically without actually being played (under
the tacit assumption that the putt would not have been missed).
"Gimmes" are not allowed by the rules in stroke play, but this
is often practiced in casual matches. However, in match play,
either player may formally concede a stroke, a hole, or the
entire match at any time, and this may not be refused or withdrawn.
A player in match play will generally concede a tap-in or other
short putt by his or her opponent.
- Goldie Bounce: when the ball strikes a tree
deep in the rough and bounces out onto thefairway.
- Green or putting green: the area of specially
prepared grass around the hole, where putts are played
- Greensomes: In greensomes teams of 2 players
compete against each other; greensomes is a variation of foursomes.
Players alternate hitting the same ball on every hole; however,
both players tee off on every hole, with each team selecting
the best tee shot on that hole. The first player becomes the
player on that hole with the chosen tee shot and the second
player hits the second shot i.e. the first player’s ball from
its position after the tee shot. The first player then hits
the third shot, and so on until the chosen ball is holed. The
team with the lowest score wins the hole.
- Green in regulation (GIR): a green is considered
hit "in regulation" if any part of the ball is touching the
putting surface and the number of strokes taken is 2 or less
than par, i.e. with the first stroke on a par-3 hole, second
stroke on a par-4, etc. Greens in Regulation percentage is a
statistic kept by the PGA Tour.
- Grounding the club: to place the clubface behind
the ball on the ground at address. Grounding the club is prohibited
in bunkers or when playing from any marked hazard.
H Top
- Hack: A block who has limited ability and generally
a swing like a dying octopus.
- Halved: in match play, a hole is halved (drawn)
when both players or teams have played the same number of strokes.
In some team events, such as the Ryder Cup(though not in the
Presidents Cup), a match that is level after 18 holes is not
continued, and is called "halved", with each team receiving
half a point.
- Hardpan: a lie consisting of very hard turf.
- Hazard: physical aspects of the course such
as sand or water traps, hills, and bunkers that impede play
and add strokes.
- Hole In One(or ace): holing out the tee shot.
- Hook: a poor shot that, for a right-handed
golfer, curves sharply to the left (may occasionally be played
intentionally but is difficult to control). Hooks are often
called the "better player's miss", thanks to the fact that many
of the game's greatest players (Ben Hogan for instance) have
been plagued by the hook at one time or another in their careers.
- Hosel: the crooked area where the clubhead
connects to the shaft. Hitting the ball off the hosel is known
as a "shank".
I Top
- Interlocking grip: grip style where (for right-handed
players) the pinkie finger of the right hand is hooked around
the index finger of the left. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods
use the interlocking grip.
J Top
- Jersey Bounce: Any ball that is advanced toward
the green by virtue of the ball striking a cartpath, or highway
running alongside a fairway, and remains or returns in bounds.
K Top
- Knock-down: a type of shot designed to have
a very low trajectory, usually employed to combat strong winds.
L Top
- Lag: a long putt designed to simply get the
ball close to the hole. Or, in the downswing, how far the clubhead
"lags" behind the hands prior to release.
- Lay-up: to hit a conservative shot intentionally
short of a hazard.
- Lie: the ground that the ball is resting on.
"Good lies" include the fairway and the green, while bunkers,
pine straw, and the rough are examples of "bad lies". Also,
the angle between the center of the shaft and the sole. Incorrect
"lie angle" calibration will result in toe-first or heel-first
contact with the ground when swinging the club.
- Line: the expected path of the ball to the
hole, particularly on putts. "Stepping in a player's line" on
the green is considered a major golf faux pas.
- Links: a course on the ocean, usually devoid
of trees and therefore windy. Many courses in the United Kingdom
are links.
- Loft: the angle between a vertical plane (usually
the plane of the club's shaft) and the clubface.
M Top
- Mickey Mantle: making a score of 7 on a hole.
- Medal play: style of scoring in which the player
with the fewest strokes wins. Most professional tournaments
are medal play. Also known as "stroke play".
- Member's bounce: any favorable bounce of the
golf ball that improves what initially appeared to be an errant
shot.
- Mis-read: when a player takes an incorrect
line on a putt.
- Mulligan: a do-over, or replay of the shot.
It is not allowed by the rules and not practiced in tournaments,
but is common in casual rounds in some countries, especially
the United States.
N Top
- Nassau: a type of bet between golfers that
is essentially three separate bets. Money is wagered on the
best score in the front 9, back 9, and total 18 holes.
O Top
- Open stance: when a player sets up with their
front foot to the inside of the target line.
- Out-of-bounds: the area designated as being
outside the boundaries of the course. When a shot lands "O.B.",
the player "loses stroke and distance," meaning that he/she
must hit another shot from the original spot and is assessed
a one-stroke penalty. Out-of-bounds areas are usually indicated
by white posts.
P Top
- Pace: the speed at which a putt should be moving
to get to the hole. Pace and break are the two components of
green-reading.
- Par (apocryphally an abbreviation for "professional
average result"), standard score for a hole (defined by its
length) or a course (sum of all the holes' pars).
- PGA: any Professional Golfers' Association,
especially the Professional Golfers' Association of America.
- Pin-high: at the same level as (distance to)
the hole.
- Pitch: a short shot (typically from within
50 yards), usually played with a higher lofted club and made
using a less than full swing, that is intended to flight the
ball towards a target (usually the hole) with greater accuracy
than a full iron shot.
- Pitch mark: another term for a divot on the
green caused when a ball lands. Players must repair their pitch
marks, usually with a tee or a divot tool.
- Plugged Lie: a bad lie (typically in a bunker)
where the ball is at least half-buried in sand. Also known as
a "buried lie" or a "fried egg".
- Pop-up: a poor tee shot where the top of the
clubhead strikes under the ball, causing it to go straight up
in the air. In addition to being bad shots, pop-ups frequently
leave white scuff-marks on the top of the clubhead, or dents
in persimmon clubs. Also known as "sky shots".
- Pro: a professional is a golfer or person who
plays or teaches golf for financial reward, may work as a touring
pro in professional competitions, or as a teaching pro (also
called a club pro).
- Punch shot: a shot played with a very low trajectory,
usually to avoid interference from tree branches when a player
is hitting from the woods. Similar to the knock-down, it can
also be used to avoid high winds.
- Push: a shot played severely to the right;
as opposed to slices, which curve from left to right, a pushed
shot goes directly right. Similar to the "block". Also, term
used in Match Play where neither competitor wins the hole.
- Putt: a shot played on the green, usually with
a putter.
- Putter: a special golf club with a very low
loft that makes the ball roll.
Q Top
- Q-School: PGA or LPGA Tour Qualifying School,
a week-long, six-round tournament in which the Top 30 finishers
(of nearly 200 entrants) earn their "Tour Cards", making them
exempt for the following year's tour. Aside from the major championships,
Q-School may be the most pressure-filled tournament in golf.
R Top
- Release: the point in the downswing at which
the wrists uncock. A late release (creating "lag") is one of
the keys to a powerful swing.
- Rough: the grass that borders the fairway,
usually taller and coarser than the fairway.
S Top
- Schreckbagger: a golfer who continuously uses
poor golf swing and strategy to over achieve in the game of
golf. ps has a swing like an octopus and has been known to put
fewer strokes on his card than he has.
- Sandbagger: a golfer that carries a higher
official handicap than his skills indicate, eg, carries an eight,
plays to a two. Sandbaggers usually artificially inflate their
handicaps with the intent of winning bets on the course, a practice
that most golfers consider cheating.
- Sand Save: when a player gets up and down from
a greenside sand bunker, regardless of score on the hole. Sand
Save percentage is a player statistic kept by the PGA Tour.
- Sand Wedge: a lofted club designed especially
for playing out of a bunker. The modern sand wedge was invented
by Gene Sarazen.
- Sandie: a Sand Save (see above) that results
in a score of par or better. Sandies are counted as points in
some social golf games.
- Scotch foursomes:In scotch foursomes teams
of 2 players compete against each other. Players alternate hitting
the same ball. The first player tees off, the second player
hits the second shot, the first player hits the third shot,
and so on until the ball is holed. To this point, the definition
of ‘scotch foursomes’ is the same as that of ordinary ‘foursomes’;
however, players do not alternate hitting tee shots as they
would in foursomes. If Player A teed off on the first hole and
Player B holed the final putt, Player B would not tee off at
the second, meaning that Player A could, in theory, play every
tee shot on the round. The team with the lowest score wins the
hole.
- Scramble: when a player misses the green in
regulation, but still makes par or better on a hole. Scrambling
percentage is a player statistic kept by the PGA Tour. Also
a two or four man format, similar to Best Ball, except in a
scramble, each player strikes a shot, the best shot is selected,
then all players play from that selected position.
- Scratch golfer: a player's whose handicap equals
zero.
- Shank: a severe mishit in which the golf ball
is struck by the hosel of the club. On a shank, a player has
managed to strike the ball with a part of the club other than
the clubface. A shanked shot will scoot a short distance, often
out to the right, or might be severely sliced or hooked.
- Short game: comprised of shots that take place
on or near the green. Putting, chipping, pitching, and bunker
play are all aspects of short game.
- Skin: a skins game pits players in a type of
match play in which each hole has a set value (usually in money
or points). The player who wins the hole is said to win the
"skin," and whatever that skin is worth. Skins games are often
more dramatic than standard match play because holes are not
halved. When players tie on a given hole, the value of that
hole is carried over and added to the value of the following
hole. The more ties, the greater the value of the skin and the
bigger the eventual payoff.
- Slice: a poor shot that, for a right-handed
golfer, curves sharply from the left to the right (may occasionally
be played intentionally but is difficult to control). 9 out
of 10 golfers suffer from slicing the ball.
- Snap Hook: a severe hook that usually goes
directly left rather than curving from right to left. Also known
by the somewhat redundant term "Pull-Hook".
- Stableford Scoring System: a scoring system
using points. The winner accumulates more points over the course
of a round. Stableford points are awarded as 1 point for one
stroke over a fixed score, perhaps par, on a hole; 2 points
for the fixed score; 3 points for one stroke under the fixed
score; 4 points for two strokes under the fixed score; etc.
There are "modified" Stableford scoring techniques, like that
used in the International Tournament on the PGA Tour, which
award points (or loss of points) for various scores over or
under a fixed score.
- Snowman: An eight on a hole.
- Sit: Telling the ball to drop softly, and not
roll after landing.
T Top
- Tap-in: a ball that has come to rest very close
to the hole, leaving only a very short putt to be played. Oftentimes
recreational golfers will "concede" tap-ins to each other to
save time.
- Tee(part of the course): the specially prepared
area, usually grass, from which the first stroke for each hole
is made (teeing ground in official terminology).
- Tee(piece of equipment): a small peg - made
of wood or plastic - placed in the teeing ground, upon which
the golf ball may be placed prior to the first stroke on a hole.
- Tempo: the pacing of a player's swing. Ideally,
the swing should be like a metronome, with the same amount of
time being used for the downswing and follow-through as was
used for the backswing. Also known as the "rhythm" of the swing.
Ernie Els's tempo is the envy of many professionals.
- Thin shot: a poor shot where the clubhead strikes
too high up on the ball, resulting in a shallow flight path.
Also known as "skulling" or "blading" the ball.
- Through line: When putting, the imaginary path
that a ball would travel on should the putted ball go past the
hole. Usually observed by PGA players and knowledgeable golfers
when retrieving or marking a ball around the hole.
- Topped: an errant shot where only the upper
half of the golf ball is struck, causing the ball to roll or
bounce rather than fly.
U Top
- Up and down: when a player holes the ball in
two strokes starting from off of the green. The first stroke,
usually a "pitch" or a "chip", gets the ball 'up' onto the green,
and the subsequent putt gets the ball 'down' into the hole.
V Top
- Vardon grip: grip style in which (for right-handed
players) the right pinkie finger rests on top of the left index
finger. Also known as the "overlapping grip," most golfers grip
with this style. It is named for Harry Vardon, a champion golfer
of the early 20th century.
W Top
- Wedge: a type of golf club
- Wedge shot:
- Whiff: an attempt to strike the ball which
results in the player failing to make contact with the ball.
- Wood: a type of golf club
X Top
- X-out: an inferior golf ball that does not
meet quality control standards and is sold as a discount (often
with several X characters printed over the original logo).
Y Top
- The yips: A tendency to twitch during the putting
stroke. Some top golfers have had their careers greatly affected
or even destroyed by the yips; prominent golfers who battled
with the yips for much of their careers include Sam Snead, Ben
Hogan, and, more recently,Bernhard Langer.
Z Top
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