Golf Lingo - Part 3

From time to time, I am told that my posts get too technical for some of my followers and I need to tone down the golf jargon. Rather than "dumbing down" the blog, I am taking it upon myself to educate my followers so that they can "talk the talk" (and sometimes I just run out of ideas and this is a good fall back!). If you click on the phrase you will link to one of the posts in which the term was used:

"Bad Course Design Rule: A Local Rule determined by the Rules Committee (me) that provides if a golf hole is so poorly designed or "tricked out" due to the location of hazards or the inability to see potential hazards that are in play, any golfer that falls prey to such bad course design may drop a ball as if the hazard did not exist and play his next shot without taking a penalty stroke. This Rule may only be invoked with respect to potential hazards that cannot be seen but are in play the first time you hit into the hazard. After that, you are on notice of the hazard and must play according to the Official Rules of Golf.

Bogey Rating: The United States Golf Association's determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer under normal course and weather conditions.

Cart Path Only: Oftentimes when a golf course is very wet or after overseeding, the course superintendent will not permit the golfers to drive their golf carts on the fairway or even in the rough and require the golfers to keep the golf carts on the cart paths. Generally, in such cases, each player hits his drive as far from the cart path as possible and has to carry 4 or 5 clubs or his entire bag across the fairway to his golf ball (and invariably does not have the club he needs!).

Course Rating: The United States Golf Association determination of the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions. It is based in part on the length of a course, the difficulty of the putting greens and other factors that affect a scratch golfer's scoring ability.

Cup: The cylinder located on the putting surface into which each golfer must hit the golf ball to complete the hole. The golf cup is 4.25 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. Most of the time, it seems much smaller or it seems like there is an invisible cap on top of the cup. Every once in a long while the cup looks as big as a basketball net. Savor those moments!

Fort Worth Rules: Local Rules generally imposed when one golfer in a male foursome fails to hit his drive past the women's tees. In that case, the "short hitter" is required to play the remainder of the hole with his manhood hanging out of his pants. This confirms to the golfing gods that although the humiliated golfer could not hit his drive past the women's tees, he is, in fact, a man.

Greens in Regulation: The par score on each golf hole assumes that it will take two putts to complete the hole. Therefore, landing your ball onto the putting surface in one shot on a par-3 hole, in two shots on a par-4 hole, or in three shots on a par-5 hole means that you have hit the green in regulation and should score a par on the hole.

Local Rules: These are rules promulgated by the Rules Committee at each golf club that differ from the USGA Rules or R&A Rules generally due to course-specific conditions. For example, in Arizona many Rules Committees invoke the "desert rules", which permit a player to play a ball that is lost or lies in the desert as if the desert were a lateral water hazard, rather than risk a rattlesnake bite. See this link for some other very funny local rules.

Pin: The flagstick. According to About.com, "pin" is a term used by amateurs! The flagstick is a pole placed in the golf cup to indicate the position of the hole on a green. Interestingly, there is no uniform height for the flagstick mandated by the Official Rules of Golf (since the USGA and R&A mandate everything else!). Today, many flagsticks include a reflector so that a golfer can determine the exact distance to the flagstick using a range finder device. Various other methods are used to help the golfer determine the location of the flagstick on the green. For example, some courses uses different color flagsticks to indicate whether the cup is in the front, middle or back of the green, oftentimes red, white and blue (at least in the United States).

Rules Committee or Committee: Under the Official Rules of Golf, the Rules Committee is the committee in charge of the competition or, if the matter does not arise in a competition, the committee in charge of the golf course. When you play with me, I am the "Rules Committee" (unless I am playing with Turtle and then he is the Rules Committee!).

Scramble: A scramble tournament format is oftentimes played at charity events. In a scramble, each player tees off on each hole. The best tee shots is selected and all players play their second shots from that spot. The best second shot is selected and all players play their third shots from that spot, and so on until the ball is holed into the cup. If there is no official scorekeeper the winning score in a scramble could be as low as 18 to 20 under par. If there is an official scorekeeper for some reason the scores are not quite as low! There are as many variations of the scramble format as their are variations of 7 card draw poker!

Skull: Also known as "blade" or "thin" is when a golfer hits the golf ball with the leading edge of the iron, rather than the face of the club, causing the golf ball to fly on a low trajectory with little or no spin and to travel farther than desired.

Slope Rating: A uniform methodology for determining the difficulty of a golf course based on the following formula: Bogey Rating minus Course Rating multiplied by (5.381 men, 4.24 women).

Snowman: A score of 8 on a golf hole, probably because an eight looks a lot like a snowman. Golfers are nothing if not literal!

Tap-in Putt: Also known as a "gimme". A putt that the other players agree can count automatically without actually being played on the assumption that the golfer would make the putt. Also, in match play, if the other golfer has already won the hole, he may concede a longer putt because it does not affect the match. Generally, I do not wait for my opponent to concede the putt, I just take it!

I hope that this post will be helpful the next time you are on the golf course or you are sitting around the living room listening to Saturday Night Live spoof Tiger Woods!