GLOSSARY of TERMS How many are you familiar with ??? Ace: Hitting - The ball directly from the Tee into the hole or "Cup" with one swing of the club. It is usually executed on a Par three (3), also known as a "Hole-In-One". Adolf Hitler - Two shots in the bunker Air Shot – Swinging and missing completely. Albatross - A score of three under par on a hole (in Britain); also known as a double eagle (in America). Arthur Scargill – Great strike but a poor result. Baffy - Sturdy wooden club, now obsolete, similar to the modern 3- or 4-wood. It replaced the earlier 'baffing spoon' and had a lofted face for hitting high trajectory shots from the fairway. Balata - Sap from a tropical tree, used to make covers for golf balls. It's soft, elastic qualities produce a high spin rate and it is favoured by tournament players. Botox – A putt that lips out. Brazillian – Hits the narrow strip down the middle. Cabbage - A term referring to hitting the ball into very deep and inescapable thick rough. Also called Jungle or Spinach. Captain Kirk – Your shot has gone, where nobody has gone before! Can - A term referring to the Hole or "Cup" on the Green. Having "Canned" the putt, he won the tournament. Cleek - (Scottish) Described as an iron club roughly the equivalent of a modern 2-iron, although there were variations including short cleeks, long cleeks, driving cleeks and putting cleeks. Crossbunker - Bunker lying across the line of the fairway. Cuban - A term relating to the putting action where the ball stops just short of dropping into the "Cup". The ball "Needs One More Revolution"! Dance floor - Golf Terms relating to "Dance Floor" is commonly referring to the "Green" which has a very smoooooth surface! Dennis Wise – Nasty little five footer. Dominic Cummings – A really ‘Long Drive’ that goes way out of bounds, but there’s NO penalty. [2020] Dormie - When a competitor leads by as many holes as there are left to play in matchplay, so therefore cannot lose (assuming the competition rules do not allow for extra holes to be played in the event of a tie) Duck Hook - A shot that curves severely from right to left (for a right-handed player). Etiquette - A golfing code of conduct Executive course - A shorter that normal golf course featuring mainly par three and par four holes. Feathery - An early golf ball made by filling a leather pouch with boiled feathers. It was highly susceptible to damage and began to go out of use in the mid-1880s after the introduction of the cheaper guttie ball. Flop shot - A golf shot which is hit quite high and short, which upon contact with the Green, rolls very little and stops. The ball is "Flopped" onto the putting surface. Fore !! - A warning shouted by a golfer when a ball may be in danger of hitting another player. Fried Egg - is a slang term relating to the appearance of a ball buried in a Sand trap. Only the top half of the ball is visible, which makes it look like a "Sunny-Side-Up" egg located in the sand trap. Also known as "Plugged". Gerry Adams – A provisional. Glen Miller – Low and didn’t make it over the water. Great Triumvirate - Name given collectively to three outstanding British professionals who were active before the First World War: James Braid, J.H. Taylor and Harry Vardon. Guttie - Ball introduced in 1848, made of gutta percha, a rubber-like substance obtained from the latex of a species of Malaysian tree. Hacker - is a Golf Jargon term for an "inexperienced" or mediocre golfer. Another term similarly used is a "Duffer"! When using the term "Hacker", it is generally meant as an insult, and therefore harsher and more critical than "Duffer". Hanging Lie - A term denoting a "Lie" when the ball is located above the player's feet. Haskell Ball - Name of the first rubber-core ball, which was invented in 1898 by Coburn Haskell. Jigger - An iron with a narrow face and moderate loft, no longer used. Lag - denotes the occasion when a player has a very long Putt to the Hole, and is hoping to get the ball within "Tap-In" range. Lateral water hazard - A water hazard which generally lies in the same direction as the hole - such as a ditch or stream alongside a fairway. Usually denoted by red stakes or lines. Lofter - Early club with a loft equivalent to a modern 5- or 6- iron and used to strike the ball on a high trajectory. Also called a lofting iron, it superseded the wooden baffy for approach shots to the green. Mashie - Iron club that made its appearance in the late 1880s. It had loft equivalent to the modern 5-iron. J.H. Taylor was the first acknowledged master of the mashie. Mulligan - The opportunity to replay your last shot, without penalty. Not recognised in the Rules of Golf and much more popular in the USA than Europe. Nassau - A bet in which a round of 18 holes is divided into three; front nine, back nine and full 18. Nip it - means to hit an iron shot without taking a divot. This is a "clean" hit which tends to reduce the amount of backspin. Nipple Licker - A fairway shot to the green that finishes in such a position to “Open the Hole Up”. PGA - see opposite >> Pin high - A Golf Language term relating to the final resting place of the ball relative to the Flagstick. Even if your ball lands off the Green to the left or right, you can still find your ball even (front to back) with the Hole, which is known as "Pin High". Pin-seeker - Hitting a ball straight for the flagstick is hitting a "Pin- Seeker". The ball acts like a "Heat-Sensing" guided missile. Play club - Old term for a driving club that was in common use up to the latter part of the 19th century, roughly equivalent to the modern driver or 2-wood. Age takes it toll !! Princess Di – Shouldn’t have taken a driver. Provisional ball - If a golfer suspects that his ball may be lost, he plays a provisional ball as a time-saving measure. The provisional ball becomes the ball in play if the original ball is indeed lost. Ready golf - is a method of playing the game of golf. It means whichever player is "Ready" to play, goes ahead and hits disregarding the "who's away" ruling. [2020 Ruling] Relief - When a golfer is allowed to lift the ball and then drop it in another area under the Rules of Golf. Rub of the green - When a ball in motion is stopped or deflected by an outside agency; there is no penalty and the ball is played as it lies. Saddam Hussein - A Slang term associated with going from bunker to bunker. Salman Rushdie – An impossible read. Sister-in-law – I’m up there, but I know that I shouldn’t be. Skins - A betting game where the lowest score on a hole wins the pot; if the hole is tied, the money carries over to the next hole. Spoon - The traditional name for a lofted wood, the equivalent of the modern 3- wood. Texas Wedge - In Texas, where hard, dry conditions make it less risky to putt from off the green, a golfer will tend to utilize their Putter for the stroke at hand. The Putter is then considered a "Texas Wedge". Tiger Tees - The teeing grounds used in professional tournaments, or the rearmost tees at any golf course. Tony Blair – Too much spin. Three off the tee - If a golfer's tee shot is lost or out-of-bounds, he is penalised one stroke and must play from the tee again, therefore when his ball comes to rest, he has played 'three off the tee'. Unplayable - A player may deem a ball unplayable and, taking a penalty stroke, may drop the ball but no nearer the hole. Vardon grip - Method of holding the handle of the club in which the little finger of the right hand overlaps the forefinger of the left, popularised, but not invented, by Harry Vardon. Also known as 'Overlapping' grip. Water hazard - A pond, lake or stream, the margins of which are usually defined by red / yellow stakes or lines. See also 'Lateral water hazard'. Worm burner - A poorly hit golf shot that never gets but a few feet off the ground. Yips - An uncontrollable twitching, caused by nerves, which affects golfers when putting or chipping. 19th Hole’s afterthoughts GOLF is an Acronym for “Go Out Looking Funny” ! In primitive society, when native tribes beat the ground with clubs and yelled, it was called witchcraft; today, in civilized society, it is called GOLF. Golf is an expensive way of playing marbles. Golf is a game in which the slowest people in the world are those in front of you, and the fastest are those behind. Golf: A five mile walk punctuated with disappointments. The secret of good golf is to hit the ball hard, straight and not too often. There's no game like golf: you go out with three friends, play eighteen holes, and return with three enemies. Golf was once a rich man's sport, but now it has millions of poor players. An amateur golfer is one who addresses the ball twice: once before swinging, and once again after swinging. More golfing truths beneath and the following pages, picture yourself as you read them, I’m sure you have all been there and done that !! An A – Z of Golfing Truths and Clichés Always concede the fourth putt.