Golf is a sport in which individual players or teams hit a
ball into a hole using various clubs, and also is one of the few ball games that
does not use a fixed standard playing area. It is defined in the Rules of Golf
as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke
or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."
Golf is said to have originated in the Netherlands (see History below), but has
been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. Golf, in
essentially the form we know today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh
Links (today's oldest golf course world-wide) since 1672, while earlier versions
of the game had been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of
Northern Europe for several centuries before that. Although often viewed as an
upperclass pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport across all sections of
society
Every game of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A
round typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by
the course layout. On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two
successive nine-hole rounds. A hole of golf consists of hitting a ball from a
tee on the teeing box (a marked area designated for the first shot of a hole, a
tee shot), and once the ball comes to rest, striking it again. This process is
repeated until the ball is in the cup. Once the ball is on the green (an area of
finely cut grass) the ball is usually putted (hit along the ground) into the
hole. The idea of resting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible may
be impeded by various hazards, such as bunkers and water hazards.
Players walk (or drive in motorized carts) over the course, either singly or in
groups of two, three, or four, sometimes accompanied by caddies who carry and
manage the players' equipment and give them advice. Each player plays a ball
from the tee to the hole, except that in the mode of play called foursomes two
teams of two players compete, and the members of each team alternate shots using
only one ball until the ball is holed out. When all individual players or teams
have brought a ball into play, the player or team whose ball is the farthest
from the hole is next to play. In some team events a player whose ball is
farther from the hole may ask his partner to play first. When all players of a
group have completed the hole, the player or team with the best score on that
hole has the honor, that is, the right to tee off first on the next tee.
Each player acts as marker for one other player in the group, that is, he or she
records the score on a score card. In stroke play (see below), the score
consists of the number of strokes played plus any penalty strokes incurred.
Penalty strokes are not actually strokes but penalty points that are added to
the score for violations of rules or utilizing relief procedures.
Types of shots
A tee shot is the first shot played from a teeing ground. It is often made with
a driver (that is, a 1-wood) off a tee for long holes, or with an iron on
shorter holes. Traditionally a tee shot will ideally have a rather shallow
flight and long roll of the ball, while tee shots on short holes are flighted
higher and are expected to stop quickly. However newer research is swaying the
opinion of most golf professionals to be the contrary of that belief. Recent
improvements in golf equipment and ball technology has changed the optimum
launch conditions to a higher launch angle and lower spin rate.
A fairway shot is similar to a drive when done with a fairway wood. If accuracy
and distance control are required, irons are usually played from the fairway.
Irons or wedges are often used when playing from the rough. A tee may not be
used once the ball has been brought into play. Hence, playing from the fairway
may be more difficult depending on how the ball lies. A clean downward strike is
required to "pinch" the ball against the turf in order to get the ball airborne.
Mis-hits from the fairway include thin shots, also known as "skulls", and fat
shots, also known as "chunks". Thin shots are characterized by striking the
middle of the ball, while fat shots occur when the club strikes the turf behind
the ball.
A bunker shot is played when the ball is in a bunker (sand trap). It resembles a
pitch and is played with a "sand wedge". The sand wedge is designed with a wider
base allowing the club to skid in the sand. The bunker shot differs from other
golf shots in that the ball is not touched by the clubhead, but is lifted
together with an amount of sand.
Punch/Knockdown/Stinger: a low shot that carries through the air in order to
clear a low hanging tree branch or sometimes high winds. This shot is usually
played with a long iron (3, 4 or 5 iron), but if needed, a shorter iron may be
used.
A putt is a shot taken on the green (normally), using a putter, ideally to putt
the ball in the hole. The ball rolls on the ground, ideally never becoming
air-borne.
An approach shot is played into the green from outside the green, usually over
an intermediate or short distance. Types of approach shots are:
Pitch: an approach shot from anywhere between 30m and 90m from the green that
flies the ball onto or near the green. Depending upon conditions (wind, firmness
of fairway and green and/or contour of the green) a skilled player may hit a
high, soft landing shot with little roll or a low running shot attempting to
keep the ball in the air as much as possible. Depending upon the way the ball is
struck, this shot may roll out, stop or even spin backwards towards the player.
Pitch shots are usually hit with any club from a six iron to a lob wedge.
Flop: an even higher approach shot that stops shortly after it hits the ground.
It is used when a player must play over an obstacle to the green. It is usually
played with a sand wedge or a lob wedge, with the face laid wide open. This shot
has been popularized by golfer Phil Mickelson.
Chip: a low approach shot where the ball makes a shallow flight and then rolls
out on the green. Chips are made with a less lofted club than the "pitch" shot
or "lob" shot in order to produce the desired flatter trajectory.
Poor shots
There are several possible causes of poor shots, such as poor alignment of the
club, wrong direction of swing, and off-center hits where the clubhead rotates
around the ball at impact. Many of these troubles are aggravated with the
"longer" clubs and higher speed of swing. Furthermore, the absolute effect of a
deviation will increase with a longer shot compared with a short one.
For many people who play golf, the number and variety of poor shots is larger
than they would like. Consequently, many, many words have been found to describe
the shots--some of them are quite colorful. Some of the more common terms for
the poor shots are explained below:
Hook : The ball flight curves sharply to the left for a right-handed player (to
the right for left-handed players). A severe hook is commonly called a Duck-Hook
or a Snap hook.
Slice : The ball curves sharply to the right for a right-handed player (to the
left for left-handed players). For beginning golfers this is the typical outcome
of most shots. A severe slice is commonly referred to as a Banana-Slice or a
Banana-Ball.
Pull : For a right-handed player the ball is 'pulled' across the body and flies
to the left of the intended target without curvature (the ball flies to the
right for left-handed players). A Pull-Hook indicates that the ball started out
left of target and curved even further to the left. A Pull-Slice means the ball
starts out left then curves back to the right.
Push : The opposite of a Pull, where the ball is 'pushed' away from the body.
The ball flies to the right of the intended target for right-handed players (to
the left for left-handed players). A Push-Slice indicates that the ball started
out right of target and curved even further to the right. A Push-Hook means the
ball starts out right then curves back to the left.
Shank : The ball is struck by the hosel or the outer edge of the club rather
than the clubface and shoots sharply to the right for a right-handed player.
Thin or Blade or Skull : The ball is struck with the bottom edge of the club and
not its face. This may damage the surface of a golf ball with a soft cover
material, and may result in a stinging sensation in one's hands on a cold day.
Fat : A fat shot occurs when the club strikes the ground before the ball. A
large divot is usually produced along with a clubface covered in the divot.
Top : The topside of the ball is struck with the blade of the club. The result
usually consists of the ball rolling forward on the ground with much topspin.
Sky Ball or Pop-Up : The opposite of a Top. This occurs most frequently when
teeing the ball up too high, though sometimes a Sky Ball will occur when the
ball is sitting on top of long blades of grass and the club has space to pass
under the ball. The top side of the club strikes the bottom side of the ball and
forces the ball higher into the air than desired. A true sky ball occurs when
the ball travels farther vertically than it does horizontally.
Double-Hit : Hitting the ball twice in one swing. This occurs most often in
chipping or pitching, and is extremely rare in any other kind of shot. This is
commonly referred to as a T.C. Chen, named for the Taiwanese golfer who lead the
1985 U.S. Open by 5 shots on Sunday, wherein he double-hit a chip on the fifth
hole and made an eight, costing him the championship.
Flyer : This type of shot usually occurs when playing from deep rough. Grass
blades come between the club face and the ball, preventing the grooves of the
club from imparting maximum backspin on the ball. This loss of lift from
backspin will typically cause a lower, longer shot than a cleanly contacted
shot. The resulting flight of the ball is that the target is overshot by 10 or
more yards and the ball does not stop as quickly on the green.
Hood : Somewhere during the swing the clubface becomes more perpendicular to the
ground, or angled more toward the golfer. The clubface may strike the ground
first or get caught up in heavy rough. This results in the ball flying lower to
the ground than intended and usually resulting in a Pull as well.
Worm burner, Groundhog Killer or Sally Gunnel : The ball is hit extremely low to
the ground, or bounces rapidly across the ground, essentially "burning up worms"
or hitting groundhogs as it speeds along.
Chili Dip : A common miscue while chipping where the ball is flubbed only a few
feet forward. Sometimes referred to as a Chunk.
Fried Egg: This situation occurs when the ball lands in a sand bunker and does
not move from its landing spot. A small crater, or frying pan, encircles the
"egg" (golf ball), and makes the next shot a difficult one. This is more
commonly known as "plugged".
Foot Wedge : An illegal act of literally kicking one's ball to a better
location. The character Judge Smails uses this technique In the movie Caddyshack.
Whiff: Missing the ball completely after stepping up to hit counts as a stroke.
Usually results in a form of embarrassment, followed by another shot. May be
referred to as Practice Swing.
Iron Hooker: Holding the club too far forward causing a flicking action which
results in a major hook.
Gunnell: A Gunnell is a low shot where the club face makes contact with the top
of the ball. Shots that go ¾ distance in this manner are usually referred to as
a 'Gunnell', or 'A runner, but not a looker'. The expression originated in
England, and is a reference to former Olympic sprinter Sally Gunnell
Lateral: also known as a shank, occurs when the ball is hit off the hosel
resulting in a shot that travels more laterally than forward.
Putts and short chips are ideally played without much movement of the body, but
most other golf shots are played using variants of the full golf swing. The full
golf swing itself is used in tee and fairway shots.
A full swing is a complex rotation of the body aimed at accelerating the club
head to a great speed. For a right-handed golfer, it consists of a backswing to
the right, a downswing to the left (in which the ball is hit), and a follow
through. At address, the player stands with the left shoulder and hip pointing
in the intended direction of ball flight, with the ball before the feet. The
club is held with both hands (right below left for right-handed players), the
clubhead resting on the ground behind the ball, hips and knees somewhat flexed,
and the arms hanging from the shoulders. The backswing is a rotation to the
right, consisting of a shifting of the player's body weight to the right side, a
turning of the pelvis and shoulders, lifting of the arms and flexing of the
elbows and wrists. At the end of the backswing the hands are above the right
shoulder, with the club pointing more or less in the intended direction of ball
flight. The downswing is roughly a backswing reversed. After the ball is hit,
the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left. At the
end of the swing, the weight has shifted almost entirely to the left foot, the
body is fully turned to the left and the hands are above the left shoulder with
the club hanging down over the players' back.
The full golf swing is an unnatural, highly complex motion and notoriously
difficult to learn. It is not uncommon for beginners to spend several months
practising the very basics before playing their first ball on a course. It is
usually very difficult to acquire a stable and successful swing without
professional instruction and even highly skilled golfers may continue to take
golf lessons for many years. One can also purchase or use a new golf simulator
that can cost upwards of $50,000.
Relatively few golfers play left-handed (i.e., swing back to the left and
forward to the right). The percentage of golfers in the U.S. who play
left-handed is estimated to be anywhere from 4 percent to 7 percent in the U.S.
according to http://www.pga.com/equipment/focus-on/lefthandedequipment050503.cfm.
Even players who are strongly left-handed in their daily life preferring the
right-handed golf swing. In the past, this may have been due to the difficulty
of finding left-handed golf clubs. Today, more manufacturers provide left-handed
versions of their club lines, and the clubs are more readily purchased from
mail-order and Internet catalogues, as well as golf stores. A golfer who plays
right-handed, but holds the club left-hand-below-right is said to be
"cack-handed". It is difficult to obtain the same consistency and power with
this arrangement as is possible with conventional technique.
Besides the physical part, the mental aspect contributes to the difficulty of
the golf swing. Golfers play against the course, not each other directly, and
hit a stationary object, not one put into motion by an opponent. This means that
there is never anyone to blame but oneself for a bad result, and in most
competitive formats there are no teammates to directly help one out. Knowledge
of this creates a great deal of psychological pressure on the golfer; this
pressure exists at all levels of play. Even the best professional golfers
sometimes succumb to this pressure, such as getting the "yips" (an infamous
affliction of Bernhard Langer) a severe putting disorder caused by uncontrolled
muscle spasms of the arms, resulting in a jerking motion during the follow
through of the putt causing the ball to go much farther than desired, or having
collapses of their full swing (as with Ian Baker-Finch).
A golf ball acquires spin when it is hit. Backspin is imparted for almost every
shot due to the golf club's loft (i.e., angle between the clubface and a
vertical plane). A spinning ball deforms the flow of air around it [5] similar
to an airplane wing; a back-spinning ball therefore experiences an upward force
which makes it fly higher and longer than a ball without spin. The amount of
backspin also influences the behavior of a ball when it impacts the ground. A
ball with little backspin will usually roll out for a few yards/meters while a
ball with more backspin may not roll at all, even backwards. Sidespin occurs
when the clubface is not aligned perpendicularly to the plane of swing. Sidespin
makes the ball curve left or right: a curve to the left is a draw, and to the
right a fade (for right-handed players). Accomplished golfers purposely use
sidespin to steer their ball around obstacles or towards the safe side of
fairways and greens. But because it's sometimes difficult to control or predict
the amount of sidespin, balls may take an undesirable trajectory, such as hook
to the left, or slice to the right (for right-handed players).
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