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Basic Golf Terminology |
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In the next three Irish Greens course sections we will learn about the major types of golf courses. Before proceeding, a review of some basic terminology will be helpful, especially if your knowledge of golf is limited. Experienced students could skip this section but might learn something new. Golf: the game is played by advancing a golf ball by hitting it through the air or along the ground using golf clubs. The golfer advances from a starting area called the teeing ground to an area of closely mown grass called a putting green, until the ball is caused to fall into a four and one half inch diameter hole in the ground. When you advance the ball from tee to green and then "hole out" you have played one golf hole. You keep track of the number of times you've hit the ball. A golf course typically has 18 holes. Playing 18 holes is known as playing a round of golf. The time it takes to play a round of golf varies, but is usually between 3 to 5 hours. The object of the game is to complete the course in the lowest number of strokes possible. The Teeing Ground and Tees: when starting a golf hole a player may tee the ball above the ground. Following the tee shot, the ball must be played without moving it from the position where it lies. In past times there were buckets of wet sand near each teeing area and a little mound was created with the sand to elevate the ball off the ground. For the past 90 or 100 years tees have been constructed of wood or, in areas where wood is more scarce or expensive (such as Great Britain), out of plastic. The usual golf tee is about 2 inches high. The teeing ground area is often referred to as a tee box, and has turf cut very short at a height somewhat lower than the fairway grass. Fairway: this refers to the closely mown areas from tee to green. Keeping the ball in the fairway is advantageous for the golfer because usually the ball is sitting up on the grass and is easier to hit. In the fairway you usually get what is called "a good lie." Rough: is the less closely mown areas off the fairway. Rough can range from light to severe. Generally, the rough areas will gradually transition to the thickest areas of high uncut grasses. However, it wouldn't be unusual to have thick rough directly beside sections of the fairway. If you go far enough back in the history of golf and before the use of mechanized grass cutters, most of the rough and fairway areas of golf courses were maintained by sheep. |
Putting Green: very closely mown grass area where the ball is rolled along the ground toward the hole. Greens can range from relatively flat to wildly undulating. Par: is the score on a hole expected to be achieved by a player of expert ability. Par for an individual hole always includes a standard calculation of the expectation of two putts on the putting green. Infrequently do golf courses have long par six holes. Typically, among the 18 holes on a standard length course you will find four par-3 holes, four par-5's, and 10 par-4's. Birdie: scoring one under par on a golf hole. For example, a three on a par-4. Eagle: scoring two under par on a golf hole. For example, a one (or hole-in-one) on a par-3 hole, or two on a par-4. The most common eagle is scoring a three on a par-5 hole. Hazards: while the marshy areas, ponds, lakes, and pits filled with sand may be beautiful and add to the enjoyment of a golf course, in the context of the game these areas are all hazards and the golfer attempts to avoid them. Hazards can be placed directly in the line of play, or as often the case is, they can be set off to the side of the fairway to catch more poorly executed shots. In this latter case, the hazard is mostly a visual annoyance for better players and serves to get a golfer thinking and worrying. A ball can be hit out of a hazard. However, the player's club cannot touch any part of an area that is marked as a hazard. The penalty for hitting into a non-recoverable hazard (such as a deep lake or pond) is one stroke. Sand hazards: generally and accurately called bunkers. Legend has it that the bunkers on the Old Course in St. Andrews were created as sheep nestled down in the sandy soil to escape the wind. From these humble origins, sand bunkers on golf courses became stylized man-made hazards that are strategically placed. Bunkers placed in the landing area of the tee shot are called fairway bunkers. Those up around the putting green are called greenside bunkers. On many of the courses in Great Britain and Ireland you'll see deep rounded bunkers, often more-or-less randomly placed. These are called pot bunkers. |
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A word about the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland |
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The Old Course is the home of golf. Many thousands of golfers and tourists travel to the town of St. Andrews each year for the golf and the beauty of this old medieval seaside town and surrounding countryside. Golf essayist and author James Finegan writes about the Old Course: "...it is truly the fount of man's best game; some form of golf, however rudimentary, has been played over this ground for perhaps 500 years. And virtually every great champion from Old Tom Morris to 'young' Tom Watson has on this storied links experienced triumph or tragedy." The Old Course is an odd golf course. One could or would never be built like it today. However, being the first course, it has impacted -and continues to impact- all golf courses that have followed. We play 18 holes of golf because the Old Course has 18 holes. When you drive by your local golf course and see a player with a club trying to hit a golf ball out of a deep pit of sand (perhaps in a region of the country where the sand has been trucked in from hundreds of miles away) this is happening only because the sand hazard was an original feature of the Old Course. |
Ron Whitten, a writer for Golf Digest magazine puts it this way: "...the only true influential course I can think of is the Old Course at St. Andrews. Everything in golf architecture is pretty much either a reaction to it, or a reaction against it." As we will learn in Irish Greens, the influence of the Old Course at St. Andrews is felt and seen in the golf courses of Ireland.
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