Golf terminology for the uninitiated.

Golf terminology for the uninitiated.

Golf is a popular game played by men women and children in their millions around the world. Golf and golfers use terminology that to the uninitiated may seem like a foreign language, but with a little time and patience is easy to learn. Here are some of the most popular golf terms and what they mean.

A golf course has eighteen holes. Each hole is given a par.

A round of golf is playing the eighteen holes sequentially.

A tee is the name given to the start of a hole.

A stroke is hitting a golf ball or attempting to hit a golf ball with a golf club.

A par is the set number of strokes that it should take to get the golf ball from the tee into the hole.

A score is totalling all the strokes it took to complete all eighteen holes.

A Handicap: In order for the game of golf to be played by everyone irrespective of their skill level a handicap system is employed.

A high handicap is given to golfers that play a round of golf and continually get high scores in relation to the course par. In golf the lower the score the better and in a game of golf the player with the lowest score is the winner.

Skill levels vary so much between golfers that giving handicaps helps to level the playing field and players with a high handicap can compete with players with a low handicap or no handicap at all, and make a game of it.

How a handicap in golf is works in practice is like this; a golfer with a handicap of six is a better player than a golfer with a handicap of eighteen. If these two golfers were to play each other, and there was no handicap, the better player would win.

But because of the handicap system the weaker player has twelve more strokes than the better player. When both players have played all eighteen holes they total up their score. The player with a handicap of six may have completed the round with a score of 82; he can then deduct his handicap of six strokes from his score to give him a new total of 76. The golfer with a handicap of eighteen totals his score and say he completed the round with a score of 93; he then deducts his handicap of eighteen giving him a new total of 75. As the player with the least score wins in this case the weaker golfer with the high handicap beat the better player .