Beginner Golf 44 min read

Golf terms: the glossary

Every golf term a beginner meets in the first year and a 10-handicap still argues about, defined in a sentence or three, with the distance vocabulary most glossaries skip.

Updated September 25, 2026

Golf has more vocabulary than most sports, and most of it gets used at you before anyone explains it. This glossary defines the words the way golfers say them: the formal terms from the Rules of Golf and the World Handicap System, put in plain English rather than quoted, and the course-speak (snowman, breakfast ball, short-sided) that no rulebook mentions. Jump to a letter below or use your browser’s find command. Where a term deserves a longer read, the definition links to the guide that gives it. If you are new to the game, start with the first-year guide for beginners and come back here whenever a word stops you. Four lists at the end gather the distance terms, the scoring terms, the rules terms and the slang, so you can read a whole family of words at once.

On this page

A

Ace

A hole-in-one: the tee shot goes in the hole.

Address

The position you take just before swinging, with the club behind the ball and your feet set.

Adjusted Gross Score

Your actual score after each hole is capped at net double bogey (par plus 5 before you have a Handicap Index) for handicap purposes, as the USGA and the World Handicap System require. It is the number that feeds your Score Differential, not the raw total on the card.

Advice

Under the Rules of Golf, any comment meant to influence another player’s choice of club, the way a stroke is made, or how to play a hole. Asking for it or giving it draws a penalty, except between partners or with your caddie. Distance, the position of a penalty area and the Rules themselves are public information, not advice.

Aeration

Maintenance in which the greens are punched full of small holes and often topped with sand so the roots can breathe.

Airmail

To fly the ball clean over the green, usually with the wrong club.

Albatross

Three under par on a single hole: a two on a par 5 or a hole-in-one on a par 4. Americans usually say double eagle; it is the same score.

Alignment

Where your feet, hips, shoulders and clubface are pointed relative to the target.

All square

Tied, in match play.

Alternate shot

A two-player format in which partners share one ball and take turns hitting it. The formal name is foursomes.

Angle of attack

How steeply the clubhead is travelling down (or up) as it reaches the ball.

Approach shot

Any shot meant to land on the green, usually the second on a par 4 or the third on a par 5. The most common approach question, what club to hit from 150 yards, has a better answer than “7-iron”.

Apron

The short-cut collar of grass around a green, between the putting surface and the rough. Also called the fringe.

Army golf

Slang for a hole played left, right, left, right across the fairway.

Attend the flag

To hold the flagstick for a putting partner and pull it as the ball approaches. Since 2019 you may also putt with the flagstick left in, so attending is optional.

Automatic two-putt

A local practice, usually on freshly aerated greens, in which every player takes two putts once on the green instead of putting out. It is a pace-of-play convenience, not part of the Rules, so ask your club before posting a score played that way.

Away

The player whose ball is farthest from the hole.

B

Back nine

Holes 10 through 18.

Backspin

Backward rotation put on the ball by a lofted clubface.

Backswing

The movement of the club away from the ball to the top of the swing.

Ball mark

The dent a ball makes when it lands on a soft green. Also called a pitch mark; repairing yours, and one more, is basic etiquette.

Ball marker

A coin or small flat disc placed behind the ball on the green so the ball can be lifted and cleaned.

Ball position

Where the ball sits between your feet at address.

Banana ball

A slice with an especially big curve, shaped like the fruit.

Barkie

A par made after the ball hit a tree during the hole.

Baseball grip

Holding the club with all ten fingers on the handle, none overlapping or interlocking.

Bent grass

A fine, cool-season grass used for greens in the northern United States.

Bermuda grass

A warm-season grass used across the South for fairways and greens.

Best ball

A team format in which each player plays their own ball and the lowest score on each hole counts for the side. Two-player best ball is four-ball in the Rules.

Birdie

One under par on a hole: a 3 on a par 4.

Bite

What golfers shout at a ball that is flying too far, hoping backspin will stop it.

Blade

A thin, traditional iron with no cavity in the back, favoured by strong ball-strikers. As a verb, to blade a shot is to catch it with the leading edge and send it screaming low.

A shot where you cannot see the landing area, usually because of a hill or a dogleg. Your eyes have nothing to judge, so the number matters more than usual; there is a guide to hitting a green you can’t see.

Block

A shot that flies straight but well right of the target for a right-hander, because the clubface never squared.

Bogey

One over par on a hole: a 5 on a par 4.

Bogey golfer

Loosely, a player who averages about a bogey per hole and shoots around 90. In the handicap system the term is specific: a golfer with a Handicap Index of about 20.0 for men or 24.0 for women. The bogey golf guide explains why this is the fastest road to breaking 90.

Bogey Rating

The World Handicap System’s measure of how many strokes a bogey golfer is expected to take on a set of tees. The gap between the Bogey Rating and the Course Rating is what produces the Slope Rating.

Bomb

A very long drive.

Bounce

The angle on the sole of a wedge that keeps the leading edge from digging into sand or turf.

Bounce back

A birdie or better on the hole immediately after a bogey or worse.

Break

The amount a putt curves because of the slope of the green.

Break 100

To shoot 99 or better for 18 holes, the first big milestone for a new golfer. It needs no birdies and no heroics, as the plan for breaking 100 shows; the next milestone is breaking 90.

Breakfast ball

A free second tee shot on the first hole, taken because the first one was ugly.

Bump and run

A low chip that lands short of the green or just on it and rolls the rest of the way like a putt.

Bunker

A hollow filled with sand, placed to punish a wayward shot. The Rules treat it as its own area of the course, which is why you cannot ground your club in the sand before the stroke.

C

Cabbage

Slang for thick, tangled rough.

Caddie

A person who carries a player’s clubs and may give advice on club choice and strategy.

Carry

The distance a ball travels in the air before it first touches the ground. Carry is the number that matters when there is water or a bunker between you and the landing area, and it is usually shorter than the total you remember; the difference is the subject of carry versus total distance.

Cart path only

A course rule, usually after rain, that keeps carts on the paved paths.

Casual water

The old name for a temporary puddle on the course that is not a penalty area. The Rules now call it temporary water, and you get free relief from it.

Cavity back

An iron with the weight moved to the perimeter of the head, leaving a hollow behind the face.

Center of the green

The middle of the putting surface, and the right target on most approach shots. The flag moves every morning; the middle does not, and a ball there leaves a putt wherever the hole is cut. Sprinkler heads, most GPS apps and course maps measure to it, and Yardage shows that one number and nothing else. Why it pays every round and where the mapped point comes from each have a guide.

Championship tees

The farthest-back set of tee markers on a course, used for competitions.

Chili-dip

A chip or pitch in which the club digs into the ground behind the ball and the ball goes a few feet.

Chip

A short, low shot from just off the green that spends little time in the air and rolls to the hole.

Chip-in

A chip that goes in the hole.

Choke down

To grip the club lower on the handle, shortening it for control or to take a little distance off a shot.

Chunk

To hit the ground before the ball, taking a divot that should have been turf and leaving the ball well short.

Closed face

A clubface pointed left of the target (for a right-hander) at address or impact.

Closed stance

Standing with the back foot pulled away from the target line, so the body aims right of the target.

Club distance

How far you hit each club, on average, on a normal strike. Most golfers overestimate theirs by remembering the best one; finding your real numbers is worth an afternoon, and the club distance chart shows sourced ranges by skill level.

Club up

To take one more club than the distance suggests, for wind, cold, a hill, or an honest look at your usual miss. Amateurs come up short far more often than long, which is the case for clubbing up.

Club-length

The Rules’ unit for measuring relief areas and the teeing area: the length of the longest club in your bag other than a putter. One club-length is the usual relief distance; two applies in some situations, such as lateral relief from a red penalty area.

Clubface

The part of the clubhead that strikes the ball.

Clubhead speed

How fast the clubhead is moving at impact, measured in miles per hour.

Collar

The ring of slightly longer grass around a green.

Comebacker

The putt you have left after running the first one past the hole.

Committee

Whoever is in charge of a competition or the course, under the Rules of Golf.

Compression

A measure of how much a golf ball deforms at impact; lower compression balls feel softer.

Condor

Four under par on one hole: a hole-in-one on a par 5.

Course Handicap

The number of strokes you receive on a particular course and set of tees. Under the World Handicap System it is your Handicap Index multiplied by the Slope Rating over 113, plus the Course Rating minus par, rounded to a whole number. The handicap guide walks through the arithmetic, and the handicap calculator does it for you.

Course management

Choosing targets and clubs to fit your real game rather than your best day: where to aim, when to lay up, which side of the hole to miss on. It costs nothing, and the course management guide shows the arithmetic.

Course Rating

What a scratch golfer is expected to shoot on a set of tees, to one decimal place; 72.3 on a par-72 course means a little harder than par. Together with Slope Rating it describes how hard a course is, as Course Rating and Slope Rating, explained lays out.

Cross-handed

A putting grip with the left hand below the right for a right-hander.

Cup

The plastic or metal liner inside the hole, and by extension the hole itself. Under the Rules the hole is 4¼ inches (108 mm) across.

Cut

Two meanings. A cut shot curves gently left to right for a right-hander, a controlled fade; the cut in a tournament is the score after two rounds that decides who plays the weekend.

D

Daily-fee course

A privately owned course open to the public, where you pay per round rather than joining. Semi-private courses sell memberships and public tee times.

Dance floor

Slang for the putting green.

Dead

Two opposite meanings. A ball that is dead is stone dead, so close to the hole the putt is a formality; a lie that is dead is one with no shot at all.

Dew sweeper

A golfer who takes the first tee time of the morning, before the dew has burned off.

Dispersion

The spread of where your shots actually finish with a given club, side to side and long to short. Most golfers’ dispersion with a 7-iron is wider than the green they are aiming at, which is why knowing your distances includes knowing your misses.

Distance-measuring device

The Rules’ term for a laser rangefinder, a GPS watch or a phone app that measures distance. Under Rule 4.3a they are allowed unless a Local Rule prohibits them, and even where allowed a device may not be used to measure elevation or to recommend a club or a line. The details are in the rules on rangefinders and GPS.

Distance to the green

A number that only means something once you know which point it measures to: the front edge, the middle, the back edge or the flag. Sprinkler heads and GPS usually mean the middle; a laser aimed at the flag means the flag. Front, center, back sorts out which is which.

Divot

The strip of turf a well-struck iron removes after the ball, and the hole it leaves.

Dogleg

A hole that bends left or right partway along, like the hind leg of a dog.

Dormie

In match play, being ahead by as many holes as remain.

Double bogey

Two over par on a hole: a 6 on a par 4. The occasional one is part of golf; strings of them are what the blow-up-hole protocol is designed to stop.

Double cross

Setting up to hit one shape and producing the opposite: aiming left to play a fade and hooking it further left.

Double eagle

The American name for an albatross, three under par on a hole.

Downhill lie

A ball resting on a slope that runs down toward the target. The shot comes out lower and with less loft, so it flies farther and tends to go right for a right-hander.

Downswing

The part of the swing from the top to impact.

Draw

A shot that curves gently right to left for a right-hander, on purpose.

Drive

The first shot on a hole, usually with a driver on par 4s and par 5s.

Driver

The longest club in the bag, with the biggest head and, apart from the putter, the least loft, built for the tee. The average golfer hits it far less than television suggests; the honest driver numbers are sourced.

Driving range

The practice area where you hit balls at targets from mats or grass.

Drop

The way a ball is put back in play when taking relief: held at knee height and let go so it falls into the relief area.

Drop zone

A marked area where the Committee lets you drop a ball as an extra relief option, common beside island greens and penalty areas where the normal options are awkward.

Duck hook

A hook that dives low and hard to the left almost immediately.

Duff

To mishit a shot badly, especially to chunk it a few feet.

E

Eagle

Two under par on a hole: a 3 on a par 5 or a 2 on a par 4.

Elevation

The height difference between you and the target. Uphill shots play longer than the measured distance and downhill shots play shorter; the plays-like guide puts numbers on it.

Embedded ball

A ball stuck in its own pitch mark in the ground, with part of it below the surface. In the general area you get free relief from it, dropping within one club-length of the spot.

Equitable Stroke Control

The old USGA system that capped hole scores for handicap posting by handicap band. It was retired in 2020 and replaced by net double bogey.

Etiquette

The unwritten customs of golf: be quiet while others hit, keep pace, repair the course, stay out of a player’s line. Most of it comes down to not slowing anyone down or costing them a shot.

Even par

A score equal to par, on a hole or for a round.

Exceptional score reduction

An extra downward adjustment the World Handicap System makes when you post a round whose Score Differential is at least 7.0 strokes better than your Handicap Index. It trims the index by an additional stroke or two beyond the normal calculation so a breakthrough round is reflected faster.

Executive course

A short course made up mostly of par 3s with a few short par 4s, playable in a couple of hours.

F

Fade

A shot that curves gently left to right for a right-hander, on purpose.

Fairway

The closely mown strip between the tee and the green where you are meant to land the ball.

Fairway bunker

A bunker placed along the fairway to catch tee shots, as opposed to one beside the green.

Fairway wood

A wood with more loft than a driver, designed to be hit from the ground as well as the tee.

Fat

A shot where the club hits the turf before the ball.

Fescue

A wispy, tall grass used in the rough on links-style courses.

First cut

The band of slightly longer grass immediately beside the fairway, before the deeper rough starts.

Flagstick

The pole with a flag that marks the hole on the green. Golfers call it the pin, and where it is cut changes daily.

Flatstick

Slang for the putter.

Flex

How much a shaft bends during the swing, sold in grades from ladies and senior through regular, stiff and extra stiff.

Flier lie

A lie in light rough where grass gets between the clubface and the ball, cutting the spin. The ball comes out hot and flies farther than normal, often over the green.

Flop shot

A very high, soft pitch played with an open lob wedge that lands almost without rolling.

Follow-through

The part of the swing after the ball is struck, ending with the club over the shoulder.

Foot wedge

Kicking the ball into a better lie when nobody is looking.

Fore

The warning shouted when a ball is heading toward people.

Forged

Irons made by hammering a single billet of soft steel into shape, rather than pouring molten metal into a mold (cast).

Forward tees

The set of tee markers closest to the green on each hole, making the course shortest. Playing them is a distance decision, not a status one, as the tee-selection guide argues.

Four-ball

The Rules’ name for two-player best ball: each partner plays their own ball and the better score counts on each hole.

Foursomes

The Rules’ name for alternate shot: two partners play one ball, taking turns, with one of them driving on odd holes and the other on even. In America “a foursome” just means four golfers playing together, which is a different thing entirely.

Free relief

Moving your ball without penalty because of a condition the Rules say you should not have to play from: a cart path, ground under repair, temporary water, an embedded ball. For most of these, the drop goes within one club-length of the nearest point of complete relief; for an embedded ball, it is measured from the spot right behind the ball.

Fried egg

A ball half-buried in a bunker with a ring of sand around it, looking like the breakfast.

Fringe

The ring of short grass surrounding the green, cut a little longer than the putting surface.

Frog hair

Slang for the fringe, especially in the American South.

Front nine

Holes 1 through 9.

Front, middle, back

The three distances you can have for a green: to the front edge, the middle and the back edge. On a deep green front and back can be 40 yards apart, more than one club, so know which number you are reading.

G

Gap wedge

A wedge with loft between a pitching wedge and a sand wedge, filling the distance gap between them.

Gear effect

The way a ball struck off the toe or heel of a driver picks up sidespin in the opposite direction, like two gears meshing.

General area

The Rules’ name for the whole course except the teeing area of the hole being played, its putting green, bunkers and penalty areas.

General penalty

The standard penalty for most breaches of the Rules: loss of hole in match play, two strokes in stroke play.

Gimme

A short putt your opponent concedes so you do not have to hole it. Legal only in match play; in stroke play every putt must be holed, whatever your friends allow on Saturday.

Good-good

Two players conceding each other’s short putts at the same time so neither has to hit one.

GPS

The Global Positioning System: a constellation of satellites that lets a receiver work out where it is. A golf GPS device or app compares your position with a map of the course to give the distance to a point on the green. GPS.gov says GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft) radius under open sky, and worse near buildings, bridges and trees. How golf GPS works and how accurate it is have the detail.

GPS watch

A wristwatch with a GPS receiver and course maps that shows distances on your arm. Convenient, small-screened and one more thing to charge; the trade-offs against a phone are in watch versus phone.

Grain

The direction the grass blades on a green lean, most noticeable on Bermuda.

Green

The closely mown, smooth area around the hole where you putt.

Green fee

The price of playing a round at a course.

Green speed

How fast a ball rolls on a green, measured in feet with a Stimpmeter. Faster greens need softer hands and more break.

Greenie

A side bet on a par 3 won by the player whose tee shot finishes closest to the hole on the green.

Greenkeeper

The person who looks after the course; in the United States usually called the superintendent.

Greens book

A booklet of detailed slope maps of each green, used for reading putts.

Greens in regulation (GIR)

Reaching the putting surface in two strokes fewer than par: one shot on a par 3, two on a par 4, three on a par 5. It is one of the statistics that track scoring most closely, and how many you need for each scoring goal is lower than most golfers think.

Greensomes

A two-player format in which both partners drive, choose the better tee shot, then play alternate shot from there.

Grip

Both the rubber handle on the club and the way your hands hold it. The three common holds are the overlapping, interlocking and ten-finger grips.

Gross score

Your actual number of strokes before any handicap is subtracted. For many recreational golfers that is somewhere in the 90s or higher, as the average-score numbers show.

Ground under repair

An area the Committee has marked, usually with white lines or a sign, as damaged or being worked on. You get free relief from it.

Grounding the club

Resting the clubhead on the ground behind the ball at address. Allowed almost everywhere, but not in a bunker, where touching the sand with the club right in front of or behind the ball, on a practice swing or in the backswing draws a penalty.

H

Hacker

An unskilled golfer, said fondly or not depending on who is talking.

Half

A tied hole in match play; the hole is halved and nobody gains.

Handicap

A number describing your playing ability so golfers of different standards can compete evenly: roughly how many strokes over par you shoot on a good day. The word covers several precise terms in the World Handicap System (Handicap Index, Course Handicap, Playing Handicap), and what counts as a good one is lower than the average.

Handicap allowance

The percentage of your Course Handicap you actually receive in a given format, set by the World Handicap System to keep team and individual events fair. It is what turns a Course Handicap into a Playing Handicap.

Handicap Index

The portable measure of your ability under the World Handicap System, to one decimal place. It is the average of your best 8 Score Differentials from your most recent 20 rounds, and you can work it out by hand.

Hanging lie

A ball sitting on a slope, above or below your feet or on a downhill, where the stance is awkward.

Hard cap

The World Handicap System’s ceiling on how far your Handicap Index can rise: no more than 5.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index from the previous year, per the USGA. The soft cap slows the climb before that.

Hardpan

Bare, hard-packed ground with no grass.

Hazard

The traditional word for bunkers and water. The Rules retired it in 2019 in favour of penalty area and bunker, but everyone still says it.

High side

The uphill side of the hole on a breaking putt.

Hole

Both the 4¼-inch cup in the green and the whole unit of tee, fairway and green that you play to reach it.

Hole location

Where the hole is cut on the green today, also called the pin position. Staff move it most days, which is why a distance to the middle of the green is stable and a distance to the flag is not.

Hole out

To finish a hole by getting the ball in the cup.

Hole-in-one

The tee shot goes in. See ace, and check your insurance if you are in a tournament that pays for the bar.

Honor

The right to tee off first, earned by the lowest score on the previous hole. Spelled honour outside the United States.

Hook

A shot that curves hard right to left for a right-hander, usually unintended.

Hosel

The socket where the shaft joins the clubhead.

Hybrid

A club that crosses a fairway wood’s rounded head with an iron’s length, easier to launch than the long iron it replaces. One of the first things a beginner’s bag should contain.

I

Immovable obstruction

An artificial object you cannot reasonably move: a cart path, a sprinkler head, a shelter. If it interferes with your stance or swing in the general area, you get free relief.

Impact

The instant the clubface meets the ball.

In play

The status of a ball from the moment you make a stroke at it in the teeing area until it is holed, lost, out of bounds or lifted.

Inside the leather

Close enough to the hole to count as a gimme. The original yardstick was the length of a putter’s grip; many golfers now measure from the putter head to the bottom of the grip instead.

Interlocking grip

Holding the club with the little finger of the trailing hand hooked between the index and middle fingers of the lead hand.

Iron

A club with a flat, angled metal face, numbered so that higher numbers have more loft and hit shorter, higher shots.

Island green

A green surrounded on all sides by water, reachable only by carrying the shot the full distance. The carry number is the only one that matters there.

J

Jar

Slang for the hole.

Juice

Slang for backspin.

Jungle

Deep rough or trees, anywhere a ball is hard to find and harder to hit from.

K

Kick

A bounce off something, good or bad: a cart path, a mound, a tree.

Kikuyu

A thick, springy warm-season grass found on some courses in California and Hawaii.

Knee-knocker

A short putt, three to five feet, that is too long to be a gimme and too short to miss without embarrassment.

Knockdown

A deliberately low shot with a shortened swing and an abbreviated finish, used in wind or under branches. It flies shorter than a full shot with the same club, so take more club.

L

Lag putt

A long putt where the goal is to leave the ball close, not to hole it.

Lateral relief

A relief option that lets you drop within two club-lengths of where the ball crossed into a red penalty area, no nearer the hole, for one penalty stroke.

Lay-up

A shot played deliberately short of trouble or short of the green, to set up the next one. It is a distance decision, as when to lay up explains, not a test of courage.

Lay-up number

The distance to the spot you want to lay up to, usually a full-swing distance short of a hazard or the green. Work it out by subtracting the distance you want left from the distance you have.

Leave

Where a shot finishes relative to the next one: “a good leave” is a lay-up that left a full wedge, or a putt that left an uphill tap-in.

Lie

The situation of the ball as it rests: on short grass, in a divot, in rough, on a slope.

Lie angle

The angle between the shaft and the sole of a club when it sits flat.

Line

The path you intend a putt or a shot to take.

Line of play

The Rules’ term for the path you want the ball to take after a stroke, plus a sensible margin above it and to each side.

Links

A course built on the sandy, dune-covered land between the sea and farmland, treeless and firm, the original form of golf.

Lip

The edge of the hole, or the edge of a bunker.

Lip-out

A putt that hits the edge of the cup, spins around part of it and comes out.

Live Activity

An iPhone feature that shows live information from an app on the Lock Screen and, on iPhones that have one, in the Dynamic Island, without opening the app. A golf app can use one for the current hole and the yardage; golf yardage on the Lock Screen shows how it works during a round.

Lob wedge

The highest-lofted wedge in most bags, typically 58 to 60 degrees, for short, high shots that stop quickly.

Local Rule

A rule the Committee adds for its own course or competition, printed on the scorecard or a notice board. Local Rules can prohibit distance-measuring devices, allow preferred lies, or define out of bounds; the R&A and USGA publish model wording for common ones.

Loft

The angle of the clubface relative to vertical.

Long game

Driving and approach shots, everything from outside roughly 100 yards. Mark Broadie’s strokes-gained research found it accounts for about two-thirds of the scoring gap between golfers of different levels.

Long iron

The 2-, 3- and 4-irons: low loft, hard to launch, mostly replaced by hybrids in amateur bags.

Loose impediment

A natural object that is not fixed or growing: a leaf, a twig, a stone, a pine cone. You may move one anywhere without penalty, provided the ball does not move as a result.

Lost ball

A ball that has not been found within three minutes of the search beginning. The penalty is stroke and distance: add a stroke and play again from where you last hit.

Low Handicap Index

The lowest Handicap Index you have held over the previous 365 days, which the World Handicap System uses as the reference point for its soft and hard caps.

Low side

The downhill side of the hole on a breaking putt.

M

Major

One of the four biggest men’s championships: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. The women’s game has five.

Marker

In stroke play, the person who keeps your score and signs your card, usually a fellow competitor. Not to be confused with a ball marker.

Marshal

A course employee or volunteer who keeps groups moving and enforces pace of play.

Match play

A format in which two sides play hole by hole, and the side that wins more holes wins the match. Your total score does not matter, only whether you beat the other player on each hole.

Maximum score

A stroke-play format in which the Committee caps the score on any hole, for example at double par, a fixed number or net double bogey. Pick up when you reach the cap and move on.

Medal play

Another name for stroke play, where every stroke counts and the lowest total wins.

Member’s bounce

A lucky kick, typically off a slope or a tree, that sends a poor shot somewhere good.

Misclub

To choose a club that cannot reach the distance you face, or that goes too far. Most misclubs come from an optimistic memory of how far the club goes, not from the club.

Model Local Rule

Standard wording published by the R&A and USGA that a Committee can adopt as a Local Rule. Model Local Rule G-5, for example, is the one that prohibits distance-measuring devices in a competition.

Movable obstruction

An artificial object you can shift without much effort and without breaking it or the course: a rake, a bunker sign, a cup of ice. You may move it anywhere, without penalty.

Mulligan

A do-over: hitting the shot again without counting the first one.

Municipal course

A course owned by a city, county or state and open to the public, often the cheapest golf in town. The case for the muni is mostly a case about price and access.

Muscle back

An iron with a solid pad of metal behind the sweet spot instead of a cavity. Another name for a blade.

N

Nassau

Probably the most common golf bet: three matches in one, on the front nine, the back nine and the full 18.

Nearest point of complete relief

The reference point for free relief: the closest spot to where the ball lies, not nearer the hole, where the condition no longer interferes with your lie, stance or swing. The one-club-length relief area is measured from there.

Net double bogey

The most you can post on any hole for handicap purposes under the World Handicap System once you have a Handicap Index: par plus two plus any handicap strokes you receive on that hole. A 9 on a par 4 where you get one stroke goes on the posting form as a 7; before you have an Index, the cap is par plus 5.

Net score

Your gross score minus your handicap strokes. A 92 with a Course Handicap of 20 is a net 72.

Nine-hole course

A course with nine holes, played once for a short round or twice for 18. About a quarter of the courses mapped in Yardage are nine-holers, and the case for nine is about time as much as money.

Nineteenth hole

The clubhouse bar.

No play zone

A part of a penalty area or an abnormal course condition where the Committee prohibits play entirely, usually to protect plants, wildlife or a dangerous spot.

Nuke

To hit a shot far harder and farther than intended.

O

Offset

A club design in which the leading edge of the face sits slightly behind the shaft.

On the screws

Struck dead center.

Open face

A clubface pointed right of the target (for a right-hander) at address or impact.

Open stance

Standing with the front foot pulled back from the target line so the body aims left.

Out of bounds (OB)

Ground beyond the course boundary, marked by white stakes, white lines or a fence. A ball there is played again from the previous spot with a one-stroke penalty, unless the Committee has adopted the Local Rule allowing a two-stroke drop between where it went out and the edge of the nearest fairway.

Over the top

A downswing that starts with the shoulders throwing the club outside the ideal path, cutting across the ball.

Overlapping grip

Holding the club with the little finger of the trailing hand resting on top of the gap between the lead hand’s first two fingers. Also called the Vardon grip; the most common hold in golf.

P

Pace of play

How long a round takes, and whether a group keeps up with the one ahead. Around four hours is the usual target for 18; what actually decides it is mostly how full the course is, and the pace calculator estimates your Saturday.

Pace off

To count strides from a sprinkler head or a marker to your ball, at about a yard per step, to work out a distance. Fine for a few yards; how to pace off yardage also covers when it is not worth the walk.

Par

The number of strokes an expert golfer is expected to need on a hole, based mostly on its length: two putts plus the shots to reach the green. Course par is the sum, usually 70 to 72.

Par 3

A hole short enough to reach the green from the tee. The easiest holes to bogey and the easiest to wreck, which is why par 3 strategy is its own subject.

Par 4

A hole meant to be reached in two shots, the most common type on a course.

Par 5

The longest holes, meant to be reached in three shots, and often an amateur’s best birdie chance when played sensibly.

Parkland course

An inland course with trees, lush grass and defined fairways, the style many American courses follow.

Penalty area

The Rules’ term for water and other areas, marked red or yellow, from which you may take relief for one penalty stroke. You may also play the ball as it lies and even ground your club there.

Penalty stroke

A stroke added to your score for a breach of the Rules or for taking relief, such as from a penalty area or an unplayable lie.

PGA

The PGA of America is the association of club and teaching professionals; the PGA Tour is the separate organization that runs the main men’s professional tour. “PGA pro” usually means the person at your course.

What golfers call the flagstick. Its position changes most days, so a distance to the pin is only good for today.

Pin sheet

A card, common in competitions, giving each hole’s flag position as a depth from the front edge of the green and a distance in from one side. With a distance to the middle and a pin sheet you can estimate the distance to the flag yourself.

Pin-high

Level with the hole, left or right of it, after an approach. It means you judged the distance correctly, whatever the direction did.

Pitch

A short, lofted shot that flies most of the way to the hole and rolls a little.

Pitching wedge

The lowest-lofted wedge and the last club in a standard iron set, used for the longest full wedge shots and for running chips.

Play it as it lies

The first principle of the Rules: hit the ball from where it came to rest, without improving the lie, unless a Rule allows you to move it.

Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC)

A daily adjustment in the World Handicap System that compares everyone’s scores on a course that day with what their handicaps predicted. When weather or course conditions made scoring unusually hard or easy, differentials are adjusted between minus 1 and plus 3 strokes.

Playing Handicap

Your Course Handicap after the format’s handicap allowance is applied: the strokes you actually receive in that event. With a 100 percent allowance it equals the Course Handicap.

Playing through

When a faster group is waved ahead by a slower one.

Plays-like distance

The distance a shot effectively plays once elevation, wind, temperature and altitude are counted, as opposed to the measured distance: a 150-yard shot uphill into wind might play like 165. How each factor changes the number is sourced, and the plays-like calculator does the arithmetic.

Plugged lie

A ball buried in soft sand or turf where it landed. In the general area you get free relief; in a bunker you play it, and it comes out with no spin.

Plus handicap

A Handicap Index below zero, written with a plus sign, for a golfer better than scratch. A plus-2 gives strokes back to the course.

Preferred lies

A Local Rule, usually in winter or after heavy rain, letting you lift, clean and place the ball within a set distance in the fairway. Also called winter rules or lift, clean and place.

Pre-shot routine

The fixed sequence you go through before every shot: check the distance, pick a club, pick a target, one look, go.

Pro shop

The shop at the course where you check in, pay the green fee and buy the glove you forgot.

Provisional ball

A second ball played from the same spot when your first might be lost or out of bounds, to save walking back. You must announce it as a provisional before playing it; if the first ball turns up in bounds, the provisional is picked up.

Pull

A shot that flies straight but left of the target for a right-hander, because the whole swing path was aimed left.

Punch shot

A low, controlled shot played with the ball back in the stance and a short finish, for wind or trees.

Pure

To strike a shot perfectly out of the middle of the face.

Push

A shot that flies straight but right of the target for a right-hander.

Push cart

A three- or four-wheeled trolley you push with your bag on it, the easiest way to walk 18 holes. Walking golf covers how far a round really is and how to carry less.

Putt

A stroke played on the green with a putter, rolling the ball along the ground toward the hole.

Putter

The club with a nearly vertical face used on the green.

Putting green

The Rules’ name for the green of the hole you are playing. A green on another hole is a wrong green, from which you must take free relief.

Q

Quadruple bogey

Four over par on a hole: an 8 on a par 4.

Quail high

A shot that flies low and hard, like a flushed quail.

R

R&A

The governing body for golf everywhere except the United States and Mexico, based in St Andrews, Scotland.

Rake

The tool left beside a bunker for smoothing the sand after you play out.

Rangefinder

A handheld laser device that measures the line-of-sight distance to whatever you aim it at, usually the flag, typically to about a yard. It needs a clear view and a steady hand; whether you need one depends on the golfer, and rangefinder versus GPS compares the options honestly.

Ready golf

Playing when you are ready rather than strictly in order of who is away, as long as it is safe. The Rules encourage it in stroke play to speed things up.

Recovery shot

A shot from trouble (trees, deep rough, a bad bunker) whose only goal is to get back in position.

Red penalty area

A penalty area marked with red stakes or lines, giving you the extra option of lateral relief within two club-lengths of where the ball crossed the edge.

Release

Two meanings. In the swing, the natural unhinging of the wrists through impact; on the course, how far a ball rolls after landing, as in “a lot of release on these firm greens”.

Relief area

The zone in which you must drop and the ball must come to rest when taking relief: one or two club-lengths from a reference point, not nearer the hole, and in the required area of the course.

Reload

To tee up another ball after the first went out of bounds or into the water.

Roll

The distance a ball travels along the ground after it lands; carry plus roll equals total distance. Firm fairways and low shots roll more; a well-struck wedge barely rolls at all.

Rough

The longer grass either side of the fairway and around the green.

Round

A complete circuit of the course, 18 holes by convention or 9 where that is what the course offers.

Rub of the green

Old Rules language for a ball deflected by something outside anyone’s control, such as a bird or a spectator: bad luck, play on.

S

Sand save

Getting up and down from a greenside bunker: out in one and in with one putt.

Sand trap

An everyday American name for a bunker. The Rules only ever say bunker.

Sand wedge

A wedge of around 54 to 56 degrees with a wide, high-bounce sole built to slide through sand.

Sandbagger

A player whose handicap is higher than their real ability, whether by neglect or design, so they get too many strokes in competitions. Called a bandit in Britain.

Sandy

A par made after being in a bunker on the hole.

Score Differential

What each posted round becomes in the World Handicap System: 113 divided by the Slope Rating, times your Adjusted Gross Score minus the Course Rating minus any PCC adjustment. Your best 8 of the last 20 are averaged into your Handicap Index.

Scorecard

The card listing every hole’s par, length from each tee, stroke index and the Course and Slope Ratings, with room for your scores. Reading one properly takes two minutes and tells you which holes you get strokes on.

Scramble

A team format in which everyone hits, the team picks the best ball, and everyone plays from there until the ball is holed.

Scrambling

The statistic for making par or better after missing the green in regulation.

Scratch golfer

A player with a Handicap Index of 0.0, expected to shoot the Course Rating.

Shaft

The steel or graphite tube joining the grip to the clubhead.

Shamble

A team format halfway between a scramble and best ball: everyone drives, the team picks the best drive, then each player plays their own ball from there.

Shank

A shot struck on the hosel that squirts sharply right for a right-hander. The most feared miss in golf, also called a hosel rocket, and never said aloud on the course by the superstitious.

Shoot your age

To post an 18-hole score no higher than your age, a milestone available to good golfers who are old enough.

Short game

Chipping, pitching, bunker play and putting, everything from about 100 yards in. It saves strokes but, per Broadie’s data, decides fewer of them than the long game does.

Short side

Missing the green on the side where the flag is closest to the edge, leaving almost no green to work with.

Shotgun start

A tournament start in which every group tees off at the same time from a different hole.

Skins

A betting game in which each hole is worth a set amount and the outright lowest score on the hole wins it. Tied holes carry the money forward.

Skull

To hit the ball on or above its equator with the leading edge, sending it low and far too long.

Slice

A shot that curves hard left to right for a right-hander and loses distance doing it.

Slope

On a rangefinder, a feature that adjusts the measured distance for elevation change. Under Rule 4.3a you may not use it during a round, casual or competitive, and many models have a switch to turn it off.

Slope Rating

A measure of how much harder a set of tees plays for a bogey golfer than for a scratch golfer, from 55 to 155 with 113 as the standard. A high Slope Rating means higher handicappers need more strokes there.

Snowman

An 8 on a hole, from the shape of the digit.

Soft cap

The first of the World Handicap System’s brakes on a rising index: once your calculated Handicap Index is more than 3.0 strokes above your Low Handicap Index, any further increase is cut in half.

Sprinkler yardage

The distance stamped on or beside a sprinkler head in the fairway, measured to the middle of the green unless the course says otherwise. It is a common distance reference on American courses, and what each marker measures is worth checking once per course.

Stableford

A points format in which each hole scores relative to par (a net par is worth two points, a birdie three, a bogey one, worse nothing) and the highest total wins.

Stance

The position of your feet at address.

Stimpmeter

A grooved metal ramp the USGA uses to measure green speed: a ball is released from a set height and the distance it rolls, in feet, is the reading.

Stinger

A very low, hard, boring tee shot hit with a long iron or fairway wood, designed to run under the wind.

Stroke

Any forward swing of the club meant to hit the ball, whether or not it connects. Every stroke counts, including the whiff; a practice swing is not a stroke.

Stroke and distance

The penalty for a lost ball or one out of bounds: one penalty stroke, and you play again from where the previous stroke was made, losing the distance it travelled.

Stroke Index

The ranking of holes from 1 (hardest) to 18 on the scorecard, used to allocate handicap strokes. With a Course Handicap of 12 you get a stroke on the holes indexed 1 through 12.

Stroke play

The format in which every stroke is counted and the lowest total for the round wins.

Strokes gained

A statistic, developed by Mark Broadie, that compares each shot with the average from the same distance and lie and adds up who gained or lost strokes where.

Sudden death

A playoff in which the first player to win a hole outright takes the title.

Sunday bag

A small, light carry bag with room for a handful of clubs, for a quick walking loop.

Sweet spot

The point on the clubface where a strike produces the most ball speed and no twist.

T

Tap-in

A putt so short you tap it in without lining it up.

Tee

The peg the ball sits on for the first shot of a hole, and also the area you hit that shot from.

Tee markers

The pair of colored blocks that mark the front of the teeing area for each set of tees.

Tee time

The reserved time your group starts the first hole. Arrive early enough to check in and warm up; your first round goes better with 20 minutes to spare.

Teeing area

The rectangle you start each hole from: two club-lengths deep from the front line of the tee markers and as wide as the markers. Your ball must be inside it; your feet may stand outside.

Temporary water

Standing water on the course that is not in a penalty area, visible before or after you take your stance. Free relief applies; the old name was casual water.

Texas wedge

The putter, when used from off the green.

Thin

A shot struck low on the ball with the leading edge, flying lower and often longer than intended.

Three-putt

Taking three putts on a green, usually a long first putt left too far away.

Tight lie

A ball sitting on very short or bare grass with little cushion underneath, leaving no margin for a fat strike.

Tips

The back tees, the longest set on the course. Almost nobody should play them; a distance-based answer to which tees to play usually points two sets forward.

Top

To strike the upper half of the ball so it dribbles along the ground.

Total distance

Carry plus roll: how far a shot goes before it stops. It is the number golfers remember and the wrong one to use over water, which is the point of carry versus total.

Triple bogey

Three over par on a hole: a 7 on a par 4.

Turn

The point between the ninth and tenth holes, often by the clubhouse.

Two-club wind

A wind strong enough that you need two more (or two fewer) clubs than the distance says.

U

Under par

A score lower than par, for a hole or a round.

Unplayable ball

A lie so bad you choose not to play it, which you may declare anywhere except a penalty area. For one penalty stroke you can replay from the previous spot, drop back on a line from the hole, or drop within two club-lengths.

Up and down

Getting the ball in the hole in two shots from off the green: one chip or pitch, one putt.

Uphill lie

A ball resting on a slope rising toward the target. The shot launches higher and shorter and tends to go left for a right-hander, so take more club.

USGA

The United States Golf Association, the governing body for golf in the United States and Mexico.

V

Vanity handicap

A Handicap Index kept artificially low by posting only good rounds, so the number looks better than the golf.

Vardon grip

The overlapping grip, named for Harry Vardon, who popularized it more than a century ago.

W

Waggle

The small back-and-forth movements of the club before the swing starts, used to stay loose.

Waste area

A sandy, unmaintained area that is not a bunker, so you may ground your club and take practice swings in it. Check the Local Rules; courses define them differently.

Water hazard

The old Rules term for a lake, stream or pond in play. Since 2019 it is a penalty area, and you may now ground your club and move loose impediments in it.

Wedge

The highest-lofted irons, used for short approaches and around the green: pitching, gap, sand and lob wedges, in rising order of loft.

Whiff

A swing that misses the ball completely.

White stakes

The markers for out of bounds. The boundary runs along the inside edge of the stakes at ground level, and a ball is out only when all of it is over the line.

Wood

The clubs with large, rounded heads built for distance: the driver and the fairway woods.

World Handicap System (WHS)

The single handicap system used worldwide since 2020, run jointly by the USGA and the R&A. It defines the Handicap Index, Course Handicap, Score Differential and the other capitalized terms in this glossary.

Worm burner

A shot that never gets more than a foot or two off the ground and runs along the turf.

Wrong ball

Any ball other than the one you have in play, including another player’s ball or an abandoned one.

Wrong green

A putting green other than the one on the hole you are playing. You may not play from it; take free relief at the nearest point off the green.

X–Z

X-out

A golf ball sold cheaply with the brand name crossed out because of a cosmetic flaw.

Yardage

The distance to a target in yards, most often to the middle of the green. The word also covers the length of a hole and of a whole course from a given set of tees.

Yardage book

A small booklet with a drawing of every hole, distances from landmarks, green depths and hazard carries. Useful when playing a course you have never seen; tour caddies build their own.

Yardage marker

A post, plate, disc or colored stake in the fairway showing the distance to the green, usually to the middle, and often red for 100 yards, white for 150 and blue for 200 on American courses. The colors are a convention, not a rule, so what the colored markers mean is worth checking once per course.

Yellow penalty area

A penalty area marked yellow, offering two relief options for one stroke: replay from the previous spot, or drop back on the line from the hole through where the ball crossed. No lateral relief; that option comes only with red marking.

Yips

An involuntary twitch or freeze during a short putt or chip, part nerves and part neurology.

Zoysia

A dense, warm-season grass used on fairways in the transition zone of the United States.

Distance terms, gathered

Most glossaries stop at “yardage”. These are the words golfers use when they are actually working out a number: what the marker measures, which edge of the green a distance refers to, how far the ball flies versus how far it rolls, and what a hill or a wind does to the club. Read them together and the phrase “I’ve got 148 to the middle” turns into a plan.

Scoring terms, gathered

The names for scores on a hole run from the birds (birdie, eagle, albatross, condor) down through bogey and its multiples to the snowman. The handicap terms are the World Handicap System's own vocabulary, capitalized because each one has a precise meaning; the formats are the ways a round or a match can be scored.

Rules terms, gathered

These are the Rules of Golf words, defined above in plain language rather than quoted; the R&A's definitions and the USGA's Rules Hub have the official text. Several of the 2019 changes replaced older words (hazard, casual water, through the green) with the ones listed here, so if your playing partner uses the old term, both of you are talking about the same thing.

Slang, gathered

None of these appear in a rulebook and all of them appear in a Saturday foursome. Learn them so you can follow the conversation; use them sparingly so nobody thinks you learned them from a glossary.

Good shots: pure, on the screws, bomb, stinger, dead, pin-high, sandy, barkie, greenie
Bad shots: chunk, chili-dip, skull, shank, top, whiff, worm burner, banana ball, duck hook, double cross, airmail, nuke, army golf, quail high
The course: dance floor, frog hair, cabbage, jungle, sand trap, jar, nineteenth hole, tips
The round: breakfast ball, mulligan, gimme, good-good, foot wedge, reload, dew sweeper, member's bounce, kick, rub of the green
People: hacker, sandbagger, vanity handicap
Everything else: flatstick, Texas wedge, juice, bite, snowman, knee-knocker, yips