More Golf
Trivia from 
| Return to Community
Events Home Page | Return to For Golfers Only |
|
Golf Trivia
– Continued Let’s
see how good you are with this short trivia quiz! (Answers at the bottom of the page) Trivia question #1: When Greg Norman collapsed in the
final round of the US Masters in 1996, Nick Faldo ended up winning by 5 shots.
Norman finished 2nd but who finished 3rd? Trivia question #2: What is Chevy Chase's character name
in Caddyshack? Trivia question #3: In the movie Tin Cup, how many times did Kevin
Costner's character hit the ball in the water? Trivia question #4: Including the Old Course, how many golf courses
are on the St. Andrews
links site? Trivia question #5: In millimeters, how wide is the golf hole? Trivia question #6: What golf company made the first metal woods? Trivia question #7: Who made world headlines by all but
stripping naked to play a shot from a muddy lie during his first round of the
CA Championship on Friday, March 13, 2009? Wearing nothing but a glove and
his jocks he took on the muddy lie and made bogey. He's copped a lot from
everyone including fellow professionals for this daring golf shot but I think
it's something we can all learn from.
What’s
the Origin of “Mulligan”? The
bottom line is that we don't know. Some mysteries may never be solved. The
term "mulligan" in golf is a second shot allowed by an opponent and
not counted on the scorecard. Just as an aside, note that Mulligan is also a
general "nickname" or stereotype for an Irishman, an underworld
term for policeman (obviously dating back to when so many police were Irish),
and a type of stew. Presumably all these relate to the surname Mulligan, of
Irish origin. The term mulligan in golf dates from the 1940s, and the origin
is uncertain. By 1949, it had made its way into P. Cummings' Dictionary of
Sports, so must have been fairly common before that. One theory about the
origin cites a certain individual named Mulligan who blew so many drives that
the club allowed him blah blah blah.
Those are presumably the type of origin stories that you hear a particular
golf club claim for their own. Another theory ties to the period when
Irish-Americans were joining fancy country clubs and were derided as
incompetent golfers. That would make the term basically an ethnic slur that
caught on, like "Indian summer" or "Dutch treat." Source: Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
It’s
all a matter of distance! The
earliest golf balls were a thin leather bag stuffed with feathers (feathery);
it was not a distance ball, falling short of 200 yards. The gutta-percha ball
(whitish rubber derived from the coagulated milky latex of the gutta-percha
tree) was adopted in 1848, reached an upper limit distance of 225 yards. The
rubber ball of 1899 helped golfers achieve greater distance. A 430 yard drive
was made by Craig Wood in the British Open at St. Andrews in 1933. George
Gayer, American pro made a 426 yard drive in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. The
greatest recorded carry of a golf ball is 458 yards, by America's Jack
Hamm, at Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA, on July 20, 1993. Today, routine tee
shots of 300 yards and more are not unusual for some professionals with their
high tech drivers and balls. But,
in 1836 Samuel Messieux whacked a feathery 361
yards at St. Andrews – still the longest recorded drive with such a ball!
Reports say the shot was downwind on frozen ground. What’s
the Origin of “Fore”? This
is another term whose exact origin can't be stated. "Fore" is
another word for "ahead" (think of a ship's fore and aft). Yelling
"fore" is simply a shorter way to yell "watch out ahead"
(or "watch out before"). It allows golfers to be forewarned, in
other words. The British Golf Museum cites an 1881 reference to
"fore" in a golf book, establishing that the term was already in
use at that early date (the USGA suggests the term may have been in use as
early as the 1700s). The museum also surmises that the term evolved from
"forecaddie." A forecaddie is a person who accompanies a group
around the golf course, often going forward to be in a position to pinpoint
the locations of the groups' shots. If a member of the group hit an errant
shot, the thinking goes, they may have alerted the
forecaddie by yelling out the term. It was eventually shorted to just
"fore." A popular theory is that the term has a military origin. In
warfare of the 17th and 18th century (a time period when golf was really
taking hold in Britain), infantry advanced in formation while artillery
batteries fired from behind, over their heads. An artilleryman about to fire
would yell "beware before," alerting nearby infantrymen to drop to
the ground to avoid the shells screaming overhead. So when golfers misfired
and send their missiles - golf balls - screaming off target, "beware
before" became shortened to "fore." Sources: British Golf
Museum, USGA Library, Brent Kelley What’s
the Origin of “Tee”? The origins of golf are shrouded in history and
probably evolved from other games in which a small object was struck with a
stick. The Romans had a game called Paganica, which
involved hitting a stone with a stick. The French had a similar game called chole, while the English had cambuca,
which used a ball made of wood. Possibly the strongest claim to golf comes
from the Dutch, who were known to play a game called kolfas
early as 1296 (disputed by many). In its original form, kolfas
was played on any available terrain including churchyards, roadways, and
frozen lakes. The object was to hit a succession of targets by striking the
ball with a long-handled wooden club. To allow a clear shot, the ball was
slightly elevated on a pile of sand called a tuitje, from which we get the
modern term tee. |
Do
you know the old club names?
The
Unsinkable Titanic Thompson! Golf’s
greatest hustler when asked if he would ever turn pro: “I could not afford the cut in
pay.” He
once bet a group of players that he could hit a tee shot 500 yards: He didn't
tell them it would be in the dead of winter across a frozen lake. He liked to
bet that he could throw a peanut over anybody's clubhouse. Unbeknownst to his
victims, the peanut shell was filled with ball bearings. Born Alvin Clarence
Thomas, Titanic Thompson was a hustler during the “Roaring '20s", plain
and simple. He became the subject of fact and fantasy in his day, the topic
of conversation at gaming tables and golf courses all over the country. In
the days when top pros made $30,000 in a year, Thompson often made that in a
week. He died in 1974. He
was an excellent golfer, with the ability to hide his skill until just the
right moment. He could win by a stroke by shooting 99 or 69 either right
handed or left handed. Thompson, according to Stowers'
book “The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson,” once beat Byron Nelson head to head
for nine holes. Harvey Pennick ran into Thompson
and knew he couldn’t beat him! But
not all of his deals paid off. He tried to fix a horse race in Mexico by
bribing the other jockeys to finish behind his horse. Trouble was, his steed broke its leg yards from the finish line! Source: The
Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, by Carlton Stowers Why
are Golf Courses 18 Holes in Length? Like
many developments throughout golf history, the standardization of 18 holes
did not happen as the result of a momentous decision agreed upon by many. And
again, like many developments in golf, the standardization of 18 holes can be
credited to St. Andrews. Prior
to the mid-1760s - and right up until the early 1900s - it was common to find
golf courses that were comprised of 12 holes, or 19, or 23, or 15, or any
other number. Then, around 1764, St. Andrews converted from 22 holes to 18
holes. The reason? Well, everyone knows 18 holes are easier to take care of
than 22! Eighteen
holes did not become the standard until the early 1900s, but from 1764
onward, more courses copied the St. Andrews model. Then, in 1858, the Royal
& Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews issued new rules. I'll
let Sam Groves, curator of the British Golf Museum who helped me with this
explanation, take it from here: "In
1858, the R&A issued new rules for its members; Rule 1 stated 'one round
of the Links or 18 holes is reckoned a match unless otherwise We can only
presume that, as many clubs looked to the R&A for advice, this was slowly
adopted throughout Britain. By the 1870s, therefore, more courses had 18
holes and a round of golf was being accepted as consisting of 18 holes." Sources: British
Golf Museum, USGA Library, Brent Kelley How
Did the Word "Dormie" Originate? There
are some legends floating around that Mary Queen of Scots had something to do
with the origin of the term "dormie."
It's true that Mary was a golfer, but the word "dormie"
did not originate with her or because of her. Dormie comes from the
word "dormir," which shares a French and
Latin origin. "Dormir" means "to
sleep." "Dormie" means that a player
has reached a match-play lead that is insurmountable - and so the player can
relax, knowing that he cannot lose the match. "Dormir"
(to sleep) turns into "dormie" (relax,
you can't lose). Source: British
Golf Museum How
Did the Terms "Birdie" and "Eagle" Acquire their
Meanings? Which
came first, the birdie or the eagle? The birdie, and
the eagle followed and continued the feathered theme. In
American slang of the 19th Century, the term "bird" was applied to
anything particularly great. "Bird" was the "cool" of the
1800s in the U.S. So
on the golf course, a great shot - one that led to an under-par score - came
to be known as a "bird," which was then transformed into
"birdie." The term birdie was in worldwide use by the 1910s, and
it's believed it debuted in the U.S. in 1899. An
"eagle" simply followed "birdie," being added to the lexicon
in keeping with the avian image of birdie. And "albatross" later
came along for the same reason. Source: British
Golf Museum Where
did the word “golf” come from? The
earliest reference to golf as a game was in Scotland around 1457. Did the
word "golf" originate as an acronym for "gentlemen only,
ladies forbidden"? That's a common old wives' tale. Like most modern
words, the word "golf" derives from older languages and dialects.
In this case, the languages in question are medieval Dutch and old Scots.
Here's what the USGA Museum says about the issue: "While many Scots
firmly maintain that golf evolved from a family of stick-and-ball games
widely practiced throughout the British Isles during the Middle Ages,
considerable evidence suggests that the game derived from stick-and-ball
games that were played in France, Germany and the Low Countries." The
medieval Dutch word "kolf" or "kolve" meant "club." It is believed that
word passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into
"golve," "gowl"
or "gouf." By the 16th Century, the
word "golf" had emerged. Sources: British
Golf Museum, USGA Library, Brent Kelley Answers for trivia questions: 1.
Phil Mickelson 2.
Ty Webb 3.
12 - Most played
by Kevin Costner himself. 4.
7. The Old, the New, Jubilee, Eden, Strathtyrum,
Balgove and the Castle courses. 5.
108 Millimeters 6.
Until the early 1900s, all golf clubs had wooden shafts
whether they had iron heads or wooden heads. The first steel-shafted golf
clubs were made in the United States in the 1920s. 7.
Henrik Stenson |
Community
Events of Westport
© 2005 - 2013 All Rights Reserved.