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Golf facts

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Golf facts

Golf facts

  • Golf buffs may cry "Sacrilege!", but there's an alternative version of the game in existence. Invented in 1989, Golfcross uses big suspended nets instead of holes, and the balls are oval – like golf balls crossed with eggs. There are dedicated courses from New Zealand to the UK, if you're feeling adventurous.

  • Not content with being the best golfer in the world, Tiger Woods had to go and have a really cool name as well. That said, he was actually born Eldrick Woods. "Tiger" was originally a nickname given to his dad's old army buddy, Vuong Dang "Tiger" Phong – whom the Woods family now refer to as Tiger One.

  • There's a long-standing myth that the word "golf" is an acronym of Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. Which is amusing, but unfortunately complete rubbish. The word actually stems from original 15th Century spellings that included "gouf", "goulf", "goiff" and "gouff" (indecisive lot, 15th Century Scots).

  • Golf was actually outlawed in Scotland in 1457. James II was the killjoy behind the ban – he was preparing for an English invasion and wanted his citizens to concentrate on useful hobbies like archery. The ban was eventually lifted quite some time later, in 1502.

  • Ever wondered where the golfing term "birdie" comes from? It seems we have an American named Ab Smith to thank. While striding around a course in 1899, he played what he described as a "bird of a shot", which became "birdie" over time. ("Bird" was 19th American slang for anything really, really good. Kind of like "cool" is for us.)

  • Dormie, the golf jargon word referring to a player decisively leading a game, comes from "dormir", a word of shared French and Latin origin which means "to sleep". In other words, the player's so far in front he can afford to sleep.

  • If at any point a Martian asks you to describe golf, you'd do well to remember Winston Churchill's words on the subject. "It is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose."
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