Golf Compendium

Rhona Adair was one of the first women in Ireland to make a name for herself as a golfer. She won multiple Irish and British championships. She was also known as a long driver for her time, but with distances that might surprise you. And Adair once played Old Tom Morris in a match.

Have any pairs of brother-sister golfers both won on the biggest men's and women's tours — the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, respectively — in the world? Yes, but such sibling pairs are rare. So far, only three pairs of brothers-and-sisters have pulled off the PGA Tour/LPGA Tour double.

The record for the most birdies made by a golfer during one Masters Tournament is 28. And the golfer who holds that record is the only one so far to make more than 25 birdies in a single Masters.

Which golfers have finished below par for 72 holes in The Masters most frequently? One can answer that question by saying, "the usual suspects." And, yes, this is another Masters tournament record held by Jack Nicklaus.

1-2-3 Best Ball is the name of a golf format that is common for tournaments and can also be used by a large group of golfers teeing off in successive foursomes. In this game, the 1, 2 and 3 in its name refer to the number of scores that count on given holes.

We often hear golfers talk about aiming for "the fat part" of the putting green on approach shots. What does that mean? It's all about choosing the safest aiming point.

Ed "Porky" Oliver was a PGA Tour winner and Ryder Cup player in the 1940s and 1950s. A very popular player, he loved having fun on the course. But he developed a reputation for being a hard-luck golfer due to numerous second-place showings in big tournaments, including majors. He was disqualified from a U.S. Open in which he would otherwise have been in a playoff. Oliver's golf career, and his life, ended in his mid-40s.

Phil Mickelson is one of the all-time great golfers, and he's played (and practiced) a lot of golf in his lifetime. So you would probably guess that Mickelson has made a few holes-in-one over his life in golf. But how many? So many that he might just hold the record for tour pros.

"Hole high" and "pin high" are two terms used by golfers that mean exactly the same thing. These terms mean that a golfer's approach shot into a green has come to rest roughly equal to the depth of the flagstick. It's a way of saying the golfer got the distance right even if (as the case may be) the shot might not have been accurate.