Golf Compendium

What are the lowest stroke totals in PGA Championship history? The best final score yet posted is 263, and it happened very recently. That lowered the previous record, which had been established in 2018, by one stroke.

Who has scored the lowest round in PGA Championship history? Until 2024, nearly 20 golfers shared the tournament's 18-hole scoring record with 63s. But then Xander Schauffele became the first golfer in PGA Championship history to fire a 62.

Golfers sometimes use the term "less club" out on the course, speaking about themselves or other golfers, perhaps in expressions such as "you need less club" or "I'm taking one less club this time." What those terms all mean is that the golfer needs or is going to switch to a golf club that produces less distance.

Big Break Disney Golf is the name of the 12th season of the Golf Channel television series The Big Break , in which golfers competed in skills challenges and golf matches, with golfer(s) eliminated each week. Big Break Disney Golf aired in Fall 2009, with the first episode debuting on October 13, 2009.

"Parkland" is one of the different classifications, or styles, of golf course that are based on geography and design elements. A parkland golf course is one that is built on lush, grassy territory, typically with plenty of trees, and in an inland location away from coastlines.

The youngest-ever winner of a pro golf tournament on a professional golf tour was only 14 years old at the time of the victory. Who was it? Let's answer that question, plus go over some of the other youngest-known winners in the history of professional golf tournaments.

On the golf course, you'll sometimes hear the term "more club," perhaps in expressions such as "you need more club" or "I'm taking one more club this time." What those terms all mean is that the golfer needs or is going to switch to a golf club that produces more distance.

Does the temperature of the air around you when you are playing golf affect how far you hit the golf ball? To ask it another way: Is golf club distance affected by how hot or how cold it is outside?

What, or who, is the "medalist" in golf? "Medalist" is a golf term that applies to the winner of a stroke-play tournament or to the low-scorer in stroke-play qualifying rounds prior to the start of a match-play tournament.

Glenna Collett Vare is considered the greatest American female golfer of the pre-World War II era, an era when professional tournaments for women were nonexistent. In the biggest event she could play, the U.S. Women's Amateur, Collett Vare set tournament records that still stand today, including most victories (six).

"Member's bounce" is a slang term some golfers use as a synonym for a lucky bounce or a lucky break.

Golfers are eligible to join the Champions Tour as soon as they turn 50 years old. But there's joining the Champions Tour, and there's winning on the Champions Tour. Winning one's first senior tour event is something that never happens for the vast majority of golfers in Champions Tour history. For others, though, it's something that happened incredibly fast — for a select few, win No. 1 on the world's top senior circuit happened in the very first Champions Tour tournament they played.

"Mashie iron" was the name of a golf club from the era in the game before irons were numbered in 8- or 9-club matched sets (3-iron, 4-iron, 5-iron, etc.). The mashie iron is usually thought of as the rough equivalent to the later 4-iron in terms of its loft and position in the golf bag relative to the other clubs golfers carried.

"The turn" is an expression golfers use to denote the part of the golf course where the front nine turns into the back nine. When you've reached "the turn," you've reached the halfway point of an 18-hole golf course. So "making the turn" means leaving the front nine and moving on to the back nine.

What is the record for most total birdies by a golfer in a single Champions Tour tournament? That record is 28, and it is shared, not surprisingly, by two Hall of Famers. But, in what is a surprise, those two golfers set the record in major championships.

On a television broadcast of a golf tournament, you might hear an announcer say, "She's laying three." Or on a golf course, you might an exchange between golfers: "What do you lie?" "I lie four." What do those terms mean? They are scoring terms that tell you how many strokes the golfer has played so far.

"Last Man Standing" is the name of a golf competition format. In Last Man Standing, golfers begin with an allotment of strokes and they play until those strokes are gone. The one who makes it farthest around the golf course is the winner.

The Arlington Hotel Open, which was also called in some years the Hot Springs Open, was a 72-hole, PGA Tour golf tournament played nine times from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. It took place in Arkansas.

What is the best 9-hole score — lowest score over the front nine or back nine — in the history of the LPGA Tour? That record is 26, and so far only one golfer in tour history has recorded it. That golfer is Lauren Coughlin, and her 26 happened in 2026. These are the golfers with the lowest 9-hole scores in LPGA Tour history: 26 — Lauren Coughlin , 2026 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship (par 35), back nine, second round, final score 61 27 — Jimin Kang , 2005 ShopRite LPGA Classic (par 35), back nine, third round, final score 62 27 — In-Kyung Kim , 2007 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic (par 34), front nine, third round, final score 65 27 — Paula Creamer , 2008 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic (par 34), front nine, first round, final score 60 27 — Amy Yang , 2015 LPGA KEB Hana Bank LPGA Championship (par 36), back nine, fourth round, final score 62 27 — Mi Hyang Lee , 2016 LPGA Founders Cup (par 36), back nine, first round, final score 62 Coughlin scored the first 26 in LPGA histo...

Dudley Wysong won on the PGA Tour in the 1960s, but he is probably better-remembered today for a pair of second-place finishes. He was runner-up in a PGA Championship five years after he raced through the field at a U.S. Amateur only to find Jack Nicklaus waiting in the championship match.

Best Holes is the name of a golf tournament format (or a game for a group golf buddies to play) in which only a golfer's best scores from throughout the round are tallied to produce his or her tournament score.

The Mickey Wright Invitational was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in the 1960s. It was named after the tour's biggest winner of that era and, not surprisingly, she won this tournament more than anyone else.

"Honey pot" is a name for a golf tournament's bonus pool or, sometimes, for its prize purse.

Simone de la Chaume was a pioneer of women's golf in France who recorded a couple of notable firsts in British tournaments in the 1920s. She remained the dominant female golfer in France through the pre-World War II period. De la Chaume was one-half of a glamorous sports couple, and that couple's daughter later outdid her mother on the golf course.

"Hanging lie" is one of those golf terms that sometimes means different things to different people. In all cases, though, it refers to playing a shot when the golf ball is sitting on a slope.

What is the lowest score for nine holes — the front nine or the back nine — in a Champions Tour round? That record score is 27 and it has, so far, only been recorded twice in Champions Tour history ... and not since 2002.

Bert Yancey was a 7-time winner on the PGA Tour during the 1960s and 1970s, and had several good opportunities to win major championships. But his career was first impacted by, then derailed by, mental health issues that were, for a long time, undiagnosed. When finally properly treated, the medicine caused hand tremors that ended his PGA Tour career.

Criers and Whiners is the name of a golf format that can be used as a betting game by a group of buddies, or as a tournament format. The gist of it is this: In Criers and Whiners, your course handicap is converted into mulligans that you can use during the round.

Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1959. The Memphis Open, the tournament later known as the FedEx St. Jude Classic , is underway. Three PGA Tour golfers stand on a green, looking over their putts. One of them, the one farthest from the hole, approaches his ball and prepares to take his stance. The other two golfers stop moving and go silent; a hush falls over the gathered fans. Then, suddenly, a loud sound shatters the silence, taking everyone by surprise. What was it — a car backfiring? A clap of thunder, a distant gunshot?

What is a "condor" in golf? That's the name given to an extremely rare, exceedingly rare — so rare that it almost never happens — score of 4-under par on a golf hole.

We sometimes hear golfers (or golf commentators) refer to the collar of a putting green. What is the collar? It is a ring of turfgrass around some greens that is slightly higher the grass of the putting green itself.

The U.S. Women's Amateur Championship has been around since 1895, but the U.S. Women's Open wasn't first played until 1946. So, since 1946, how many golfers have won both of the two most prestigious USGA championships for women? Only seven.

Jimmy Adams was a Scottish golfer who won multiple times on the British and European circuits of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He was distinguished by having a very long backswing that went well past parallel, ala John Daly.

The chunk shot, in golf, is a type of mishit in which the golfer's club hits the ground behind the ball before hitting the golf ball itself. The result of a chunk is rarely good, and often quite bad. A typical outcome is that the ball travels a considerably shorter distance than the golfer hoped — just how much distance is lost being tied to just how badly the ball was chunked.

The Kentucky Derby Open was a men's professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in the 1950s. It was played in late April or early May, just before or just after the weekend of the Kentucky Derby horse race.

Once upon a time, a PGA Tour golfer waited so long to see if his ball would fall into the cup that the USGA and R&A created the 10-second rule. How long did that golfer wait, watching as his ball sat on the lip , hoping it would fall into the hole? Seven minutes.

The 2021 Ryder Cup was the 43rd time the tournament was played, with teams of professional male golfers from Europe and the United States facing off. Following the American victory, the all-time standings were 27 wins for Team USA, 14 for Team Europe, with two draws.

The Lakes Open was an Australian men's professional golf tournament played from the mid-1930s through the mid-1970s, although with several gaps including due to World War II. It was named after its location: The tournament was always played at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.

A Choker Tournament is a golf format for three- or four-person teams in which one person per team, on every hole, is put on the spot: come up with a decent score, or choke and hurt your team's chances. There are several different ways to play a Choker, but the key point is this:

Georgianna Bishop was one of the early winners of the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. Her competitive golf career began in the 1800s and she continued playing tournament golf through the first quarter of the 20th century.

In golf, "chicken stick" is a slang term for a golf club that a golfer chooses over a different club because he is being cautious. Or, as that golfer's buddies might tease him, because he is too scared — too chicken — to attempt the more aggressive shot.

A "center-shafted putter" is one in which the shaft attaches to the putter's clubhead at or near the center relative to the clubface. Many putters have a sightline, an aiming aid, on the top of the putter head to mark the center of the putter's clubface. A putter with a center shaft is a putter whose shaft enters the clubhead closer to that sightline than to the heel.

June Beebe was a Chicago-area golf champion of the 1930s who, today, is quite obscure. In her own time, she rarely competed outside of Chicago. But she did have two wins in an early women's open tournament that give her a lasting legacy: Beebe was a 2-time LPGA major championship winner.

Bob Martin was a Scottish golfer born in the 1850s who won a pair of British Open titles and had several other near-misses. He was known for playing a set of clubs almost devoid of irons, and for often using the same, single club for driving, approaching and putting.

"Cart jockey" is a term applied to golf course staff members whose job it is to assist golfers with their carts and golf bags, and to help maintain the course's fleet of golf carts. The actual job title might be cart attendant, bag attendant, golfer services attendant, client services attendant or even just customer service representative. But golfers know them as cart jockeys.

No golfer tries to hit it into the rough, and maybe that's why we have so many different ways to referring to the rough. We need to get creative to describe something we are trying to avoid.

The Dallas Reunion Pro-Am was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour that was played under various names but always in the Dallas area. It was played 11 times from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s.

Golf's "Big 3." There have been other big threes in golf history (even famous ones, such as the Great Triumvirate ), but none is more famous or more accomplished than the Big 3: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Between them, they won 159 PGA Tour titles and 34 major championship titles. But how often did they finish first, second and third in the same golf tournament?

"Sclaff" is an old golf term, rarely used today, that is a synonym for a fat shot. If you hit it fat, caught it fat, chunked it, chili-dipped it, laid the sod over it, then you sclaffed it.