Golf Compendium

Which golfers finished the year 2023 in the Top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking? Who was No. 1? Below is the year-end list of 2023's top-ranked golfers.

What is the Masters Tournament record for lowest score after three rounds, or 54 holes? That record is 200 strokes, and the mark is currently shared by two golfers.

Who was the No. 1 player in women's golf at the end of 2023? Which golfers finished the year ranked the highest in the Rolex Rankings, the official world rankings of women's golf? Below is the year-end list of 2023's top-ranked golfers.

The PGA Championship is one of the four major championships of men's professional golf. And like the other three majors, it features a cut after the second round. Golfers who do well in the PGA Championship make a lot of money. But what about those golfers who miss the cut? Do they get a lot — or any — money?

The team of archeologists had been toiling deep in the Amazon jungle for months and months, clearing choking undergrowth away from the faint traces of the great Lost City.

The CJ Cup was a pro golf tournament on the PGA Tour from the mid-2010s into the early 2020s. It was played during the fall portion of the schedule, typically in October. The tournament took place in South Korea the first half of its run, and in the United States as it wound down.

Do you call a mulligan a mulligan, or does your group of golf buddies have a different name for this feature of recreational golf? We golfers have our own slang, in this case starting with "mulligan" itself. Here we'll list many other terms golfers use to mean the same thing.

The format named Lucky Sevens is played by teams of four. It is usually played as an association playday format or a charity tournament or company outing format. Lucky Sevens requires the use of playing cards to determine which scores to count on each hole.

Bruce Fleisher was a golfer who won big when he was young, went many years without winning, then won even bigger as a senior tour golfer. A two-time USGA national champion, Fleisher's PGA Tour career didn't live up to expectations after a U.S. Amateur title that came before he turned 20. But he made up for it in a highly successful, lucrative Champions Tour career.

What is the Masters Tournament record for lowest score in back-to-back rounds? That record is 130. So far, only one player in the tournament's history has gone that low over consecutive rounds.

ABCD is a tournament format for teams of four golfers, and it requires the use of handicaps. That's because the tournament begins with organizers sorting golfers into A-, B-, C- and D-level players (A's being the lowest handicappers, D's being the highest). Each team consists of one player from each level. This is a very common way of assembling teams for charity tournaments, company events, association playdays and the like. But if the tournament is named an ABCD Tournament, it might progress in one of the following ways.

(For this joke, you can substitute the name(s) of any pro golfer(s) you wish.) The Pope met with his cardinals to discuss a proposal from the prime minister of Israel.

The cut rule at the British Open usually sends more than 70 golfers into the third and fourth rounds. The players who miss that cut go home. But do they go home with a paycheck in their pockets? When a golfer misses the cut in the Open Championship, do they get paid?

Jack Fleck is remembered in golf history as the giant-slayer, the massive underdog who pulled off one of the greatest surprise wins ever. That win was a U.S. Open, and the giant Fleck had to beat in a playoff to get that win was Ben Hogan. Fleck was not a one-hit wonder, however. He won a couple more times on the PGA Tour afterward. Later, he added a big senior championship. And all of those wins happened in playoffs.

Want to have some fun — and put some money on the line — before or after your round of golf? The putting game called Stymies, played on the practice putting green, might fit the bill.

Jose and Johnny are playing a spectacular new golf course built on very scenic terrain — cliffsides and gulleys and ravines. They reach the 6th hole, where Jose slices a ball into a thickly wooded, deep ravine.

Which golfer holds the record for playing in the most Masters tournaments? How many golfers have played this major championship 40 or more times? Gary Player is the answer to the first question, and all the golfers with 40 or more Masters appearances are listed below.

In the golf game known as Flagsticks, golfers are using the flagstick on each green as a unit of measurement. Winning a "stick" in this game means the golfer has accomplished one of two things:

Wiffi Smith's story is a great what-if in LPGA history. After a stellar amateur career during which her personality and booming drives made her a star, Smith was expected to become a big star at the pro level, too. And she did: Over four seasons on the LPGA Tour in the late 1950s to 1960, Smith had eight wins and challenged in multiple majors. Her on- and off-course personality endeared her to fans and led one LPGA Hall of Famer to call her "a daring, mischievous angel." But at age 24, her career was ended by injury.

The Volunteers of America Classic was an LPGA Tour golf tournament that was played in the Dallas, Texas, area 11 times from the early 2010s into the early 2020s. The tournament name often included "Texas Shootout" or "North Texas Shootout," and sometimes was shortened by fans and media to "VOA Classic."

The 18-hole scoring record in The Masters is 63. But, so far, nobody has scored a 63 in the fourth and final round of the tournament. A score of 64 is the best-ever in the tournament's final round.