Golf Compendium

We often hear the term "local knowledge" used in golf, whether by players discussing their games and their favorite courses, or by journalists and broadcasters. Local knowledge is something that's good to have, and it can help a player who has it gain an advantage over one who doesn't.

The record-low final score in the Senior British Open is 263. That score has, so far, been posted by two golfers in the tournament's history. Unfortunately for one of those golfers, he lost a playoff to the other one.

If you make a score in golf known as a "platypus," well, you've earned it. A platypus is one of the rarer scores in golf for recreational players.

In golf, "paces" (or singular, pace) are sometimes used as measurements. If you are watching a golf tournament on television, for example, you might hear a commentator say that "the hole is cut just four paces from the left edge of the green." But what, exactly is a pace? Just how long are golf paces?

Simon Hobday was a golfer who played on the African and European tours in the 1970s and 1980s, and those years included multiple tournament victories. But his greatest fame came on the Senior PGA Tour where, in the 1990s, he won a U.S. Senior Open. He was a very popular player with peers and fans alike for his wit and offbeat character.

"Out-In-Total" is the name for a type of golf match that is really three matches in one. It is usually played by two golfers going head-to-head, but it can also be played by a group of four golfers pairing off for 2-vs.-2 team play.

Do you know what a "Dolly Parton" is in golf? It's a specific score on a hole. But, despite Parton herself being wonderful, a Dolly Parton golf score is one you don't want to make.

"Off the deck" is a bit of golf slang that refers to hitting a golf ball off the ground, as opposed to off a tee. Since teeing the ball is only allowed on the teeing area, most shots in golf are played "off the deck." But this golf lingo is really only used in two specific instances:

"Fizzo" and "FISA" are two slang terms used by some golfers that mean the same thing. And that meaning implies that a golfer needs to work or her putting.

Jimmy Hitchcock was an English golfer who played on the British and European circuits from the mid-1950s into the early 1970s. Never a big winner, he did claim a couple of important titles. His biggest claim to fame is playing in the Ryder Cup.

Have you ever made a score of a sextuple bogey? Chances are you have at some point in your golf journey, no matter how good a player you might be now. But, make no mistake, a sextuple bogey is a terrible score in golf.

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (the R&A) stages both The Amateur Championship and The Open Championship, also known as the British Amateur and British Open. These are the two biggest R&A titles for amateur golfers and professional golfers, respectively. How many golfers have won them both?

Maybe you've heard of the Abominable Snowman , the mythical beast of Mount Everest and the Himalayas. Did you know there is also an "abominable snowman" in golf? And just like the Himalayan monster, the golf version is one you very much want to avoid.

Odd Fellows is the name of a golf game that can be played between two golfers, or between all the golfers in a group of three or four. In this game, the players get to toss out three of their worst scores.

Winning the same tournament — any tournament — in three different decades is a sign not just of a great golfer, but of a golfer who maintained that greatness over a long period of time. In the history of The Open Championship, dating to 1860, only three golfers have won the Claret Jug in three separate decades.

Jimmy Hines was a professional golfer who won nine times on the PGA Tour, mostly in the 1930s. After his tour career ended, he had a hand, as a club pro, investor and developer, in the popularizing of electric carts, the advent of the daily-fee model for American golf courses, and the growth of golf in the California desert.

A "Maxwell tournament" is a format for 5-golfer teams. And the key factor for this format is pretty simple: On each hole, the worst score among those five golfers is tossed out.

(Affiliate links are used for products mentioned in this article; commissions may be earned) A yardage book can be very helpful to golfers of all playing abilities. But do casual golfers, weekend golfers, recreational golfers need one? No. What about top-flight golfers, golfers who take their games very seriously? Those golfers probably don't need a yardage book, but they might want one, and can benefit from having one.

How many golfers have won The Open Championship by leading after each of the four rounds? The number of wire-to-wire winners who had the solo lead after each round during this major's 72-hole era (1892 and forward) currently stands at just seven.

Russian Stableford is the name of a golf format for 2-person teams using, obviously, Stableford scoring. But the team score on each hole is not the one best score among the two partners but, rather, one partner's score multiplied by the other.

English golfer Harold Hilton's competitive career stretched from the 1880s into the 1920s. As the winner of two British Opens, four British Amateurs and one U.S. Amateur, he was among the top handful of pre-World War I British golfers. He remains to this day the only British golfer win both the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur titles in the same year.

The U.S. Senior Open, the biggest tournament in men's 50-and-over professional golf, was first played in 1980. Since that time, seven tournaments have ended with a playoff.

The United States Golf Association (USGA) has a reputation for creating very difficult golf course setups for its national championships. And there have been many U.S. Senior Opens where scoring was tough. But in this senior major , the USGA has sometimes made the host courses "gettable." That's evident from all the 62s and 63s that make up the list of lowest 18-hole scores in U.S. Senior Open history.

Who is the oldest golfer in U.S. Senior Open tournament history to make the cut? We'll give you the Top 3: Jerry Barber , Jerry Barber and, yes, Jerry Barber.

"Flat stick," often spelled as one word ("flatstick") is a very commonly used slang term in golf. What is the flat stick? It's the putter.

Did you know that the longest time between any golfer's first and last wins in the British Open is nearly 20 years? Let's take a look at that mark, plus The Open record for longest gap between successive wins.

Waltz is the name of a golf game for groups of three or four in which the number of team members' scores used on each hole changes throughout. The Waltz format is another version of a type of best-ball game commonly known as 1-2-3 Best Ball.

What is the 72-hole scoring record in the Women's PGA Championship? The lowest winning score in this major championship of women's professional golf is 266, and the currect record was set in 2020.

At charity fund-raising golf tournaments, golfers might sometimes learn that a feature named "Pro for Hire" or "Buy the Pro" (or similar) is in effect. What does it mean? It means that your group, if it wants to, can get assistance on certain holes from a professional golfer.

"Champion Golfer of the Year" is a phrase that golfers might hear any time of year, but particularly in the summer months, around the time of the British Open. Do you know to whom this term applies?

The Women's PGA Championship (formerly known as the LPGA Championship) dates to 1955. In the many decades since, how many golfers have won the tournament wire-to-wire ?

How many golfers in the history of the Women's PGA Championship have won this tournament two years consecutively? Not many: So far, this major championship has only five back-to-back winners. But two of those won the tournament three years in a row.

Donna White won a U.S. Women's Amateur championship, then played on the LPGA Tour from the mid-1970s into the early 1990s. She had several victories, her best years being in the early 1980s. After leaving the tour, White became a well-known instructor and launched development programs for junior golfers.

The 2028 U.S. Open golf tournament will be the 128th time the tournament is played. Staged by the United States Golf Association and dating to 1895, the U.S. Open is the second-oldest tournament among the four "major championships." It is played annually in June and rotates to golf courses around the U.S.

Thaddeus was an 11-handicapper, but one day he walked up to his club pro, a professional who routinely broke par, and challenged him to a match. Thad even suggested they wager $100 on the outcome — and he didn't ask for any strokes.

In the history of the U.S. Open, a golfer has played the first three rounds (54 holes) in fewer than 200 strokes exactly one time. The golfer who did it, the golfer who currently holds the record for lowest score after the first three rounds of a U.S. Open, is Rory McIlroy.

What is the lowest cumulative score any golfer has achieved over the first two rounds of a U.S. Open? That score is 130, and two golfers share the record.

Dave Hill was a star on the PGA Tour in the late 1960s and 1970s, although known as much for his outspokenness and run-ins with fellow golfers and tour officials as for his golf. But he was a Vardon Trophy winner , finished as high as No. 2 on the season-ending money list, and played in three Ryder Cups. Hill also ranks high on the list of golfers who won the most on the PGA Tour without winning a major .

The "Reverse Scramble" format is sometimes played as a tournament. More often, golfers use it as a practice game to work on trouble shots.

Which golf course holds the record for being the site of the most U.S. Open golf championships? That is Oakmont Country Club, where the U.S. Open has taken place nine times.

Have any golfers won all three of the NCAA championship (individual trophy), U.S. Amateur Championship and U.S. Open? Yes, but so far only three golfers have pulled off this treble.

"Beat the Pro" is the name of a popular golf format in which, you guessed it, "regular" golfers attempt to better the performance of a professional golfer. Beat the Pro can take one of two forms, though: a Beat the Pro tournament, or a Beat the Pro contest.

Harold Henning was a South African golfer who won around 50 tournaments all over the world, from the 1950s into the 1990s. He won national opens in Europe and Asia, and won tournaments on the PGA Tour. Then Henning enjoyed a long, successful second act as a Senior Tour mainstay.

The 2026 U.S. Women's Open will be the 81st time this pre-eminent major championship of women's professional golf is played. The tournament is run by the United States Golf Association and counts as an LPGA Tour event, as well.

The 1994 U.S. Women's Open was the 49th time this major championship was played. The winner, one of the LPGA Tour's best, took advantage of another player's collapse.

The U.S. Women's Open was played for the 50th time in 1995, and it was won for the first time by Annika Sorenstam. But Sorenstam, who had never before won on the LPGA Tour, had to come from five strokes back in the final round to get the win.

The 1996 U.S. Women's Open was the 51st time this major championship was played. The winner was Annika Sorenstam, still early into her professional career but, with this win, a 2-time USWO champ.

Alison Nicholas held off fan favorite Nancy Lopez to win this, the 52nd playing of the U.S. Women's Open. The 1997 tournament was Lopez's last charge at a trophy she never won.

Clayton Heafner was a PGA Tour player from the late 1930s into the early 1950s. A four-time winner on tour, he twice came close in U.S. Opens before settling for second. Many stories are told about his on-course temper. One of Heafner's sons also was a PGA Tour winner.

The 1998 U.S. Women's Open was the 53rd edition of this major championship. Se Ri Pak was the winner but only after an epic showdown with a college amateur that ended with 20 playoff holes.

The PGA of America's major championship is the PGA Championship, of course. And its major for golfers 50-and-over is the Senior PGA Championship, the oldest of all the senior majors . Have any golfers won both of those titles? Yes, but the number is still fewer than a dozen.

Which golfer holds the record for largest winning margin in the Senior PGA Championship? One of the giants of the game: Sam Snead.

What is the best score any golfer has posted for one round in the Senior PGA Championship? The tournament's 18-hole scoring record is 62 and, so far, two golfers have achieved that record round.

What are the lowest total scores in the history of the Senior PGA Championship? The best 72-hole total any golfer has yet achieved in this oldest of the senior majors is 265. That's a record shared by two golfers.

Mark Hayes was the first golfer to score lower than 65 in a British Open, and won a Players Championship title. Always associated with Oklahoma, Hayes played on the PGA Tour from the mid-1970s into the 1990s.

The 2028 PGA Championship will be the 110th edition of this major championship, which is staged by the PGA of America. This is the third-oldest of the men's majors, dating to 1916.

The 2027 PGA Championship will be the 109th time this golf tournament is played. Founded in 1916, the PGA Championship is run by the PGA of America. It the only one of the four major championships of men's professional golf that was once match play (it has used a stroke-play format since 1958).

Does your short game need a little work? Whose doesn't? Grab nine golf balls and head to your favorite practice green to work on it with the practice game named 22 (or Twenty-Two).

Do you fight a slice in your golf game? Most recreational golfers do. Or, at least, they suffer from a weak fade they'd prefer to turn into a draw. A common cause of both issues is the over-the-top swing that produces an outside-to-inside swing path, leading your club to swipe across the face of the golf ball. The "Up the Hill Drill" can help correct these issues.

Middle Twelves (or Middle 12s) is the name of a side game for golfers to play within their quartet over a round of golf. It's actually two games, because there are two common ways to play it.

Fred Hawkins was a solid competitor on the PGA Tour in the 1950s and 1960s whose talent never squared, his peers thought, with his number of victories: just one win on the tour. But he was on leaderboards often, came close in majors and did play in the Ryder Cup, and piled up a large number of second-place finishes. In fact, Hawkins was runner-up in Arnold Palmer's first major victory, in Ben Hogan's final win and in the first-ever win by a lefthander on the PGA Tour.

The golf game called Mix and Match is one in which four golfers, playing 2-vs.-2, change formats every six holes. Over the course of the 18-hole round, then, three different competition formats are in use.

Do you know the name of the PGA Championship trophy? It's right there in our headline: Wanamaker Trophy. Because of its very large size (and the fact it is awarded at a major championship), it is one of the better-known trophies in golf. And it has an amazing history, which we'll tell you about now — including how one of the biggest stars in golf history lost the trophy and kept that fact hidden from the PGA!

A wife and husband are sitting around one evening, just talking, when the wife suddenly asks, "If I died, would you re-marry?"

The golf game named Random Club Challenge requires golfers to play holes using only one golf club. And they don't even get to decide which club to use.

Dutch Harrison had a 19-year span of winning on the PGA Tour that stretched from 1939 to 1958. He won nearly 20 tour titles, nearly 30 pro tournaments total. But Harrison never won a major, and today is usually included high on rankings of golfers without a major championship title. He was famous in his time for his prowess in gambling matches.

The LPGA Taiwan Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour and the first-ever LPGA tournament played in Taiwan. The term "Swinging Skirts" was part of the tournament's name for the second half of its run.

The PGA Championship, one of the four major championships of men's professional golf, has been played since 1916. Over the tournament's history, how many golfers have won it when playing this major for the very first time? Debut victories aren't common, but they do happen. And in the PGA Championship, these are the players who won in their inaugural appearance:

Once upon a time, the PGA Championship was a match play tournament. From the year it was first played, 1916, through the 1957 tournament, this major championship used a match-play format. Which golfers during that era of the tournament were the best match players?

There is a class of side game in golf in which golfers are given permission to relocate their golf ball a certain number of times per round. The game that goes by the name Foot Wedges is one of those games. And as you might guess, in Foot Wedges golfers are allowed to kick their ball out of trouble a few times per round.

Dan Halldorson was a professional golfer from Canada who played on the PGA Tour from the mid-1970s into the mid-1990s. Although he won only once on the PGA Tour, he was an important player in the development of Canadian golf at the time. He also led Team Canada to two victories in the World Cup.

There are many golf games that limit the number of clubs a golfer can use during a round. The game named Two Clubs and a Putter is one of them, but with a twist: Players are limited to using just two clubs plus their putter, but get to pick different clubs on each hole.

The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, sponsored in its last couple years by carmaker Kia, was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour (senior tour) in the early 2000s. It was three rounds (54 holes) in length and was staged for 12 years.

There is a golf format for groups of four golfers named Twelves, and it also goes by the name 12-Point Game. And the names give away the key to this game: On each hole, 12 points are at stake to be split amongst the four golfers.

What is the lowest score for a front nine or a back nine during the PGA Championship? Since 9-hole scoring has been tracked in this major, only seven golfers have broken 30 for one nine during PGA Championship play. But only one of those scored a 28.

Clarence Hackney was a Scotland-born golf pro who worked — and won tournaments — in America in the 1910s into the 1930s. He was the pro at a prominent club in the Northeast for nearly 30s years. Hackney's biggest tournament win was the Canadian Open, and he also took part in one of the foundational competitions that led to the Ryder Cup.

Split Sixes is the name of a game specifically for three golfers. On each hole, those golfers' scores determine how they split the six points that are at stake.

What is the lowest winning score in the history of the Chevron Championship, one of the majors of women's professional golf? How about the 18-, 36- and 54-hole tournament scoring records? Let's find out.

Which golfer holds the record for most wins in the Chevron Championship? There are actually three golfers who share this record. Each won this LPGA major championship three times.

"Shark" is the name of a golf side game in which golfers are wagering they can make par on a hole even after hitting their golf ball into water. Of course, avoiding water is something golfers very much want to do. But if you do find water on a shot, Shark rewards a great recovery.

There is a word in golf that most golfers are scared of. That most consider very bad luck to use. That most of us try to avoid uttering. What is that word? The s-word. And what is "the s-word"? It's sh— shhhhhhh! don't say that word!

Fred Haas wasn't just the golfer who ended Byron Nelson's 11-tournament win streak in 1945. He won that tournament while still an amateur. Haas went on to a productive PGA Tour career. He won four more tournaments in the 1940s and 1950s, and also had success in senior golf before the Champions Tour existed. Haas was also the first golfer to play in both the Walker Cup and Ryder Cup.

The Charlotte Open was a professional golf tournament played in North Carolina for a few years in the 1940s. Part of the PGA Tour circuit of the time, it was born in the war years and its history includes a couple significant events.

Tiger Woods has won a lot of pro golf tournaments. Most of those wins happened on the world's biggest tour, the PGA Tour. But Woods also ranks highly in career European Tour victories, and recorded wins on several other world golf tours, too.

The children's game tic-tac-toe has been around for a very long time. And almost everyone knows how to play it: Draw a grid to create nine squares; two players alternate placing X's and O's in those squares trying to get three across, three up-and-down, or three diagonally. In the golf version of tic-tac-toe, two golfers are putting or chipping to those nine squares, trying to place balls into three boxes across, up-and-down or diagonally.

Perhaps our title should have been "what it meant " to bone a shot, because "bone" is an archaic bit of golf lingo. The term is rarely used in golf today. But it was once (and, you never know, could be again) a synonym for a bladed or thinned shot.

Sherri Turner, born October 4, 1956, in Greenville, South Carolina, played on the LPGA Tour from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Her long career produced only three victories. But Turner did have one big year in which she not only won a major championship, but some Player of the Year awards, too.

In the betting game known as Savies, the goal is saving par after you've missed the green. Do that and you'll earn points. Do it enough, and you could earn some of your opponents' money.

Which golfer has the most wins over his career on the Japan Tour? You might say that golfer is a "big" name, because he is best-known by his nickname, "Jumbo." And he won nearly 100 tournaments on the Japan Tour.

The LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA) was founded in 1968, making it the second-oldest women's professional golf tour, behind only the LPGA Tour. The golfer who has the most career wins on the JLPGA is a Hall-of-Famer who later became commissioner of the tour.

Do you know what stroke play is? Then you also know what "medal play" is. Because stroke play and medal play mean the exact same thing — they are synonyms for determing the outcome of a golf competition based on the total number of strokes used over a round or series of rounds.

Ralph Guldahl was one of the greatest golfers of the 1930s. But his peak lasted only four years. In those four years, though, he won three majors and he totaled 16 PGA Tour wins for his career. Guldahl once simultaneously held the scoring records of the U.S. Open and The Masters, and still appears on lists today of the tour's youngest winners. But he stopped playing the tour shortly after turning 30. According to popular legend (emphasis on legend), Guldahl once quit the tour in frustration and later quit the tour after the sudden collapse of his game.

The Ube Kosan Open, which, for many years, had Pepsi as a title sponsor, was a men's professional golf tournament in Japan. Part of the Japan Golf Tour, it was played for 40 years. Among its winners were Hall of Famers and two pairs of brothers. The tournament is most-famous for being the site of the longest sudden-death playoff in pro tour history .

What is the longest playoff in the history of professional tournament golf? When golf fans talk about playoffs, we are mostly thinking of sudden-death playoffs. And the longest "sudden"-death playoff on any of the world's top golf tourns lasted a whopping 14 holes.

Did you just "overcook" a shot? Overcooking is something golfers sometimes do on the course, and, just like in the kitchen, it's not a good thing.

In the golf game known as Umbriago, a group of four golfers divides into two teams of two golfers each. Then they play stroke play, 2-vs.-2, with six points at stake on each hole.

Ralph Guldahl was one of the best golfers of the 1930s. He won 16 times total (including a couple wins in the 1940s), and three of those victories were in major championships. On this page we'll take a closer look at those wins, plus his other close calls in majors.

The Lawrence Batley Seniors was a golf tournament for 50-and-over golfers on the European Senior Tour. It was part of that tour's very first schedule when the tour launched in 1992 and was a mainstay event for 11 years.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are standing at the throne of heaven. God looks at them and says, "Before granting you a place at my side, I must ask you what you have learned, what you believe in."

A "double hit" is an embarrassing thing that rarely happens at the top levels of the game, and isn't all that common for recreational golfers either. But it happens. And when a double hit does happen, what, exactly, is taking place? And is there a penalty?

As golf fans we sometimes hear that a golfer needs to "par-in" or that another has already "parred-in." What do these golf expressions mean? Let's define the terms.

Hubert Green was one of the stars of the 1970s, with all but three of his 19 career PGA Tour wins happening during that decade. He even once won three tournaments in three weeks. Green was a two-time major championship winner, a three-time Ryder Cup player, and a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. And he did it all with a homemade and unorthodox swing.

Hubert Green was a force on the PGA Tour in the 1970s, and he kept winning into the 1980s. Then he won a few more times in senior golf.

Double eagles ( also called albatrosses ) are rarer scores than holes-in-one. In the history of The Players Championship, there have only been six double eagles so far — far fewer than the number of aces scored in the tournament .

What are the lowest scores recorded in The Players Championship for nine holes, 18 holes, 36 holes, 54 holes and 72 holes? All those tournament scoring records follow.

Have you ever seen a brand-name golf ball — say, a Titleist or TaylorMade ball — that had the word "Practice" stamped on it? What does it mean when a manufacturer does that? Are "Practice" balls just as good as "regular" balls? Let's answer these and other questions.

Are you an animal lover? The golf game called Zookeeper (also known as Zoo, Animals or "the animal game") might make you question just how much you love those cuddly and not-so-cuddly critters. Because in this game "winning" an animal is a bad thing.

Malcolm Gregson was an English golfer who turned pro in the early 1960s and had one glory year: From 1967 into 1968, he won four times and played in the Ryder Cup and World Cup. Gregson later went on to record multiple victories in senior golf.

Sometimes in golf we hear that one golfer "closed out" another, or closed out a match. What does that mean? Simple: "Closed out" means beat or won. But when the expression closed out is used, it is almost always accompanyied by information about how a match was won.

The Epson Grand Prix of Europe was a golf tournament on the European Tour during parts of the 1980s and 1990s. It began as a match-play tournament but ended as a stroke-play event.

We hear about golf tournaments called Opens (e.g., U.S. Open, The Open Championship) all the time. But what about the rarer tournament that has Closed (or Close) in its name? What does the "closed" mean?

Ugo Grappasonni was one of the leading Italian golfers in the 1940s and 1950s, and a prominent player in the post-war European professional circuit. He won multiple national opens in those decades prior to the existence of today's European Tour, including his home Italian Open twice, plus the French, Dutch and Swiss opens.

Every year since 1952, former Masters Tournament winners who are in attendance at Augusta National Golf Club gather for the "Champions Dinner." It takes place on the Tuesday evening of tournament week, and the defending champion decides what the menu will be.

Benjamin the golfer sets off on an around-the-world trip in his new boat, but he winds up veering off course and gets lost. He drifts onto a deserted island, where he is stranded, all alone.

Which golfers have posted the lowest scores for the first two rounds (36 holes) of The Masters? And who holds the record? The record-holder is Jordan Spieth. And the fact is that only a handful of golfers in Masters Tournament history have posted scores lower than 135 following the second round of play.

What is a "sidehill lie" in golf, and what is the best way of playing a golf shot from such a lie? Let's define the term, and then we'll let Jack Nicklaus explain what adjustments to make in order to pull off a good shot from such a position.

Willie Goggin never won on the PGA Tour. But he was a tour player for many years in the 1930s and 1940s and racked up a good number of second-place finishes. Among those was finishing runner-up in the PGA Championship when that tournament was match-play. He was the second golfer to make an ace in The Masters, and had one great year as a senior golfer long before the Champions Tour existed.

Yes, the PGA Tour, whose history traces back to 1916, has had a handful of teen-aged champions. So far, five golfers still in their teens have recorded wins in official PGA Tour tournaments. The youngest of them was only 18.

Any golf tournament, professional or otherwise, that includes a cut will also have a "cutoff number." And what is that number? It is the score a golfer must match or beat to make the cut and continue playing.

What are X-out golf balls? They are golf balls that have some kind of small defect — in some cases, just a cosmetic defect — that the manufacturer doesn't want to trash but can't sell at regular prices because of the defect(s). So the manufacturer labels them X-outs and offers them at a discount, usually a steep discount.

The Pacific Ladies Classic, also known as the Eugene Open, was a professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour during the 1960s. It took place in Oregon in the first or second week of September.

Larry Gilbert was in the forefront of a new type of professional golfer: The one who works as a club pro rather than chasing the PGA Tour, but then wins big on the senior tour after turning 50. Gilbert won a senior major along with a couple other Champions Tour titles in the 1990s. But he died about six months after winning that major.

Sometimes golfers buy golf balls whose manufacturer has stamped the word "Practice" on them, and priced them at a discount. It's a way to save a little money. But what is the status of such "Practice" balls under the rules: Are they "legal"? Can they be used in tournament play?

What is a 4-putt in golf? Something you want to avoid, because it is 33-percent worse than a 3-putt — but feels about 100-percent worse.

Golfers who want to save a few bucks sometimes buy a type of golf ball known as an X-out . These are balls deemed by the manufacturer to have some kind of small defect. But are X-outs considered in the Rules of Golf? Are they "legal" for tournament play? Sometimes, yes! But in high-level competitions, almost certainly not.

Pedro was looking forward all week to his Saturday round of golf. He was heading to a fancy resort — the type of golf course he didn't normally play. And when the day arrived, he couldn't wait to get there. It also marked a first for Pedro: He'd be using a caddie for the very first time.

There are a couple types of discount golf balls that golfers sometimes run across, either online or in physical stores: X-outs and "practice" balls. In both cases, these are golf balls whose manufacturer has decided it can't market and sell them at regular price due to some kind of quality-control issue. But is there any difference between an X-out and a ball stamped "practice"?

Robert Gardner was an American amateur golf champion whose biggest titles came in the first 15 years of the 20th century. He won two U.S. Amateur Championships. In the first of those, he set a record that stood for nearly 90 years, until it was finally broken by Tiger Woods. A multisport star, Gardner once held the world record in pole vault and won national championships in a sport similar to squash.

Only around 50 golfers in the history of men's pro golf have won three or more major championships. (See the list of golfers with the most wins in majors .) Of those golfers that have won at least three majors, who were the youngest golfers to do it?

What is the lowest round of golf ever scored on the Korn Ferry Tour? There have been multiple rounds of 59 and lower on the Korn Ferry Tour. But the all-time 18-hole scoring record for this tour is an eye-popping 57.

You've signed up to play in a charity golf tournament that is using a format called Ambrose. Do you know what you've gotten yourself into?

Many golf courses provide on-course ball washers to golfers. They can often be found atop a post near the teeing area of each hole: A plastic or metal box or other container that holds water and, often, some type of detergent. Inside the box, there are also bristles for scrubbing. If you are a newcomer to the game, you might now know how to use one. So read on.

Marty Furgol was a PGA Tour golfer from the late 1940s into the mid-1960s. He won five times on the tour during that span. He was known during his career for his eccentrities and, sometimes, gamesmanship.