Golf Compendium

The Curtis Cup takes place every other year between teams of amateur women golfers, one representing the United States (Team USA) and one Great Britain & Ireland (Team GB&I). In the event's history, which dates to 1932, only four golfers have earned 10 or more points over their Curtis Cup careers. But just one of those has reached 20 points.

Golfers know about the scores called "eagle" and " double eagle ," and we use these terms all the time — even if most of us never score one ourselves. But what about a "triple eagle"? Is that a real score in golf? If so, what does the term mean?

In the pre-professional days of women's golf in Great Britain, Frances Stephens Smith was one of the biggest names. Most of her victories happened in the first 10 years or so after the end of World War II. But her fame as a player extended into the 1960s thanks to a remarkable record in the Curtis Cup, including twice securing her side's clinching point while playing the last match on the course.

The South African Masters was a golf tournament played for nearly 90 years, from the early 1920s into the 2010s. The biggest names in South African golf history were the tournament's biggest winners. It was a match play tournament for its first few decades, known as the South African Professional Match Play Championship. It switched to stroke play in the 1960s.

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.