Is a Golf Course a 'Track' or 'Tract'?
Golfers sometimes use another word for "golf course," a synonym that begins with the letters t-r-a-c. But that word, depending on who is saying it, might end either with a "k" (track) or a "t" (tract). So we are going to answer a question here that we sometimes get: Is a golf course a "track" or a "tract"?
We won't hold readers in suspense: The correct synonym for a golf course, at least in the way most golfers use it, is "track." "Track" refers to the holes of the golf course, their features, how they are laid out, how they follow one another from No. 1 through No. 18. The layout of the golf course.
When a golfer, broadcaster, fan, or writer says something along the lines of, "Podunk Municipal Golf Course is an interesting, fun track," that's what is being referred to: the layout, the holes of the course from the first through the last.
We also see track used as parts of several other terms that are insults when directed at a golf course. If you hear a course called a dog track, goat track or rabbit track, the speaker is letting you know that course is in poor shape and probably not worth playing.
But track itself, used alone, does not carry any implications about quality, just as "golf course" doesn't. "Track" is just a synonym for golf course, another word for the thing itself.
The confusion between "track" and "tract" that some have stems from the fact that they sound very similar and are easy to mistake for one another in conversation. It's also true that "tract" is not always wrong — the speaker might be using "tract" because it is, in some situations, the correct word choice.
The dictionary definition of "tract" refers to a large, indefinite stretch of land, or to a defined area, a specific area, of land. In its definition of a links, the USGA, for example, states, "To be a true links, the tract of land must lie near the mouth of a river, in an estuarine environment."
So someone who is talking about an area of land whose expanse includes a golf course can correctly say, "that golf course is on a nice tract."
But the holes themselves, the features of the teeing areas, fairways, penalty areas, putting greens and rough, those comprise the "track." Which means that saying "that track is on a nice tract" would also be a correct, though likely confusing for the listener, usage.
Bottom line: In the track-or-tract issue, "track" is the correct synonym for "golf course."
Photo credit: Photo by kodex1213 on Unsplash
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