Know Golf Lingo: What Is the 'Home Hole'?

If you hear a golfer or someone on a golf broadcast refer to the "home hole," do you know what that is? If you are new to golf, maybe not. But this is a simple definition: the "home hole" is the 18th hole of the golf course.

One golfer, walking off the 17th hole, might say to another, "If I can par the home hole, I'm have my personal-best score on this course."

Another usage example: "Get your birdies on the 16th and 17th holes if you can because the home hole on this course is really tough."

The home hole is so-called because it is the final hole of the round — the finishing hole, the closing hole. It is the hole that leads the golfers back to the golf course's pro shop and/or clubhouse, back to home, back where you started.

And it is an expression that goes well back in golf history. In the 1907 book The Life of Tom Morris (affiliate link), author W.W. Tulloch writes of Old Tom Morris serving as the starter for a club competition. When all the groups were off the first tee, Morris then headed to the 18th green, in order to greet them all upon the completions of their rounds:

"The afternoon will find him standing on the perfect green of the Home hole, flag in hand, keeping the green clear, and watching the putting out of the players as they return at intervals of about five minutes and give in the record of their scores."

(Note the capital "H" of "Home hole" in this example — it is not unusual to find the term capitalized in very old uses such as this one.)

The earliest use of "home hole" in its golf sense in The New York Times is even earlier. In 1901, the Times was writing about the U.S. Women's Amateur and a closely fought, 1-up victory by Genevieve Hecker in a semifinal match that only ended on the 18th hole: "She did not have her victory safe until she holed out on the home hole in a sensational twenty-foot putt from the inclined edge of the green."

More basic golf lingo:

• The meaning of 'away' (who's away, you're away)
• Eagle vs. birdie: what's the difference?
• The meaning of break par/breaking par

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Davies, Peter. The Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms, 1993, Robson Books.
New York Times. "Miss Hecker Barely Wins," June 22, 1901.
Pedroli, Hubert, and Tiegreen, Mary. Let the Big Dog Eat!, William Morrow Publisher, 2000.
Tulloch, W.W. The Life of Tom Morris, 1907, T. Werner Laurie Publishing.