Golf. I INTRODUCTION Golf, outdoor game in which individual players use specially designed

Golf. I INTRODUCTION Golf, outdoor game in which individual players use specially designed clubs to propel a small, hard ball over a field of play known as a course or links. The object of the game is to advance the ball around the course using as few strokes as possible. II THE GOLF COURSE A golf course is divided into 18 sections, called holes. The standard course is about 6,500 to 7,000 yd (about 5,900 to 6,400 m). The individual holes may vary in length from 100 to 600 yd (about 90 to 550 m). Each hole has at one end a starting point known as a tee and, imbedded in the ground at the other end and marked by a flag, a cup or cylindrical container (also called a hole) into which the ball must be propelled to complete the hole. The cup is usually made of metal or plastic, 4.25 in (10.8 cm) in diameter, and at least 4 in (10 cm) deep. Play begins at the first tee, a level area of turf generally raised slightly above the surrounding terrain. From here each player tries to drive the ball onto the fairway, or main part of the golf course, a carefully tended strip of land, 30 to 100 yd (about 27 to 90 m) wide, on which the grass has been cut low to provide a good playing surface for the ball. On either side of the fairway is the rough, which consists of areas covered with long grass, bushes, or trees, and which sometimes contains sandy, rough, or marshy areas that force golfers to use additional skill and judgment in playing their shots. In the absence of such natural obstacles, artificial hazards may be constructed. These include bunkers, also known as traps, which are hollows dug in the earth and usually filled with loose sand; mounds and other earthen embankments; and water hazards, such as ditches, creeks, ponds, or lakes. At the far end of the fairway from the tee is the putting green, an area of closely cropped grass surrounding the hole or cup. The smooth surface of the putting green is designed to provide a consistent path after the ball has been given a tap or gentle stroke known as a putt. III GOLF STROKES AND GOLF EQUIPMENT In addition to the putt, the specialized stroke used on the green, two main types of shots are used in playing each hole: the drive, which is a long shot from the tee onto the fairway; and the approach shot, which is the shot used to hit the ball onto the green. Shots of various lengths are played with different clubs, according to the distance to be covered and the lie (position) of the ball. A standard set of 14 golf clubs (the maximum that one player may carry in tournament play) is divided into two main types: woods and irons. Woods have larger heads and are so called because for many years the heads were made of wood, but today they are almost exclusively made of metal. Irons have heads made of forged steel, sometimes chrome plated. The shafts of both types usually are made of steel or cast graphite. Formerly, each club was known by a distinctive name, but today most are designated by numbers. The woods are customarily numbered 1 through 7 and the irons 1 through 9, though usually a player only carries some of these clubs during a round. The putter, an iron, has retained its distinct name. Another class of clubs that retains its name is the wedges, including the pitching wedge, sand wedge, and lob wedge, which are used on short-range shots in an attempt to place the ball on the green. Different clubs are used to achieve varied distance, height, or accurate placement of the ball; the angle of the club face determines the trajectory of the ball. For making drives and distance shots on the fairway, golfers use the woods (the most popular of which are No. 1, or driver; No. 3; and No. 5) and the so-called long irons (No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3). For the initial shot on each hole, the ball is teed up--that is, placed on a small wooden, rubber, or plastic peg, known as a tee. This action lifts the ball off the ground, making it easier to hit cleanly. For long, low shots on the fairway, the No. 2 wood is often used, and for shorter, higher shots the highernumbered woods are employed. Approach shots to the green are generally played with irons. For even shorter approaches, known as chip shots, the clubs with more loft--high irons and wedges--are used. The putter normally is used only on the green or the apron (a fringe of less smooth grass) of the green. The game was originally played with a ball made of feathers tightly packed inside a leather cover. About 1850 a ball made of gutta-percha (a crude form of rubber) came into use. At the start of the 20th century a two-piece ball with a rubber core enclosed in gutta-percha, similar in design to the ball in use today, was developed. After much experimentation, the pitted, or dimpled, surface of modern golf balls was adopted to stabilize flight. Most golf balls today have a cover made of a plastic resin called Surlyn and a rubber core. All golf balls must have a diameter of no less than 1.68 in (4.27 cm) and weigh not more than 1.62 oz (45.93 g). IV FORMS OF COMPETITION Two basic forms of competition exist in golf: match play and medal play (also known as stroke play). In match play the player (or, if more than one player, the team) taking the fewest strokes to sink the ball into any particular hole--called holing out--is the winner of the hole; the contest (match) is won by the player or team winning the most holes. If each player or team takes the same number of strokes on any hole, the hole is said to be halved (tied). A final score of 9 and 8 in match play means that the winner was 9 holes ahead with only 8 left to play, sufficient to clinch victory in the match. When the match goes tied until the last hole, the winning score is 1 up. If each player wins the same number of holes the match is halved, or play can be extended until one player emerges victorious. In medal or stroke play, now the more popular kind of play in major tournaments, the winner of the contest is the team or player taking the fewest strokes over the total number of holes agreed upon. Although a round usually consists of 9 or 18 holes, the play in championship contests may cover 18, 36, 54, or 72 holes. In stroke play, ties are decided by playoff holes or rounds. The term par refers to the number of properly played strokes an expert golfer would be expected to use in completing a particular hole without mishap. The combined par for all of the holes is called par for the course. Par is based primarily on the number of strokes necessary to reach the green, plus two putts. For a single hole, par is generally three strokes for a hole of 250 yd (229 m) or less for men, and 210 yd (192 m) or less for women; four strokes for a hole from 251 to 475 yd (230 to 434 m) for men, and 211 to 400 yd (193 to 366 m) for women; and five strokes for a hole of 476 yd (435 m) or more for men, and 401 yd (367 m) or more for women. In addition, for women, par is six strokes for a hole of 576 yd (527 m) or more. Occasionally, on a par-three hole, a player makes a hole in one--that is, drives the ball from the tee into the cup in one stroke--although this is rare. A score of one less than par is referred to as a birdie, and two less than par (for example, a score of three on a par-five hole) is called an eagle. Three strokes less than par is known as a double eagle. One stroke over par is called a bogey; two over par is a double bogey. V HISTORY Some historians believe that golf originated in The Netherlands (the Dutch word kolf means "club"), but the Romans had a game played with a bent stick and a ball made of feathers that may have been the original source of the game. It has been fairly well established, however, that the game that is known today was actually devised by the Scots in the 14th or 15th century. The game became so popular in Scotland that in order to keep people from playing golf when they should have been practicing archery, a military necessity, the Scottish parliament passed a special law in 1457. The Scottish people, however, largely ignored this and similar laws, and early in the 16th century James IV, king of Scotland, took up the game of golf. His granddaughter Mary, later Mary, Queen of Scots, played the game in France, where she was raised. The young men who attended her on the golf links were known as cadets (pupils); the term was adopted later in Scotland and England and became caddie or caddy. (Caddies, once an integral feature of the game, have now been replaced on many courses by motorized carts and pull carts.) In England the game was made popular by the attention given it by James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, and his son Charles I. In the 18th century the first golf associations were established. They included the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (founded 1744) in Edinburgh, Scotland; the Saint Andrews Society of Golfers (1754) in Saint Andrews, Scotland, which in 1834 took its present name, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews; and the Royal Blackheath (1766), near London, England, where, according to tradition, golf was introduced to England in 1608. The first clubs established outside Britain were in India, at the Calcutta Golf Club of East India (1829) and the Royal Bombay Club (1842). The first golf club established in the Western Hemisphere was Canada's Royal Montréal Golf Club, founded in 1873. It is believed by some that golf was played in North America during the colonial period (17th and 18th centuries), but no documented proof of this has been advanced. In 1888 the Saint Andrew's Golf Club of Yonkers, New York, was established. Most authorities agree that this is the oldest continuously existing golf club in the United States. Before 1913, golf in the United States was played chiefly by people of wealth. In 1913, however, after a former caddie from the United States named Francis Ouimet won a victory over two outstanding British professionals in the U.S. Open Championship tournament (open to amateurs and professionals), golf came to the attention of the broader American public. The popularity of the game in the United States and Britain reached great heights by the 1920s and steadily increased over the years, fostered by television coverage. In the United States alone, more than 16,000 golf courses serve more than 26 million people who play golf at least once a year. Golf is also growing in popularity in continental Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and many other parts of the world. VI GOVERNING BODIES The rules of play for golf are numerous and complex. The organizations that establish golf rules for the world are the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews and the United States Golf Association (USGA), founded in 1894 and located in Far Hills, New Jersey. The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) was organized in 1916, and annual tournaments were started during the same year. The PGA is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Currently, there are more than 28,000 members of the PGA, most of whom assist amateur players as club or resort instructors. The PGA Tour developed out of the PGA. It is now a separate entity consisting of several hundred playing professionals who tour the United States, and occasionally travel outside the country, to compete for prize money in tournaments held weekly at different locations. There is also a Senior PGA Tour for professionals age 50 and over. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, is an organization with more than 1,000 teaching professionals, as well as a year-round tour similar to the PGA Tour. VII TOURNAMENTS Each year thousands of golf tournaments take place. The most important professional tournaments for men are the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship. Collectively these four events form the grand slam of golf. Until 1960 the grand slam was considered to be the U.S. Open, the British Open, the U.S. Amateur, and the British Amateur, but with the increasing importance of professional golf in the mid-20th century, the Masters and the PGA Championship gained preeminence over the two amateur tournaments. However, the U.S. and British amateurs remain important events for nonprofessionals. For women the four professional tournaments forming the grand slam are the LPGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open, the Women's British Open, and the Nabisco Championship (formerly the Dinah Shore Championship). The most important amateur events for women are the U.S. Women's Amateur and the British Women's Amateur Championship. International team matches are also an important part of the sport. The Walker Cup (for men) and the Curtis Cup (for women) are contests between amateur golfers from the United States and Britain. The Ryder Cup is a competition for professional male golfers, matching up the United States and Europe. (Before 1979 the Ryder Cup was contested by American and British teams.) The Presidents Cup (for men) and the Solheim Cup (for women) are competitions between professional golfers from the United States and the rest of the world. World competition tournaments for men also include the Eisenhower Cup for amateurs and the World Cup for professionals. World competition tournaments for women amateurs also include the Espirito Santo Trophy. Because of scheduling issues and travel requirements, many of these competitions are held every other year. The most famous feat in the history of golf was achieved by the American amateur player Bobby Jones, who in 1930 captured his era's grand slam by winning the British Open, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur. No other player has ever won the grand slam of golf in a calendar year, but American Tiger Woods achieved the next best thing when he won the four consecutive majors between June 2000 and April 2001. Besides Woods and Jones, the only male players to win each major tournament at least once during their careers are Americans Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Gene Sarazen; and South African Gary Player. Six female players are credited with a so-called career grand slam, the composition of which has changed over the years. They are Americans Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Louise Suggs, and Mickey Wright; Swedish player Annika Sörenstam; and Australian Karrie Webb. There have been many other great players in the history of golf. Other outstanding male golfers include American players Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, and Tom Watson; British players Harry Vardon and Nick Faldo; Australian player Greg Norman; Zimbabwean player Nick Price; South African player Ernie Els; and Spanish player Severiano Ballesteros. Other top women competitors have included Americans Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez, Betsy Rawls, Patty Sheehan, Kathy Whitworth, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias; Britain's Laura Davies; and South Korea's Se Ri Pak. VIII OTHER FORMS OF GOLF Variations on traditional golf, many of which can be played in urban areas or at night under lights, have been developed from time to time. Miniature golf, a putting game on fancifully designed courses, became popular in the 1930s. Pitch and putt is a shorter version of the standard game. Special putting greens and driving ranges, which combine practice and recreation, are another common way to participate in golf. Contributed By: Joseph C. Dey Reviewed By: George F. Peper Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.