Key takeaways
- Golf terms fall into three groups: parts of the course, names for shots, and slang that lives on the first tee and in the clubhouse.
- The Rules of Golf divide every course into five areas: the teeing area, the general area, bunkers, penalty areas and the putting green.
- A mulligan is an unofficial do-over shot. It is not allowed in competition, and the earliest known use of the word is in a 1931 newspaper.
- A gimme is a short putt your opponent concedes, which the Rules allow in match play but not in stroke play.
- Fore probably comes from "forecaddie," the person sent ahead to watch where expensive early golf balls landed.
Golf has its own language, and a new golfer hears three layers of it. Some golf terms are official definitions written by the rule makers, some are centuries-old Scots words, and some are slang nobody will admit to inventing. All three turn up in the first hour of a round.
This glossary covers the words you will hear most: the parts of a course, the names for shots, and the golf slang that fills a round. Official definitions come from the Rules of Golf published by The R&A, and the word histories come from Scottish Golf History and the major dictionaries.
What golf terms should a beginner learn first?
Start with the course areas, the five basic shots and a handful of etiquette words, because those cover nearly everything said during a round.
Scores on a hole have their own vocabulary, from par and birdie to bogey and beyond. Those scoring terms have a full guide to golf scoring terms, from par to condor, so this glossary leaves them aside and spends its space on everything else.
What golf terms name the parts of a course?
Every hole runs from a teeing area to a putting green, with fairway, rough, bunkers and penalty areas in between.
The Rules of Golf are precise about this. They define five areas of the course, and anything that is not a teeing area, bunker, penalty area or the green you are playing to counts as the general area. That means the fairway and the rough are the same area in the eyes of the Rules, even though they play very differently.
| Term | What it means | What the Rules say |
|---|---|---|
| Tee box (teeing area) | Where each hole starts | A rectangle two club-lengths deep behind the tee markers |
| Fairway | The closely mown strip between tee and green | Part of the general area |
| Rough | Longer grass bordering the fairway | Also part of the general area |
| Bunker | A sand trap | A specially prepared area of sand, often a hollow |
| Penalty area | Water or other marked trouble, once called a hazard | Relief is allowed for a one-stroke penalty |
| Fringe | The collar of grass around the green, slightly longer than the green | Part of the general area, not the putting green |
| Green | The putting surface around the hole | The area specially prepared for putting |
Two smaller details from the same definitions often surprise new golfers. A tee, the peg you rest the ball on, may be no longer than four inches. The hole itself must be 4 1/4 inches across and at least 4 inches deep.
Why is a seaside golf course called a links?
Links originally meant the rough, sandy grassland between the sea and farmland, which is exactly where the first Scottish golfers played.
Britannica's history of the game notes that in Scotland golf was first played on seaside links, with their crisp turf and natural hazards, and only later on moorland and parkland. Scottish Golf History traces the word to the Old English "hlinc," meaning a ridge. Sandy links soil drains fast and grows grass with short blades and long roots, which made it playable year round.
Today people use "links" loosely for any golf course, but a true links is a specific landscape. Scottish Golf History counts only 92 true links courses in Scotland, about 17 percent of the country's total. The hazards came from the same ground: blown sand became bunkers and the small streams called burns became water hazards. Our piece on why golf has 18 holes covers how the links at St Andrews set another lasting convention.
What are the names of the different golf shots?
The five basic shots are the drive, the approach, the chip, the pitch and the putt, and most holes use them in roughly that order.
- Drive. The first, longest shot from the teeing area, usually with the driver.
- Approach. Any shot played toward the green from the fairway or rough, usually with an iron.
- Pitch. A high, soft shot from near the green that flies most of the way and rolls a little.
- Chip. A low shot from just off the green that flies briefly and rolls most of the way.
- Putt. A rolling stroke on the green, played with the putter.
Golfers also describe what the ball did on landing. A ball that "bites" stops quickly thanks to backspin. A putt that "lips out" catches the edge of the hole, curls around it and stays out. Getting "up and down" means finishing the hole in two strokes from off the green, usually a chip and a putt.
What do draw, fade, slice, hook and shank mean?
They describe the ball's curve: a draw and a fade are gentle, intended curves, while a hook and a slice are bigger, usually unintended ones.
For a right-handed golfer, a draw curves gently from right to left and a fade curves gently from left to right. A hook is an exaggerated right-to-left curve, and a slice is an exaggerated left-to-right one. Left-handed golfers simply reverse every direction. Many good players prefer to shape the ball one way on purpose, so a fade is not a fault in itself.
The shank is in a different category. It happens when the ball comes off the hosel, the neck where the shaft joins the clubhead, and it shoots off almost sideways.
Why do golfers shout fore?
Fore is a warning to anyone who might be hit by a ball, and it most likely comes from "forecaddie."
Scottish Golf History sets out three explanations. The leading one is that early golfers, whose feather-stuffed balls were expensive, sent forecaddies ahead to watch where shots landed and shouted "forecaddie!" to warn them a ball was coming. The second links it to a military warning for soldiers in front of a firing line. The third ties it to "ware before," an old artillery cry. The Oxford English Dictionary records the golf use from 1878, with an earlier glossary reference in 1857.
The word caddie has a French root, too. It comes from "cadet," meaning the boy or the youngest of the family, and by the 1700s Scottish towns used it for any porter or errand runner before it settled on golf.
What is a mulligan in golf?
A mulligan is a free do-over after a bad shot, allowed by friendly agreement in casual rounds but never in competition.
Merriam-Webster defines it as a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played. The origin is disputed. The most widely credited figure is David B. Mulligan, a Canadian hotelier who played at the Country Club of Montreal in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, in the 1920s.
Golf Canada gives three versions of his story. In one he re-teed on impulse after a long but crooked drive. In another he got an extra shot because the bumpy drive to the club left him shaky. In the third he arrived late and flustered. A rival story credits John A. "Buddy" Mulligan, a locker room attendant at a New Jersey club in the 1930s.
Merriam-Webster adds a useful check: the word appears in the Detroit Free Press on October 13, 1931, already used without explanation. That rules out a mid-1930s origin, though it does not settle which Mulligan, if either, deserves the credit.
What do the golf slang terms gimme, sandbagger and dormie mean?
A gimme is a conceded putt, a sandbagger hides their real ability, and dormie is a match-play lead that cannot be lost in regulation.
A gimme has a formal basis. Under Rule 3 of the Rules of Golf, a player in match play may concede an opponent's next stroke, and the conceded stroke still counts in the score. In stroke play there is no such thing: every player must hole out on every hole.
A sandbagger is a golfer who keeps a handicap higher than their real ability to collect extra strokes. Our guide to how a golf handicap works explains the safeguards built into the system. Dormie describes a match-play leader who is ahead by exactly as many holes as remain, so they cannot lose in regulation. The Rules say a match is won once a player leads by more holes than remain to be played.
The nineteenth hole is the clubhouse bar, the one hole every round ends on.
Which golf imagery works on a wall?
Witty, single-idea golf art works best, because golf's own slang is already half a joke.
A golf ball dropped into a cocktail glass says nineteenth hole without a word of text, and a range bucket perched on a vintage car's spoiler says weekend in one look. Those pieces suit a home bar, a den or a simulator room. A quieter still life suits a study.
The range sits in the golf wall art collection. Each piece is one gallery-wrapped canvas on organic cotton over a solid pine frame, ready to hang and made to order in Europe, with an optional floating frame.
Featured golf pieces
Frequently asked questions
Is a mulligan allowed in golf?
Not in competition. A mulligan is an informal do-over that friends allow each other in casual rounds, usually settled before the first tee shot. Under the Rules of Golf every stroke counts, so a mulligan has no place in a competition round.
What is a gimme in golf?
A gimme is a short putt your opponent concedes, so you pick up the ball and count one more stroke. The Rules allow this in match play, where a player may concede an opponent's next stroke. In stroke play it is not allowed, because every player must hole out.
What is the nineteenth hole?
The nineteenth hole is golf slang for the clubhouse bar or restaurant, where players go after finishing the 18 holes of a regulation round. It is where scores get compared, bets get settled and the stories about the round start to improve.
What does dormie mean in golf?
Dormie means a player in match play leads by exactly as many holes as remain, such as three up with three to play. They cannot lose the match in regulation, though the opponent can still tie it by winning every remaining hole.
What is a links golf course?
A links is a course built on sandy coastal ground between the sea and farmland, the landscape where golf began in Scotland. The soil drains quickly and grows short-bladed grass, so links courses give a firm playing surface all year.
