2 Play of the game

Every game of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A round typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by the course layout. On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two successive nine-hole rounds.

Players usually walk (or sometimes drive) over the course in groups of two, three, or four, sometimes accompanied by caddies who carry and manage the players' equipment and give them advice. Each player hits a ball from the tee to the hole, except that in foursomes, one player from each team tees off and the players then take alternate shots until the ball is holed out. The ball may only be replaced by another if it is lost, destroyed, or unplayable, and a penalty is incurred in these cases. When individual players have all brought a ball into play, the player whose ball is the farthest from the hole is next to play. In some teams events, a player who is farthest from the hole may ask his or her partner who may be closer to the hole to play first. When all players of a group have completed the hole, the player or team with the best score on that hole has the honor, that is, the right to play first on the next tee.

Each player acts as marker for one other player in the group, that is, he or she records the score on a score card. In stroke play (see below), the score consists of the number of strokes played plus any penalty strokes incurred. Penalty strokes are not actually strokes but penal points that are added to the score for violations of rules or for making use of relief procedures in certain situations.

The two basic forms of playing golf are match play and stroke play.

• In match play, two players (or two teams) play every hole as a separate contest against each other. The party with the lower score wins that hole, or if the scores of both players or teams are equal the hole is "halved" (drawn). The game is won by that party that wins more holes than the other.
• In stroke play, every player (or team) counts the total number of strokes for a set number of holes and the party with the lower total score wins.

There are many variations of these basic principles, some of which are explicitly described in the "Rules of Golf" and are therefore regarded "official". "Official" forms of play are, among others, foursome and four-ball games.

2.1 Team play

A foursome (defined in Rule 29) is played between two teams of two players each, in which each team has only one ball and players alternate playing it. For example, if players A and B form a team, A tees off on the first hole, B will do the second shot, A the third, and so on until the hole is finished. On the second hole, B will tee off (regardless who played the last putt on the first hole), then A does the second shot, and so on. Foursomes can be played as match play or stroke play.

A four-ball (Rules 30 and 31) is also played between two teams of two players each, but every player plays his own ball and the lower score on each hole is counted. Four-balls can be played as match play or stroke play.

A popular non-"official" form of team play is the scramble, or ambrose. Each player in a team tees off on each hole and the players decide which shot was best. Every player then plays his second shot from that spot. and the procedure is repeated until the hole is finished.

3 Handicap systems

See main article golf handicap.

A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's ability. It can be used to calculate a so-called "net" score from the number of strokes actually played, thus allowing players of different proficiency to play against each other on equal terms. Handicaps are administrated by golf clubs or national golf associations.

Handicap systems are not used in professional golf. Most touring professionals play several strokes per round better than scratch.

4 Golf rules and other regulations

The rules of golf [1] are internationally standardised and are jointly governed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA). By agreement with the R&A, USGA jurisdiction on the enforcement and interpretation of the rules is limited to the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in and MexicoThis article is about the country Mexico. For other meanings, see Mexico (disambiguation The United Mexican States or Mexico ( Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or Mexico regarding the use of the variant spelling Mejico see section The name below) is a co. The rules continue to evolve; amended versions of the rule book are usually published and made effective in a four-year cycle.

The underlying principle of the rules is fairness. As declared on the back cover of the official rule book: "play the ball as it lies", "play the course as you find it", and "if you can't do either, do what is fair". Some essential rules state that

• every player is entitled and obliged to play the ball from from the position where it has come to rest after a stroke, unless a rule allows or demands otherwise (Rule 13-1)
• a player must not accept assistance in making a stroke (Rule 14-2)
• the condition of the ground or other parts of the course may not be altered to gain an advantage, except in some cases defined in the rules

The Decisions on the Rules of Golf are based on formal case decisions by the R&A and USGA and are published regularly.

The etiquetteEtiquette is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. It is an unwritten code, which evolves from written rules, for the Greek equivalent of "etiquette" is protocol the written formula for ceremonial. It usually re of golf, although not formally equivalent to the rules, are included in the publications on golf rules and are considered binding for every player. They cover matters such as safety, fairness, easiness and pace of play, and players' obligation to contribute to the care of the course.

There are strict regulations regarding the amateur status of golfers [2] . Essentially, everybody who has ever taught or played golf for money (or even accepted a trophy of more than a modest monetary value) is not considered an amateur and must not participate in amateur competitions..

5 Golf course architecture and design

While no two courses are alike, many can be classified into one of the following broad categories:

• Links courses: the most traditional type of golf course, of which some century-old examples have survived in the British isles. Located in coastal areas, on sandy soil, often amid dunes, with few water hazards and few if any trees.
• Parkland courses: typical inland courses, often resembling traditional British parks, with lawn-like fairways and many trees.
• Heathland – a more open, less manicured inland course often featuring gorse and heather and typically less wooded than “parkland” courses. E.g. “Woodhall Spa” in EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England or Gleneagles in Scotland.
• Desert courses: a rather recent invention, popular in parts of the USA and in the Middle East. Desert courses require heavy irrigation for maintenance of the turf, leading to concerns about the ecological consequences of excessive water consumption. A desert course also violates the widely accepted principle of golf course architecture that an aesthetically pleasing course should require minimal alteration of the existing landscape. Nevertheless, many players enjoy the unique experience of playing golf in the desert.

6 Hitting a golf ball

To hit the ball, the clubGolf is played with golf clubs of various types. There are three major categories of clubs, known as woods irons and putters''. Wedges resemble irons and may also be counted among these. A golfer is allowed to carry up to fourteen clubs during a round. is swung at the motionless ball on the ground (or wherever it has come to rest) from a side-stance. Many golf shots make the ball travel through the air (carry) and roll out for some more distance (roll).

Every shot is a compromise between length and precision, as long shots are inevitably less precise than short ones. Obviously, a longer shot may result in a better score if it helps reduce the total number of strokes for a given hole, but the benefit may be more than outweighed by additional strokes or penalties if a ball is lost, out of bounds, or comes to rest on difficult ground. Therefore, a skilled golfer must assess the quality of his or her shots in a particular situation in order to judge whether the possible benefits of aggressive play are worth the risks.

There are several possible causes of poor shots, such as poor alignment of the club, wrong direction of swing, and off-center hits where the clubhead rotates around the ball at impact. Many of these troubles are aggravated with the "longer" clubs and higher speed of swing. Furthermore, the absolute effect of a deviation will increase with a longer shot compared with a short one.

6.1 Types of shots

• A tee shot is the first shot played from a teeing ground. It can be made with a driver (i.e. a 1-wood) off a tee for long holes, or with an iron on shorter holes. Ideally, tee shots on long holes have a rather shallow flight and long roll of the ball, while tee shots on short holes are flighted higher and are expected to stop quickly.

• A fairway shot is similar to a drive when done with a fairway wood. However, a tee may not be used once the ball has been brought into play, therefore playing from the fairway may be more difficult depending on how the ball lies. If precision is more important than length (typically, when playing on narrow fairways or approaching a green), irons are usually played from the fairway. Irons or wedges are also often used when playing from the rough.

• A bunker shot is played when the ball is in a bunker (sand trap). It resembles a pitch and is done with a wedge.

• On the green, putts are played along the ground.

An approach shot is played into the green from outside the green, usually over a intermediate or short distance. Types of approach shots are:

• Pitch: a high approach shot that makes the ball fly high and roll very little, stopping more or less where it hits the ground. Pitches are usually done with a wedge.

• Flop: an even higher approach shot that stops shortly after it hits the ground. It is used when a player must play over an obstacle to the green. It is usually played with a sand wedge or a lob wedge.

• Chip: a low approach shot where the ball makes a shallow flight and then rolls out on the green. Chips are done with a wedge or "short" (higher-numbered) iron.

6.2 The golf swing

Putts and short chips are ideally played without much movement of the body, but most other golf shots are played using variants of the full golf swing that is itself done for tee and fairway shots.

A full swing is a complex rotation of the body aimed at accelerating the club head to a great speed. For a right-handedA person who is right-handed is more dextrous with his or her right hand than with their left hand: they will write with their right hand, and probably also use this hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Approximately 90% of the popula golfer, it consists of a backswing to the right, a downswing to the left (in which the ball is hit), and a follow through. At address, the player stands with the left shoulderThis article is about the body part. See hard shoulder for the road segment. In human anatomy, the shoulder joint is composed of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) (see diagram). Two join pointing in the intended direction of ball flight, with the ball before the feet. The club is held with both handAlternate meanings: Hand (disambiguation A human left hand The hand ( med. manus) is a portion of the arm or anterior limb of a human or other primate, at where the appendage terminates. This part of the limb is especially used in grasping and holding.s (right below left), the clubhead resting on the ground behind the ball, hips and knees somewhat flexed, and the arms hanging from the shoulders. A golfer who plays right handed, but holds the club left-hand-below-right is said to be "cack-handed". It is difficult to obtain the same consistancy and power with this arrangement as is possible with conventional technique. The backswing is a rotation to the right, consisting of a shifting of the player's body weight to the right side, a turning of the pelvis and shoulders, lifting of the arms and flexing of the elbows and wrists. At the end of the backswing the hands are above the right shoulder, with the club pointing more or less in the intended direction of ball flight. The downswing is roughly a backswing reversed. After the ball is hit, the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left. At the end of the swing, the weight has shifted almost entirely to the left foot, the body is fully turned to the left and the hands are above the left shoulder with the club hanging down over the players' back.

There are few golfers who play left-handed (i.e. swing back to the left and forward to the right), and even many players who are strongly left-handed in their daily life prefer the right-handed golf swing.

The full golf swing is an unnatural, highly complex motion and notoriously difficult to learn. It is not uncommon for beginners to spend several months practising the very basics before playing their first ball on a course. It is usually considered impossible to acquire a stable and successful swing without professional instruction, and even highly skilled golfers may continue to take golf lessons for many years.

6.3 Physics of a golf shot

A golf ball acquires spin when it is hit. Backspin is imparted in almost every shot due to the golf club's loft (i.e. angle between the clubface and a vertical plane). A spinning ball deforms the flow of air around it [3] and thereby acts similar to an airplane wing; a backspinning ball therefore experiences an upward force which makes it fly higher and longer than a ball without spin would. The amount of backspin also influences the behavior of a ball when it hits the ground. A ball with little backspin will usually roll out for a considerable distance while a ball with much backspin may not roll at all or in some cases even roll backwards. Sidespin occurs when the clubface is not aligned perpendicularly to the direction of swing. Sidespin makes the ball curve to the left or right; this effect can be made use of to steer it around obstacles or towards the safe side of a difficult fairway. However, it is difficult to control the amount of sidespin, and many poor shots result from uncontrolled or excessive spin that makes the ball curve sharply.

7 Equipment

7.1 Golf clubs

Main article: golf club (equipment)

A player usually carries several clubs during the game (but no more than fourteen, the limit defined by the rules). There are three major types of clubs, known as woods, irons, and putters. Wedges resemble irons and may also be counted among these. Woods are played for long shots from the tee or fairway, while irons are for precision shots from fairways as well as from the rough. Wedges are played from difficult ground such as sand or the rough and for approach shots to the green. Putters are mostly played on the green, but can also be useful when playing from bunkers or for some approach shots.

7.2 Golf balls

See main article golf ball

7.3 Other equipment

Sometimes transportation is by special golf carts. Clubs and other equipment are carried in golf bag s . Golfers wear special shoes with exchangeable spikes (or little plastic claws termed soft spikes) attached to the soles. Tees resemble nails with a flattened head and are usually made of wood or plastic. A tee is pushed into the ground to rest a ball on top of it for an easier shot; however this is only allowed for the first stroke (tee shot or drive) of each hole. When on the green, the ball may be picked up to be cleaned or if it is in the way of an opponent's putting line; its position must then be marked using a ball marker (usually a flat round piece of plastic or a coin). Scores are recorded on a score card during the round.

8 History

See also Timeline of Golf History 1353-1850 and Timeline of Golf History 1851-1993.

Golf is usually regarded as a Scottish invention, as the game was mentioned in two 15th century laws prohibiting the playing of the game of "gowf". Some scholars however suggest that this refers to another game which is much akin to modern field hockey. They point out that a game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using golf clubs was played in the 17th century Netherlands. The term golf is believed to have originated from a Germanic word for "club".

The modern game evolved in the second half of the 19th century in Scotland. The rules of the game and the design of equipment and courses greatly resemble those of today. The major changes in equipment since then have been better mowers, especially for the greens, better golf ball designs, using rubber and man-made materials since about 1900, and the introduction of the metal shaft beginning in the 1930s. Also in the 1930s the wooden golf tee was invented. In the 1970s the use of metal to replace wood heads began, and shafts made of graphite composite materials were introduced in the 1980s.

9 Social aspects of golf

In the United States, golf is the unofficial sport of the business world. It's often said, in fact, that board meetings merely confirm decisions that are actually made on the golf course. For this reason, the successful conduction of business golf (which extends beyond merely knowing the game) is considered a useful business skill; many business schools include a "business golf" course.

Golf is not inherently an expensive activity; the cost of an average round of golf is $36 [4] and the game is regularly enjoyed by over 26 million Americans. In fact, most regions of the country feature public courses which strive to be affordable for the average golfer. But the perception of golf as a sport for the wealthy elite and country clubs as a haven for corrupt businessmen is common among many. Films such as Caddyshack perpetuate this belief.

10 Environmental impact

A major result of modern equipment is that today's players can hit the ball much further, along with safety concerns, modern golf course architects have had to lengthen and widen their design envelope. This has led to a 10% increase in the amount of area that is required for golf courses today. At the same time, water restrictions placed by many communities have forced the modern architect to limit the amount of maintained turf grass on the golf course. While most modern 18-hole golf courses occupy as much as 60 ha (150 acres) of land, the average course has 30 ha (75 acres) of maintained turf. - [Sources include the National Golf Foundation and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA)]. Environmental concerns over the use of land for golf courses have grown over the past 30 years. People are concerned over the amount of water and types of chemicals used as well as the destruction of wetlands and other environmentally important areas.

These concerns along with concerns over cost and health issues have led to significant research into more environmentally sound practices and turf grasses. The modern golf course superintendent is well trained in the uses of these practices and grasses. This has led to reductions in amount of chemicals and water used on courses. The turf on golf courses is an excellent filter for water and has been used in many communities to cleanse grey water. While many people continue to oppose golf courses for environmental reasons, there are others who feel that they are plus for the community and the environment as they provide corridors for migrating animals and sanctuarys for birds and other wildlife.

Golf courses are built on many different types of land including sandy links areas along coasts, abandoned farms, strip mines and quarries, deserts and forests. Many Western countries have instituted significant environmental restrictions on where and how courses can be built.

In some parts of the world, attempts to build courses and resorts have led to significant protests along with vandalism and violence by both sides. Although golf is a relatively minor issue compared to other land ethics questions, it has symbolic importance as it is a game normally associated with the wealthier Westernized population, and the culture of colonization and globalization of non-native land ethics. Resisting golf tourism and golf's expansion has become an objective of some land reform movements, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia.

11 Professional Golf

200px Tiger Woods, a professional golfer who was ranked No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings for more than five years Golf, like other sports, is played professionally in many different countries. Organizations usually called "tours" form tournaments, find sponsors, select participants, and set rules and standards. There are many different tours around the world, including the European Tour and the Canadian Tour, as well as the Champions Tour for pro golfers 50 years old and up, and the LPGA tour for women golfers. The most widely known, at least in North America, is the PGA TOUR (correctly rendered in all caps), which attracts the best golfers from all the other men's tours. This is due mostly to the fact that winning a PGA TOUR event results in a six-figure (sometimes seven-figure) paycheck; in turn, PGA TOUR wins can mean endorsement deals, automatically provide the winner a minimum two-year exemption to play in other tournaments, and supply the prestige earned by beating the best of the best. The European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks only slightly below the PGA TOUR in worldwide prestige. Many of the very top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA TOUR and European Tour.

11.1 The Majors

The four " majors" for men are:

• The Masters
• U.S. Open
• The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open)
• PGA Championship

The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA since its inception in 1934. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at various courses around the United States, while the British Open is played in the U.K.

Winning a major is the crowning career achievement for many professional golfers. Most will never accomplish this very difficult feat. Jack Nicklaus, who is widely regarded as the best golfer of all time, has won 18 majors. Tiger Woods, who is possibly the only contender to Nicklaus' record has won 8 majors, all before the age of 27. Tiger also came closest to winning all four majors in one year (known as a "grand slam") when he won the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship in 2000, and then the Masters in 2001. There were signs of things to come because the man who won the 2000 Masters to prevent the grand slam was Vijay Singh who displaced Woods as world number one in 2004.

The LPGA's list of majors has changed several times over the years, with the last change in 2001. Like the PGA TOUR, the LPGA currently has four majors:

• Kraft Nabisco Championship
• U.S. Women's Open
• LPGA Championship
• Women's British Open

In 1950 the LPGA had only three majors. All were won by American Babe Zaharias to complete a "grand slam" for the era.

12 See also

• Golf glossary
• golfers
• disc golf
• Ryder Cup
• Solheim Cup
• Golf instruction
• History of golf instruction
• Miniature golf
• Farmers golf

13 External links

• Royal and Ancient Golf Club - rules
• United States Golf Association - rules
• Golf Equipment Reviews
• Golfers' Dictionary
• Golf history
• Golf history FAQ
• Golf trivia
• Golf handicap FAQ
• Golf course architecture resources
• European Institute of Golf Course Architects article series about golf course design
• Golf Swing Tips
• Golf headlines and news
• Toronto Golf Questions and Answers

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