Aphrodite Hills > Golf Trivia Home > Golf Dictionary P - R

More on the Golf Dictionary, we're getting there!

P

Par - Score achieved by a golfer who had only a few great shots on an entire round but somehow managed to hit them all on the same hole.

Partner - Match play team member who holes out from a bunker to score a birdie on a hole you were about to win with a tap-in for a par, then putts out for a double bogey on a hole where you lie six and your ball is 40 feet from the cup.

Peg Tee.

Penalty - One or more strokes added to a golfer's score for play in contravention of the rules. Players are penalised a single stroke for simple infractions, such as Lost Ball, Ball Out of Bounds and Unplayable Ball. More serious breaches, like Playing Wrong Ball and Stopping or Deflecting Own Ball, carry a penalty of two strokes. The most severe violations, for which penalties ranging from three to five strokes are assessed, include: Pocketing Opponent's Lost Ball, Kicking Opponent's Ball Out of Bounds, Feeding Opponent's Ball to a Dog, and Rendering Opponent's Ball Unplayable by Running Over It with an Electric Golf Cart.

Pencil bag A small, thin golf bag often used by kids to lighten the load. Also called a summer bag because it's used in hot weather.

Pick it Up A term used to concede a putt. After your opponent has boxed the ball around four or five times, you can graciously suggest that he pick it up.

Pin - Familiar term for the flagstick. A ball that lands on the green even with the hole but off to one side is "pin high." A ball that lands right next to the hole, leaving a very short putt, is "stiff to the pin." Such putts are almost always conceded, but some players insist on putting them anyway. These players are called "pinheads."

Pin high Whenever the ball lies at the same elevation as the hole.

Pin Placement - The location of the hole in each green is changed regularly to distribute wear evenly over the grass surface and to create an additional challenge to golfers familiar with the course. And, as golfers whose balls mysteriously land in a pond or bunker they've successfully avoided for months can attest, the position of key sand traps and water hazards is also periodically shifted and the astronomical cost of operating heavy earthmoving equipment at night and in secret explains the high greens fees charged at most golf courses.

Pin-seeker A shot that heads right for the flagstick from the moment it leaves the club face.

Pipeline The centre of the fairway, so named because an irrigation pipe often runs down it.

Pitch - An approach shot made with a short iron. There are four basic kinds of pitch shot: one in which the ball is given top spin to let it run along the green toward the cup (pitch-and run); one in which it is given backspin to make it "sit down" and stop next to the cup (pitch-and-stop); one in which it is shanked into a water hazard or dense under growth (pitch-and-search or pitch-and-destroy); and one in which it is driven directly into the ground with a half-top (pitch-and-moan).

Pitch and putt A derisive term given to golf courses that are short and easily conquered, so named because just a pitch and a putt will get you into the hole.

Play It as It Lies - One of the two fundamental dictates of golf. The other one is "Wear It if It Clashes."

Playing Through - A display of courtesy on the course in which a group of golfers who have stopped to search for lost balls conclude that they are causing delay and, anxious to spare the group behind them several minutes of inactivity on the tee, stand aside and invite that group to hit their drives so they will be to profitably use the period before they can resume play in a time-consuming hunt for their own lost balls.

Plugged - When your ball becomes imbedded in the ground, it is plugged.

Position A - The ideal position from which to attack the pin.

Practice Green - A putting area near the clubhouse where players can try out chips, pitches and putts. It is usually located near the 19th hole so players can also work on their nips, drafts and snorts.

Practice Tee - The place where golfers go to convert a nasty hook into a wicked slice.

Preferred lie - A euphemistic way of saying a golfer has improved his lie. This can be done legally in certain situations, but mostly it's done to cheat.

Priority on the Course - In determining the order of play, the following rules should be applied:

· Matches which, when Mulligans, take-overs and practice shots are included, are playing 10, 12 or 14 balls should give way to matches playing 6 or 8 balls.

· A match that is playing the course out of sequence by cutting across from the green of one hole to the tee of a much later hole is entitled to pass a match that sneaked onto the course without paying.

· Any match that has a player in it posing as a doctor who is late for a vital operation takes precedence over a match with a player pretending to be a judge overdue at a key trial.

· Single players have no standing and must give way to a match consisting of two, three or four golfers unless, through voice changes and variations in stance and gesture, they can convincingly fake the symptoms of a multiple personality disorder.

Pro - Sensible person who believes that individuals who spend time playing golf professionally are no different from those who engage in some other similarly demanding occupation such as strip mining or demolition work and that, far from paying for the privilege, they should actually receive financial compensation for their labours.

Pro Shop - Challenging hazard located just before the first tee at most country clubs. The trick to getting out in under $10 (about par for the course) is concentration. Don't be distracted by the leather golf bags and matched club sets, the radical new putter designs, the smooth gloves, the shiny shoes, and the sporty golfing attire. Keep your head down and your eyes on the balls and tees. Tell yourself that your present clubs aren't old-they're classics. Every item of apparel you're wearing brings you luck. Your shoes are perfectly broken in. Your hat has character. Your glove . . . Forget your glove. Take a firm stance and dig in your heels. Get a good grip on your wallet. Take it out in a fast, sweeping motion and lightly flip a few crisp bills onto the counter. Always use cash: "charging" is one of the hardest golf habits to break, and those few little pen strokes can end up costing you plenty. Pick up your purchase with a quick snap of the wrist, then turn and stride confidently for the tee. You may shoot 100 today, but you're way, way ahead of the game!

Putt - To hit a shot straight but to the left, the right, beyond, short of, over or around the intended target.

Putt out - When you elect to finish a hole, even though you may not be away, you are putting out. It's permissible to do this if you declare your intentions before doing so and are just a few feet from the hole.

Putter - Specialised club used on the green. The putter differs from the other golf clubs in the bag in that it always produces shots that roll forward a few feet and stop.

Q

Quick When you rush your swing, your putting stroke, or your overall playing routine, you are getting quick. This usually results in poor play.

Quoits - Along with curling, racing in luges and tossing the caber, the only game other than golf that has been voted Most Pointless Athletic Pursuit of the Decade more than three times by the editors of Stupid Sports Magazine.

R

R&A - The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, founded in 1754 and the oldest golf club in existence. As such, it holds many "firsts" in the game of golf: first accusation of an altered scorecard (1754); first disqualification for use of improper equipment (1754); first suspension for profanity (1754); first caddy fired for accepting a bribe (1754); first expulsion for throwing clubs (1754); first properly replaced divot (1897); first twosome permitted to play through (1924); first totally restored bunker surface following the play of a sand shot (1946); first completely honest handicap claim (1957); and first lost ball recovered by a following golfer and returned to its rightful owner (1984).

Rattle it in - When a putt bounces around the hole a bit before dropping into the cup, a golfer has rattled it in. This usually occurs when a putt has been struck firmly into the hole.

Reading the Green - Since greens are rarely level and their surfaces vary in smoothness or "speed" depending on how moist the grass is and how recently it was cut, golfers must examine them closely to determine which way and how far the ball will roll. Even the "friendliest"-looking green will have some tricks up its sleeve, and many are downright ornery. Thus the "message" of any given green, as read by the well trained eye of a seasoned player, can range from "Aim a little to the left" or "Look out-anything more than a light tap will run right by the hole" to "The best thing you can do with that putter is make it into a decorative lamp base" or "You'll be lucky to four-putt, and by the way, those are absolutely the ugliest pants I have ever seen."

Recovery Shot - Any shot whose primary purpose is to get the ball out of a hazard or away from an obstacle and back into playable position on the fairway. The most important thing to remember when playing recovery shots is not to be greedy. It's far easier to forget to include in your score a single short shot that put the ball into the middle of the fairway than to try to get away without counting a half-dozen duffs, caroms or ricochets.

Relaxation - In golf, perhaps more than in any other game, relaxation is essential. Any tension in a player's body is instantly transferred to the swing or the putting motion, and the results are invariably disastrous. Even a slightly taut muscle can misdirect the path of the clubhead, sending an expensive ball into the water. An unnecessarily stiffened joint can lead to the kind of jarring, ground-hitting stroke that causes cumulative shaft-related damage to costly clubs and can lead to possible bone injury as well. And an overly rigid grip could, paradoxically, cause a muscular twitch that might allow the club to slip from the fingers during the follow-through, perhaps maiming another player and triggering a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. So for goodness sake, try to relax!

Rim - The edge of the hole. A ball that goes around the cup without falling in is said to have rimmed the hole, or to have ringed, skirted, upped, lapped or looped it. It may also be said to have curled, circled or rolled around it, or to have done a tour, a circuit, a round trip, an orbit or a buttonhook. There are one or two terms for a ball actually going into the cup, but they are used so seldom that it seems like a waste of space to include them here.

Robbed Golfers love to complain about being robbed, usually when a putt doesn't break when it should have, or when a putt travelling at Mach 2 doesn't fall into the hole as it should have, or when a tee shot forty yards offline winds up six inches out of bounds. If you want to be cool on the golf course, don't whine about being robbed every time something doesn't go your way.

Roller coaster An up-and-down round.

Rough - Unmown, naturally wild area bordering the fairway and sometimes separating the fairway from the tee. There are three basic types of rough: low rough, a narrow strip of 6-inch-high grass where the ball may be easily playable; high or deep rough, where the ball may be lost and, even if found, may be obstructed or otherwise unplayable; and dark rough, where the ball may be eaten or stolen and used as an object of worship by primitive peoples.

Round - Eighteen holes of golf, played in their proper sequence, followed by one or more additional rounds at the 19th hole.

Rub of the Green - A phrase used in the rules of golf to describe a situation in which the flight of a ball is interrupted by anything other than another player in the match or his or her caddy or equipment. In such cases the match is continued and the ball is played from wherever it lands unless "whatever accidentally stopped or deflected the ball rattles, hisses, spits, growls or snarls; or stings, bites or drools; or makes menacing gestures or motions, or circles or makes ready to pounce; or has claws, fangs, a gun, a badge or a lawyer."

Rules - As currently constituted, the rules of golf consist of 34 basic regulations. The present record for breaking them in a single 18-hole round is an astonishing 31, with 69 penalty strokes, set in 1983 by H. B. Nichols at Bluster Bluffs C.C. in Smug Harbor, Long Island.

Run - Whenever the ball is moving along the ground, it is said to be running. This is also what you should do if you bet and then don't have enough money to cover your losses.