Golf can be confusing:

Golf is an extremely confusing game not just how to play it but what people say.

If you watch golf on the television and the commentator is talking, it would sound like a different language but with this glossary you will know what to say when. 

• Ace:To get the ball in the hole in one shot.


• Albatross:To get the ball in the hole in three shots under par.Usually achieved when a big tee shot on a par 5 leads to a lucky shot with an iron that goes in a hole.


• Address:The position you stand in according to where the ball is before you take the swing to take your shot.


• Air Shot:When a swing is taken but the ball has not been struck.


• Bandit:A golfer who plays a lot better than his handicap says(he/she lies about his/her own handicap.


• Birdie:When a hole is completed in one less shot than par.


• Bogey:When a hole is completed in one shot over par.


• Bunker:A sand trap to make a hole more difficult.


• Caddie:In higher played golf or competitions a person who carries your set of clubs.(sometimes caddies are supplied.


• Carry:The distance the ball travels from the place the shot is taken to where it hits the round.


• Chip Shot:A small shot played from near the green.


• Cup:The hole indicated by a flag.


• Dimples:The small indentations on a golf ball.


• Divot:The piece of turf taken from the ground by accident when a shot is played.


• Dog-Leg:Agolf hole that goes round a corner.


• Double Bogey:When a hole is completed in 2 shots over par.


• Double Eagle:When a hole is completed in 3 shotsunder par.Usuallly said in america,equivalent of an albatross.


• Draw:When a shot in the air goes in a curve from right to left played by a right-handed golfer.


• Drive/Driver:A drive is a big tee shot on a par 4/5,sometimes hit with a driver which is a one wood and the golf club you would hit the furthest shot with



• Eagle:Scoring a hole in two under par,often when a lucky 2nd shot on a par 4 goes in the hole.Or a hole-in-one on a par 3 or in 3 on a par 5.
  


• Etiquette:The manner in which to behave on the course.


• Fade:When a shot from a right-hander slightly curves from left to right.
  


• Fairway:The grass in between the tee and the green that is neater cut than rough but not as neat as the green.
  


• Fore:Shout "FORE" if you think a shot you have just hit and the ball could hit a person, if you hear it shouted it may not be to you but still crouch down and cover your head with your arms.
  


• Front Nine:The first nine holes on an 18 hole course.


• Green Fee:The amount of money to be paid to go on a golf course.
  


• Handicap:An average score that you go round the course in compared to par.This is also the number of shots you are permitted to deduct from the score at the end of the round.If you "play to your handicap" then when you deduct the shots from your score your then the score should equal par.


• Hazard:A bunker/ditch/water where the club cannot be grounded at address.


• Honour:To have the honour means to tee off first
  


• Hole-in-one:To gdet the ball in the hole in one shot.
  


• Impact:When the club makes contact with the ball.
  


• Interlocking Grip:A popular grip used by most golfers where the little finger of the right hand slides in between the index finger and the middle finger of the left hand.

• Lie:The position the ball is on the ground, a good lie would be not in a hole like dip or if it was resting up on a bit of grass and it was easy to hit.

• Lip:The edge of the hole.

• Lob:A short,high shot often played from just off the green.

• Local Rules:Rules applied by the local golf club near you that may vary from the actual golf rules but often not by much.

• Loft:The height the ball goes but in relation to the angle of a club head.

• Long Game:Using the woods/driver/long irons.

• Loose Impediment:Unfixed pobjects found on a golf course which are permitted to be moved as long as it doesn't move the ball.

• Match Play:A type of competition in which you either win,lose or half each hole to see who wins the round.

• Municipal Course:A type of golf course owned by the council where anyone can play,often cheap to use.

• Nineteenth Hole:The bar in a clubhouse on an eighteen hole course.

• Out of Bounds: Certain areas or deep rough on a course or outside the course sometimes marked with a coloured post.A drop shot is to be taken if the ball lands in this area.

• Par:Expected amount of shots a good player is to complete a hole in and the course in (the par for the course)Par 3's are on an eighteen hole up to 250yds,Par 4's between 250-500,above 500 are par 5's but very long holes are sometimes Par 6.A 9 hole course might have different lengths for  Par 3s or 4s.

• Pin:The Flag.

• Pin High:Parallel to the flag.On the green you could be pin high if your ball lands parallel to the flag. 

• Pitch: A high shot played from anywhere between 15 to 100 yds from the hole.

• Plugged Ball:When the ball has travelled hard into the ground or bunker sand and is in the sand or ground.

• Pot-Bunker:A Deep ,small,circular bunker.

• PGA:The proffesional golfers association.

• Scratch:A player is scratch if his handicap is 0.

• Short Game:Putting,pitching,bunker play and chipping.

• Stableford:A different way to play the game with opoints rewarded as 1 for a net bogey on a hole,2 for a net par,3 for net birdie and so on.

• Stroke Index:It is numbered either one to nine or one to eighteen on a scorecard and it shows which hole is hardest being one and which easiest being 9/18.It also determines what your own nett par would be on a hole.If you have a handicap of 18 then it is simple .You recieve one shot extra as your par on each hole to complete the round in your handicap score. But if you had a handicap of 7 or 24 for instance then it is not as simple.With a handicap of 7 you have the par for each hole as normal but on the seven hardest holes or stroke index 1-7 you recive one more shot than par.If your handicap is 24 then you recieve one shot on every hole but you recieve 2 shots more than par on stroke index 1-6 because 24 is 6 more than 18.

• Stroke Play:A way of scoring rounds in which the lowest overall total score wins.This is the most common competition within proffesionals. 

• Sudden Death:Playing more holes after a competition if there is a tie.

• Sweet Spot:Normally in the centre of the club face where a good connection has been made with the ball.

• Tee:A Plastic or wooden stand that is betwwen3-10cm tall and about half a cm wide with a different type stand for the ball to sit on when taking the first shot on each hole.

• Teeing Area:The neatly cut area where you are permitted to place  the tee in the ground but it is normally marked with two small posts.There are different colour markers(small posts) for different lengths and you cannot place the tee in front of the line betweentthe two markers.

• Trap:An American term for a bunker.

• Wedge:An iron with a very high angle for the irons club head used for short chip and pitch shots.