Why Does Golf Have A Language Of Its Own?

[kaz49]

As I have not been playing any regular golf lately, (long story), I have had plenty of time to do some reading. Thought I would share the following short article I came across recently.

"Although similar games were known in China and the Netherlands, Scotland is the acknowledged home of golf. It is first mentioned in Scottish records in 1457, but may have been played 200 years before this. Musselburgh Links, east of Edinburgh, claims to be the world's oldest golf course still in use.

The Scots language gave us "putt" from a word meaning to propel forward. "Caddie" came from the Scots form of cadet, a young man. The warning call "Fore" may come from the old habit of employing "forecaddies" to walk ahead to watch where the ball lands.

Golfing terminology is not in fact exclusively Scots. "Fairway" was adapted from the English marine term for the navigable part of a river or harbour. "Bogy" (a score for a hole of one over par) was coined at Great Yarmouth Golf Club in 1890. Originally it meant the target score for each hole and is said to be derived from the mischievous monster, the bogeyman, whom the successful golfer had to vanquish.

With improved golf balls, good golfers regularly beat the bogey so "par" (meaning standard, from the latin for equal) was introduced for a lower target score. Eventually, bogey came to mean a score of one shot over par.

"Birdie" (one below par) comes from the United States. The story goes that,in around 1900, some players at the Atlantic City Country Club in New Jersey declared a shot that led to such a score to be "a bird" (good), and the name stuck. Two under par then became an "eagle", and three under par an "albatross".

(Readers Digest, Australia, June 2009)

"In The Beginning"

[skipvice]

thanks for sharing kaz

[stevehaigh]

i think most sports have their own terminology, certainly yachting and rock climbing do.