I’m trying to put together a list of common and not-so-common Golf terms, and I wanted to call upon Doper Golfers to help. If you are willing to assist, here’s what I’d like to see…
Term; Description; Usage
Example
The Shanks; A genearal breakdown in one’s ability to stike a golf ball effectively, an evident, sudden, and immediate lapse in golf aptitude usually characterized by copious use of profanity; “I don’t want Dan in my foursome. He’s got the Shanks, and they may be contagious.”
Please do not hesitate to re-submit a term with a variation in meaning, if it fleshes out the overall definition.
Texas Whip; a man’s drive that does not travel past the women’s tees. Resulting penalty is that the guy has to play the rest of that hole with his dick hanging out of his trousers.
Thurman Munson; a shot hit sharply to the left - in other words - a dead yank.
T.C. (aka Two Chip): A rare shot whereby the ball is struck once on the downswing, and then again on the followthrough, sending the ball careening in a random direction usually nowhere near the hole. In honor of T.C. Chen, who demonstrated said shot in the final round of the U.S. Open, turning a four stroke lead into a one stroke deficit in one hole.
I’m constantly amazed by how many people who watch golf don’t know what this means, so this is my contribution.
Greens in regulation: this is a statistic that refers to the number of holes in which a golfer gets the ball to the green in (par ? 2) strokes. Par for any hole is generally based on how many strokes it will take to reach the green plus 2 strokes allotted for putting. Strokes to the green varies by yardage…on short holes (par 3), you can often get to the green on your drive, while on long holes (par 5), it would take an average player 3 strokes to get to the green. So, if you hear the commentator say that Tiger Woods has 90% greens in regulation on the first 9 holes, it means that he got to the green 8 out of 9 times in 2 strokes less than par for each hole.
Note that this doesn’t have any bearing on whether a golfer actually made par on any particular hole…it only means that they got there in the predicted number of strokes. You can get to a green in regulation, but still birdie or bogie on the hole.
Chili Dip - Hitting a short approach shot so fat that you take a huge mound of dirt out and the ball goes about five feet.
Weather Report - Getting under a fairway shot (usually with a wood) such that it goes about 20 yards forward and 100 yards straight up in the air
Dreaded Horseshoe - when the putt almost goes in, but circles the hole instead and comes out the other side. (A favorite of broadcaster Ben Wright).
Not exactly on topic, but my favorite Golf expression: When someone clearly used the wrong club or hit it way too hard and the ball skies the green: “Woah - I think you used a little too much dynamite there, Butch.”
Duck Hook - A shot that curves severely from right to left (for a right-hander). As in “Headshok tried to be a hero, but hit a duck hook into the lake instead.”
Rainmaker - Synonym for Weather Report.
@#$#%! - A mis-hit chip shot that rolls across the green and into a bunker.
