Golf is full of strange words - bogey, fore, birdie - even the
word golf is strange enough. Here we try to explain where these
words came from.
The origin of the word 'golf' - click here
The origin of the words 'birdie' and 'eagle'
- click here
The origin of the word 'bogey' - click here
The origin of the word 'dormie' - click here
The origin of the word 'fore' - click here
The origin of the word 'links' - click here
The origin of the word 'golf'
The word 'golf' is not short for anything. It, in fact, comes
from the Dutch word 'kolf' or 'kolve', meaning simply 'club'.
In the Scottish dialect of the 14th/15th century the term became
'goff' or 'gouff', and the 'golf' in the 16th century.
Some believe the Dutch game of 'kolf', played with a stick and
ball on frozen canals in wintertime, was brought over to Scotland
by Dutch sailors, where it was transferred to public linksland
to become the sport we know today.
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The origin of the words 'birdie'
and 'eagle'
The term 'birdie' originated in the United States in 1899. In
H.B. Martin's "Fifty Years of American Golf" there is
an account of a foursomes match played at the Atlantic City CC,
in which one of the players, Ab Smith relates, "My ball came
to rest within six inches of the cup. I said, 'That was a bird
of a shot. I suggest that when one of us plays a hole in one under
par he receives double compensation.' The other two players agreed
and we began right away, just as soon as the next one came, to
call it a birdie" In 19th centruy American slang, 'bird'
referred to anyone or anything excellent or wonderful.
Once the term 'birdie' became common, people started referring
to a core one better than a 'birdie' as an 'eagle'. One better
than an "eagle", was an 'albatross' - an even bigger
eagle!
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The origin of the word 'bogey'
The term 'bogey' comes froma song that was popular in Britain
in the early 1890s called "The Bogey Man" (later known
as "The Colonel Bogey March"). The character of the
song was an elusive figure who hid amongst the shadows saying,
"I'm the Bogey Man, catch me if you can."
In Britain, golfers equated the quest for the elusive Bogey Man
with the quest for the elusive perfect score. By the mid-to-late
1890s, the term 'bogey score' referred to the ideal score a good
player could be expected to make on a hole under perfect conditions.
It also came to be used to describe stroke play tournaments. In
about 1910, the term 'par' began to be used, designating the number
of shots a scratch player could be expected to take on a hole
in ideal conditions. In this way 'par' was distinguished from
'bogey'. 'Par' itself is a standard sporting term meaning 'level'
or 'even'.
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The origin of the word 'dormie'
Historically, the term 'dormie' is derived from the French/Latin
"dormir", meaning "to sleep", suggesting that
a player who is 'dormie' can relax (lierally, go to sleep) without
fear of losing the match.
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The origin of the word 'fore'
The word 'fore' is Scottish in origin, and is a shortened version
of the word 'before' or 'afore'. The cry of 'fore', really meaning
"look out ahead", was an old military term adopted by
golfers in the 18th century.
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The origin of the word 'links'
'Links' is a term that refers to a very specific geographic land
form found in Scotland. Such areas of low-lying, seaside land
are characteristically sandy, treeless and undulating, often with
lines of dunes or dune ridges, and covered by bent grass and gorse.
To be a true links the area of land must lie near the mouth of
a river - i.e. near an estuary. Ever since the Middle Ages, linksland
(usually poor land for farming) was set aside as common grounds
for sports, including archery, bowls and golf.
The term 'links' is often used to describe any golf course, when
it should, in fact, a true links is dependent on its geography.
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