Portal:Golf

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Golf (gowf in Scots) is a sport in which individual players or teams strike a ball into a hole using various clubs and is one of the few ball games for which a standard playing area is not fixed; as described in the Rules of Golf, promulgated by the United States Golf Association and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the game comprises playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes.

Thought to have originated in Scotland, the sport has been played in the British Isles recreationally since the 16th century CE and professionally since the late 19th century CE; in its present form, the sport dates to at least 1672, when golf is recorded to have been contested in Musselburgh, Scotland. Although the sport was regarded for much of the 20th century CE as an elite pastime, it has become increasingly popular amongst individuals from all social and economic strata, largely appreciated as a sport one can play of his/her entire life.

Golf is played on a tract of land known as the course, most often in a links configuration. The course comprises a series of holes, typically of 9 or 18, where the hole is used to refer not only to the void in the ground in which a cup is placed and into which players seek to hit the ball, but also to the total distance from teeing ground to green (the area surrounding the actual hole).

The first stroke on each hole is made from the teeing ground, where the grass is well-tended and the ball is struck from an elevated position, having been placed on a tee. After teeing off, a player strikes the ball again from the position at which it has come to rest, from the fairway (where the grass is cut low in order that balls may be easily played), the rough (where grass may be more unruly), or a hazard (such as a bunker of sand, body of water, or forest), from which play is most difficult, since hazards, like the rough, are designed to penalize players for inaccurate or otherwise errant shots. Strict rules apply to one's navigating a hazard, and one often must assess him/herself a penalty stroke if a ball is unplayable and must be moved.

The grass of the putting green (or more commonly the green) is cut very short so that a ball can roll easily over distances of several yards. A player putts the ball with a special club, the putter, in order that the ball does not leave the ground vertically. The slope of the green, called the break, and the direction of grass growth, the grain, affect the roll of the ball towards the cup, which is always found somewhere on the green and must have a diameter of at least 4.25 inches (10.80 centimeters) and a depth of 3.94 inches (10.00 centimeters); the hole usually has a flag protruding from it so that it may be located from a distance, and this hole-and-flag combination is referred to as the pin.

One seeks to strike the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible, hoping not to exceed par, the maximum number of strokes a skilled player should require to complete a given hole, in view of the hole's length and difficulty.

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Pinehurst Resort is an upmarket golf resort at Pinehurst in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It has hosted a number of prestigious golf tournaments.

Pinehurst was founded by Boston soda fountain magnate James Walker Tufts. He purchased five and a half thousand acres at around a dollar an acre in 1895 and opened the Holly Inn that New Year's Eve. The first golf course was laid out in 1897/98, and the first championship held at Pinehurst was United North and South Amateur Championship of 1901. Pinehurst's best known course, Pinehurst No.2 (fifth hole pictured) was completed in 1907 to designs by Donald Ross, who was associated with Pinehurst for nearly half a century.

From 1902 to 1951 Pinehurst was the home of the North and South Open, which was one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the United States at that time. Pinehurst is still home to the annual North and South Amateur Golf Championships, a series of tournaments which includes a Men's Championship inaugurated in 1901 and the Women's Championship that began two years later.

The first PGA Tour major staged at Pinehurst was the 1936 PGA Championship which was won by Denny Shute. In 1951 the resort hosted the Ryder Cup and in 1991 and 1992 it was the venue for The Tour Championship. In 1999 Pinehurst staged its second major, the U.S. Open, which was won by Payne Stewart. It also hosted the 2005 U.S. Open, which was won by New Zealand's Michael Campbell.

The resort now has eight golf courses, three hotels, a spa and extensive sports and leisure facilities. In 1996 Pinehurst was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was ranked as the world's largest golf resort by the Guinness World Records before it was surpassed by Mission Hills Golf Club in China.

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The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is the one of the oldest golf clubs in the world, the oldest being the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield. It is based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, regarded as the worldwide "Home of Golf".^[1] Formerly it was also one of the governing authorities of the game, but in 2004 this role was handed over to a newly formed group of companies collectively known as The R&A.
The organisation was founded in 1754 as the Society of St Andrews Golfers, a local golf club playing at St Andrews Links but quickly grew in importance. In 1834 King William IV became its patron and the club became known under its present name. In 1897 the Society codified the rules of golf, and was gradually over the next 30 years invited to take control of the running of golf tournaments at other courses.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews itself is now simply a golf club. It has 2,400 members from all over the world. Although the clubhouse is situated just before the first tee of the Old Course of the St Andrews Links, the R&A members enjoy the privilege of using a significant part of the tee times there but do not own the course, which is run by the St Andrews Links Trust, a charitable organisation that owns and runs all the St Andrews Links golf courses at St Andrews.

Selected biography

Gene Sarazen (né Eugenio Saraceni; February 27, 1902–May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, best known for being one of just five players to have, by winning each of the four men's major championships, completed a career Grand Slam; for having won eight PGA Tour tournaments during the 1930 season, the seventh-most of any player in a single year; for having won seven major championships over his career, more than all but eight players in golf history; for having won 39 PGA Tour events over his career, more, at the time of his retirement, than all players in PGA Tour history save four; for having won the 1992 Bob Jones Award from the United States Golf Association in recognition of his sportsmanship; for having struck an honorary tee shot at The Masters Tournament each year between 1981 and 1999, inclusive; for having invented the sand wedge, a lofted club for use in bunkers; and for having, in part in view of such, been an inaugural 1974 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Born in Harrison, New York, Sarazen forfeited his amateur status in 1922 when, aged just 20 years, he contested several events organized by the Professional Golfers' Association of America, winning the Southern Open before travelling to Glencoe, Illinois, where he claimed the United States Open Championship, and then to the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where he overcame Emmet French, 4 & 3 in his final match to claim the PGA Championship, his third tournament title of the year; having won the latter aged just 20 years, five months, and 22 days, he became the youngest-ever winner, setting a record that remains. Sarazen won the tournament once more in 1923, defeating countrymate Walter Hagen, the 1921 champion who would ultimately become the tournament's winningest player, 1-up, in Pelham Manor, New York.

Sarazen was winless during the 1924 season but in 1925 began an 11-year period during which he would win at least one tournament each year, claiming the 1925 Metropolitan Open, then the Eastern equivalent to the Southern and Western Opens and the 1926 Miami Open, a tournament he would win in five consecutive seasons, before beginning, in 1927, a six-year period during which he would win multiple tournaments yearly, claiming, in addition to the Miami title, those of the Long Island Open and the Metropolitan PGA, each held in New York City. Representing the United States, he also played in the first Ryder Cup Matches, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, contributing to the Americans' 9½-2½ victory over the team representing Great Britain, and making the first of what would be six career appearances, over which he would score eight-and-one-half points over his twelve matches. Sarazen won the Miami and Metropolitan Opens again in 1928, adding the Miami Beach and Nassau Bahamas Opens, continuing to succeed in Florida, to which he would eventually retire.

After winning just two titles—the Miami and Miami Beach Open championships—Sarazen won eight tournaments in 1930, then, alongside the eight won by American Horton Smith in 1929, the most of any player in a single year, claiming, most notably, the Western Open, conducted in Lake Orion, Michigan, again overcoming Hagen in a tournament the latter would win five times. Sarazen won three more tournaments in 1931, bringing his career total to 26, more to that time than any other player save Hagen, and enjoyed a career season in 1932, winning the True Temper Open and Coral Gables Open Invitational before again winning the United States Open, this held in Great Neck, New York, and then The Open Championship contested at the links-style Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich in Kent, England, becoming the first player ever to win the United States and Great Britain national championships in the same year.

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• American Tiger Woods—seven weeks thither the winner of the PGA of America and PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards and the Byron Nelson Award and across the 2006 tour the winner of the eight tournaments, including two major championships, The Open and PGA Championships, and an earner of more money than any other player—and Mexican Lorena Ochoa—eight weeks thither the winner, at The Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions, of her sixth tournament title of the 2006 LPGA Tour; the winner of the Tour Rolex Player of the Year Award and Vare Trophy; and a winner of more money than any other player—capture respectively the men's and women's Associated Press Athlete of the Year awards to become the first pair of athletes in a single sport to earn the award in a given year since 1993; Woods outpoints by 30 countrymate American footballer LaDainian Tomlinson and by 150 Swiss tennis player Roger Federer to claim the fourth award of his career, whilst Ochoa overcomes French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo by 110 points and American basketballer Lisa Leslie by 160 points to displace three-time defending winner Swede Annika Sörenstam, within 3.93 points of whom Ochoa draws for first place on the world rankings across the 2006 season.
• The 2006 LPGA Tour concludes.
• The South African Airways Open concludes as the 2006-2007 Sunshine Tour continues.
• The 2006 Asian Tour concludes.
• The 2006 LPGA of Japan Tour concludes.
• The final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament concludes at the PGA West in LaQuinta, California.
• The 2006 Japan Golf Tour concludes.
• The 2006 Nationwide Tour concludes.
• The 2006 European Seniors Tour concludes.
• The 2007 PGA European Tour begins.
• The 2006 PGA Tour concludes.
• The 2006 PGA European Tour concludes.
• The 2006 Ladies European Tour concludes.
• The 2006 Champions Tour concludes.

Did you know...

• ...that Vincent Tshabalala, having, in view of his colour classification—Coloured—long been denied entry to the Southern African Tour but having subsequently joined the European Seniors Tour, in the top twenty of the Order of Merit standings of which he finished four times, is the only player ever to have twice won the professional better ball event contested annually at the Nelson Mandela Invitational, a charity tournament endorsed by the eponymous former South African president and hosted by South African Gary Player, having captured the 2004 title with Ernie Els and the 2005 title with Tim Clark?
• ...that, over the 101 seasons during which both the United States Women's and British Ladies Amateur Golf Championships have been contested, only four players have claimed the championship trophy of each—respectively, Robert Cox Cup and Pam Barton Memorial Salver—in the same season—American Kelli Kuehne (1996), Frenchwoman Catherine Lacoste (1969), Englishwoman Barton (1936), and Scotswoman Dorothy Campbell (1909), the player with the most career victories–five–across the two tournaments and also a three-time champion of the North and South Women's Amateur Golf Championship?
• ...that Australian (né American) Aaron Baddeley, a three-time PGA Tour of Australasia tournament champion, won the 1999 Australian Open whilst an amateur, aged just 18 years, defeating by two strokes countrymates Nick O'Hern and Greg Norman, and captured the tournament's 2000 edition as a professional, defeating by ten strokes juniors rival Adam Scott, who would subsequently garner four PGA Tour tournament titles and enter the top ten in the World Golf Rankings prior to Baddeley's, in 2006 at the Verizon Heritage, winning his first PGA Tour tournament?
• ...that, although no woman has won in one season four LPGA Tour tournaments considered as major championships—at present, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, LPGA Championship, United States Women's Open Championship, and Women's British Open—to complete a grand slam, American Babe Zaharias, who accumulated ten major championship titles over her career, more than any other player save countrymates Mickey Wright (thirteen) and Patty Berg (fifteen), won all three majors—then the Western Open, Titleholders Championship, and United States Women's Open—in 1950, and American Sandra Haynie, who won 42 LPGA titles over career, ninth-best of all players, won the two—the LPGA Championship and United States Women's Open—contested in 1974?
• ...that Sweden finished fifteenth in the inaugural Women's World Cup of Golf, a team tournament analogous to the WGC-World Cup contested by male players on the PGA and European Tours as part of the World Golf Championships series, represented by Carin Koch and Sophie Gustafson, sixteen strokes behind Japan, comprising Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomine, but in 2006, fielded a squad of Annika Sörenstam, eight times a Rolex Player of the Year Award winner and the world's top-ranked player, and Liselotte Neumann, the 1994 Ladies European Tour Order of Merit winner, who defeated Scotland by three strokes and Wales by seven?

Quotes

• It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place this world is when one is playing golf. — Northern Irish essayist Robert Wilson Lynd
• It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification. — Canadian author Bruce McCall, on the frequency with which golf proves vexing
• Golf is a game to teach you about the messages from within, about the subtle voices of the body-mind. And once you understand them you can more clearly see your hamartia, the ways in which your approach to the game reflects your entire life. Nowhere does a man go so naked. — American integral thought philosopher and author Michael Murphy , on the quality of golf as character-revealing

• • I screwed up. It's all on me. I know that...All these hiccups I have, they must be for a reason. All this is just a test. I just don't know what the test is yet. — Australian professional golfer Greg Norman, pictured, upon his forfeiting a six-stroke lead in the final round of the 1996 The Masters Tournament, in which he finished second to Englishman Nick Faldo, and on his recorded fifteen top-five finishes in the four major championship tournaments yet having won just two, the 1986 and 1993 The Open Championship
• The pressure makes me more intent about each shot. Pressure on the last few holes makes me play better. — American professional golfer Nancy Lopez, on her propensity for success late in LPGA Tour golf tournaments, of which she won 48, more than any other player save six, over her career
• The beauty of golf, you're in charge out here. — Canadian professional golfer Mike Weir, on the nature of golf as an individual sport
• There's something intrinsically therapeutic about choosing to spend your time in a wide, open park-like setting that non-golfers can never truly understand. — American screenwriter Charles Rosin, on the idyllic quality of golf, in a 1990 episode of the American television dramatic comedy series Northern Exposure
• No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned ways. A great golf course both frees and challenges a golfer's mind. — American professional golfer Tom Watson
• Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose. — English politician and author Sir Winston Churchill, on the nature of golf as a difficult precision sport
• I don't think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity. — American professional golfer Jack Nicklaus, conceding a putt to Briton Tony Jacklin at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, at the 1969 Ryder Cup Matches, and thereby permitting the British team to secure a 16-16 draw

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