Golf has been called the greatest of all games, but it has also been derided by none other than Mark Twain as nothing more than a good walk spoiled. Traditional teaching holds that golf originated in Scotland around the 15th century. However, there is historical evidence of games similar to golf being played in the low countries of Europe back in the 13th century. Over the many centuries of golf's evolution, the balls used have changed greatly, as have the clubs, the holes, the courses, and the entire game itself. The Historical Dictionary of Golf presents a comprehensive history of the game through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, photos, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on places, teams, terminology, and people, including Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sörenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Phil Mickelson, and, of course, Tiger Woods. Appendixes of the members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Major Championships of Golf, the International Team Events, and the Professional Tour Awards are also included.

"Golf%ing" is even funnier than when it was originally published as Beard--now an avid golfer--brings the same passion to writing about golf as he does to playing it. This humorous pocket dictionary is the perfect gift for the golfer in the family. Drawings throughout.

No game has a richer array of terms than golf. As new golfing terms have accumulated, old ones have changed or faded away. This concise yet informative dictionary provides definitions and the etymologies for the extraordinary vocabulary of golf, built up over its five-hundred-year history. To discover the origins of golf and its special language, Peter Davies combed little-known archives on two continents. As his unique contribution to the game, Davies?s enthusiasm and enjoyment of golf are stamped on every page of this authoritative book.

A Dictionary of Golf's Colorful Vernacular There are things they don't teach you in golf school. You may come away knowing how to play a reasonable game of golf, but if someone said to you that he was snake bit ever since his beagle, would you have a clue what he was talking about? There is a secret language of golf that goes far beyond par and birdie. How much of it do you actually know? ... On the 18th tee, Jimbo decided to let the big dog eat. Feeling the pressure, he foozled and hit a wormburner into the mahoofka. His mulligan turned into a culligan when he launched a lateral into the drink. The rest of the hole was all military golf. On his approach, he chili-dipped and landed on the beach, where he found himself facing Yasir Arafat. Jimbo grabbed his spatula and escaped from the cat box and onto the froghair, only to fall prey to a case of the yips. Jimbo ended up carding a snowman by the time he left the dance floor. His buddies went straight to emergency room, but Jimbo got back in the BIPmobile and headed for murderer's row...

Provides alphabetically arranged, concise, tongue-in-cheek definitions of words and phrases relating to the golf world.

Amateur and pro golfers alike have long been stymied by the legalistic and opaque wording in the United States Golf Association’s official Rules of Golf. In this guide, an experienced volunteer USGA rules official and an expert on language and usage--both of them avid golfers--have translated the Rules into everyday English to help players understand procedures, assess penalties, and settle disputes as the sport’s governing body intended. This edition includes updates throughout to reflect changes introduced into the USGA’s Rules in 2016.

"The cry for the simplification of the Rules of Golf is a stock-in-trade of the journalist during the winter months. Countless words on the subject have been poured out to an ever-tolerant public, but still the long-sought simplification does not come."—Henry Longhurst, 1937 The hopes of renowned writer and golfer Henry Longhurst—and millions of golfers before and after him—have finally been realized. In The Rules of Golf in Plain English, Bryan A. Garner, American English language and usage expert, and Jeffrey S. Kuhn, volunteer USGA rules official, have translated the knotty Rules with the encouragement and permission of the United States Golf Association. The result is a modern, readable version that offers, for the first time, clear guidance to both amateurs and professionals. Based on a 338-word set of thirteen rules written in 1744, the official Rules have grown, over two and a half centuries, to 40,000 words. Numerous contributors and a complex revision process have rendered these Rules so opaque and stylistically inconsistent that a companion volume—the 600-page Decisions on the Rules of Golf—has been published to help golfers navigate them. Both lawyers and avid golfers, Kuhn and Garner recognized the difficulties that the language of the Rules of Golf created, especially in a sport that expects players to call penalties on themselves. By reworking the Rules line by line, word by word, they have produced an accessible resource that no golfer—from the duffer to the pro—should be without.