Golf Terms Dictionary

While it’s good to know what these terms mean, we strongly suggest you not think about your own scores this way, especially when you’re starting out. Say it with us: par is just an arbitrary number. What matters more is whether your scores are improving over time.

• Par: The number of shots it should take you to get your ball in the hole on any given hole. It’s largely based on how long the hole is. Nearly every golf hole in the world is either a par 3, 4, or 5. All the other definitions in this section will be relative to par.

• Bogey: One over (or one more than) par.

• Double bogey: Two over par. Triple and quadruple bogey are as follows.

• Birdie: One under (or one less than) par.

• Eagle: Two under par. Most common way this happens is by hitting your ball on the green on your second shot on a par 5 and then making the putt. If you hit it in the hole on your first shot on a par 3, that’s technically an eagle, but golfers call that a hole-in-one…and they buy their playing partners a round of drinks after the round if this happens. It’s tradition.

• Albatross: Three under par. That’s hitting it in the hole on your second shot on a par 5. Very rare.

• Over/under: You already learned about this, but golfers don’t say “more than par,” they say “over par” or “under par.” If it’s for a score on a hole, they usually just use one of the terms listed above. If it’s for their total score from the round, they’ll say “I shot two over” or “I shot three under.” If you add up all the par numbers for each hole, the total you get is also called par. Your total score relative to the par total score is what people are talking about when they talk this way. Sometimes people use “down” instead of “under” and “up” instead of “over.” So they’d say “I’m two up,” meaning they’re two over. Some people also talk about their total score this way in the middle of a round. That means they’re keeping track of how close they are to par at that point in the round. If they say “I’m two over” after the sixth hole, it means that if they were to finish their round at that point, their score would be two over par.

• Green in regulation (or sometimes “green in reg,” or sometimes “GIR” pronounced grrrrr): The number of shots it takes to hit your ball so that it rests on the green and you still have two putts to make par (or get a par on the hole, golfers call that “making par). For a par 5, it’s three shots; for a par 4, it’s two; for a par 3, it’s one.

• Tee box: Area where you start each hole. It’s usually a flat surface where the grass is mown pretty short. On some courses, they use mats made of artificial turf for their tee boxes.

• Tee markers: Placed on the tee box to mark the spot where you’re supposed to hit your first shot (golfers call that “teeing off”). Each course has different styles of tee markers. Usually the course will have a set of three or four tee markers that are different colors. Whatever color tee marker you play from on the first hole, you’re supposed to play from that same color for your entire round. You might hear some golfers use the term “the tips.” They’re talking about the tee markers that are the farthest away from the green (make the hole the longest). People who play from “the tips” are usually pretty proud of themselves just FYI, so you might hear them talk about “the tips” with a bit of arrogance in their voice. Ignore them. When you’re first starting out, it’s a good idea to play from the tee markers that are the closest to the green (sometimes golfers will call these the “forward tees”). You don’t have to play from the same tee markers as your playing partners. Just tell them on the first tee (the tee box on the first hole) which ones you’ll be playing from. Pro tip: if you say “I’m going to play from the forward tees today,” you’ll sound like you know what you’re talking about.

• Fairway: When you stand on the tee box and look down the hole, you’ll see a lane of grass stretched out in front of you that looks lighter than the grass that surrounds it on both sides. This is called the fairway. The grass is lighter because it’s shorter, and thus easier to hit a golf ball from.

• Rough: The darker colored grass on either side of the fairway. The grass is longer here and thus harder to hit a golf ball from.

• Bunker (or sand trap, or just “trap”): Sections of the golf course that are filled with sand. They come in all shapes and sizes and are scattered throughout the golf course. How many there are depends on the course. Sometimes you’ll also hear golfers refer to these as “the beach.”

• Hazard (or “water hazard”): These are sections of the golf course that, if you hit it in them, you usually have to drop your ball (if you can find it) or a new ball next to them before you can hit again (refer to the rules of golf section for more explanation on how this works). Some hazards are also “water hazards” because, well, they’re made of water (ponds, larger lakes, or streams, etc.).

• Green: The section of the course where the hole is located. All the short grass around the hole is called the green. It’s important to know where the green is because there are special rules for when your ball is on the green (refer to the rules of golf section). There’s lots of nicknames for the green (golfers are enamored with the green), but some of the most common you might hear are “the dance floor” or “the plate.”

• Fringe: Some courses will have a section of grass that runs around the circumference of the green that is longer than the green but not as long as the rough. This is called the fringe. Not every course has this so the one you play on might not.

• Hole: There are actually at least two meanings for this term. One is that actual hole that you’re trying to get your ball in, the other is the entirety of the area of the golf course between the tee box and the green. The tee box, fairway and green all make up one “hole,” and each hole has a hole on the green. Confusing, we know.

• Shot or stroke: What golfers call each time they hit the ball. When it happens on the green, they also call it a putt. You might hear phrases like “nice shot” or “wow, you’re really stroking it today.” Yeah, there’s innuendo all over golf. Get used to it.

• Fade: Used to describe a shot based on how the ball curves in the air. We’ll use a right-handed golfer for this and all the other terms. If a golfer is left-handed, all the definitions are reversed. A fade is when the ball curves gently from left to right while it’s in the air.

• Slice: A slice is a big fade. Still curves left to right, but curves A LOT. Some golfers also call this a “banana.”

• Draw: Opposite of a fade. Ball curves gently from right to left in the air.

• Hook: A really big draw. As a slice is to a fade, a hook is to a draw. You might hear the term “duck hook,” too. That’s a REALLY bad hook.

• Thin: A shot where the club makes contact with the ball more in the middle of the ball rather than at the bottom of it. These shots usually go lower in the air than a proper shot.

• Fat: A shot where the club hits the ground first and then the ball. This is also described as the club hitting “behind the ball.” You might hear golfers refer to fat shots as “chunky” or say things like “I chunked it.”

• Divot: This isn’t really a shot, but they’re created by shots so we’re including it here. The term is used to describe either the section of the grass that the golfer “digs” up when they hit a shot, or the depression left behind in the course from the shot. Caring golfers will try to “replace” their divot by grabbing the section of the grass they dug up and putting it back in the spot where they came from so that golfers behind them don’t have to hit out of their divots (in this instance, used to describe the depression they left in the course). The rules of golf state that you’re supposed to hit out of divots if that’s where your ball stops (often referred to as “comes to rest”), so that’s why caring golfers do this (refer to the rules of golf section to see if we think you should actually hit your ball out of divots.